Daylight running lights

[mikemol]

I just did DRL and got to the forum to update you on this and saw Kenny's reply.

I don't know if what I did is any good or safe. Maybe it will cause the car to go on fire. If anyone sees some danger in this - please, let me know. I just need it to pass inspection at Canadian Tire and then I'll remove it.

First of all I found head lights relay in the fuse box under the hood. With a voltage tester I tested all four contacts of it.

Here is a picture

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/sh...=14694&cat=500



Contacts A and B had no voltage while C and D always had voltage even with the car not started. I then connected a wire to contact A and B on the relay and plugged it in and then checked them both for voltage. I found that A goes on when I put it in low or in high and B acts quite strange by having voltage on it when I connect the relay, then no voltage on low and voltage on high.

I decided that the contact I need is A as it's pretty straight forward - it's either off or on so I figured out that if I connect it to a source that gets voltage as soon as I start the car I'll get my headlights on right away.

I then checked the nearby fuzes for the voltage when the car is started and not started. I found quite a few of them that get voltage when the car starts. One of them is AC fuze. So I ran a wire from that fuze to contact A on the relay.

Now as soon as I start the car - the headlights come on, I can use low and high beams with no problems. I tried to turn on and off Air Conditioner (since it's connected to it) and it does seem to effect the head lights.

I hope I won't burn anything while passing inspection. Once I pass it I'll get it back to the way it used to be.

Let me know if I'm in danger of burning anything, I'm not an electrician in any way.

Mikhail.

[tom4bren]

It 'should' be OK just to get you through inspection, just change it back ASAP.

2 cautions tho:

1. since the AC seems to affect the headlights in this configuration, don't use it till you change things back. You may be dragging down the voltage on that relay and could end up sending too much current to the clutch in the AC compressor.

2. don't use the headlight switch for any reason till you change things back. You could send more current back through the circuit for the headlight switch than it could handle and potentially fry something.

[etlsport]

im mostly following what you did.. sounds like you just bypassed the relay basically.. imho you should undo the wiring you did, and just tap a relay into the cigarette lighter outlet wiring, and run a constant power through it to the lights you want to be your DRLs

here is how i wired my overhead lights, you will basically do the same thing with your DRLs except that instead of a constant power from dash you will use the power tapped from the cigarette lighter

you only need to do one relay though, i had two because i had 4 lights, but one relay should be plenty to power 2 lights

[mikemol]

Does the cigarette lighter get the power only when the car is started or it's always on? If I follow your scheme will I still be able to switch between high and low? How would I connect the wiring to the headlights?

[VehiGAZ]

Does the cigarette lighter get the power only when the car is started or it's always on?

The ciggy lighter is switched with the ignition.

[etlsport]

the diagram i posted would be for a light that functions only as a daytime running light, such as the small lights below the headlights, if you wanted to use the headlights for that you would have to identify which wire going to the headlight bulbs powers the low beam, and run from the output post of the relay to that wire... could be done fairly easily

[mikemol]

I passed both the Federal and Provincial inspections today having that pin from the relay connected to a fuze for AC. Once I passed both inspection I removed the wire from the fuze and no more DRL. So as the easiest temp DRL to pass inpections it will work. I don't think it's any good for a long term DRL and if anyone plans on having it long term, it should be done properly as one of those proposed diagrams.