HOW TO: Daytime Running Lights (DRL) installed for $35

[JohnOver]

Two modules should fit just fine. Although they blur together in my pictures, and probably at night, during the day you see each discreet LED. These particular bars have an alternating pattern of spacer, LED, spacer, LED, etc. and they start and end with spacers. Which means that if you put two together, there would likely be a noticeable gap between them. However, there are lots of different kinds of light bars out there - keep looking! As long as they're 12v DC, the method of install would be the same.

Thanks! I ordered a pair. I'll install the two of the on one side to see how it looks. If it's "acceptable", then I'll buy another set. They are very low consumption. It seems like they have to be much lower than the headlights (and all the other marker and ID lights that are lit when the headlights are on).

 

[Ingineer]

Keep in mine you can have LED-Only Low-Beam DRL's. (What I did) And also (or) replace your fog light bulbs with LED and then use those for DRL's. I chose both, as I think it looks awesome, and power consumption is negligible. In addition I have it so the headlight aim will actually move up high during the day. (Higher than the manual control will allow)

This is DRL mode, only the low beams and fogs (with LEDs) are on. No marker, No tail, etc. If you leave your mode in Auto, they automatically revert to headlight mode at night.

-Phil

 

[TomT]

Yes, but I simply like the look better with the added DRLs and the yellow fogs, so I went that route...

Keep in mine you can have LED-Only Low-Beam DRL's. (What I did) And also (or) replace your fog light bulbs with LED and then use those for DRL's. I chose both, as I think it looks awesome, and power consumption is negligible.

 

[GeekEV]

Keep in mine you can have LED-Only Low-Beam DRL's. (What I did) And also (or) replace your fog light bulbs with LED and then use those for DRL's. I chose both, as I think it looks awesome, and power consumption is negligible. In addition I have it so the headlight aim will actually move up high during the day. (Higher than the manual control will allow)

This is DRL mode, only the low beams and fogs (with LEDs) are on. No marker, No tail, etc. If you leave your mode in Auto, they automatically revert to headlight mode at night.

-Phil

Yes, your solution certainly sounds closest to factory (or perhaps is the same as) DRLs, but AFAIK you haven't yet posted your how-to solution. So, no, we can't have that unless we're as smart as you are.

 

[JohnOver]

Yes, but I simply like the look better with the added DRLs and the yellow fogs, so I went that route...

I like the yellow fogs too. That's what I ordered...

Can't wait.

Phil's method sounds cool too, but I haven't seen how he did it (or I missed it).

 

[gascant]

. After seeing it at the last gathering I have decided to go for it myself. John O

I think this might have been the one that JohnOver saw at the gathering:

 

[JohnOver]

. After seeing it at the last gathering I have decided to go for it myself. John O

I think this might have been the one that JohnOver saw at the gathering:

Do you have yellow fogs Howard?

 

[gascant]

. After seeing it at the last gathering I have decided to go for it myself. John O

I think this might have been the one that JohnOver saw at the gathering:

Do you have yellow fogs ?

Yep, but I have only used them once in 6 months.
I also replaced the license plate lamps with LEDs. You wouldn't think it makes much difference, but now the standard license plate lights look so 20th Century.

 

[Ingineer]

I too have the LED's in the License plate lamps, Marker Lamps, etc. The biggest difference in "cool" look is the overhead and dome lights inside.

-Phil

 

[lukati]

I picked up my SV yesterday. The fog light "hole" is covered up. Would it be possible to add LED DRLs in that spot?

 

[JohnOver]

Yep, but I have only used them once in 6 months.
I also replaced the license plate lamps with LEDs. You wouldn't think it makes much difference, but now the standard license plate lights look so 20th Century.

Where I live I'll use them most winter days and many summer mornings... Even at 1800' we get a good bit of fog pushed up the mountain by onshore flow.

 

[JohnOver]

I too have the LED's in the License plate lamps, Marker Lamps, etc. The biggest difference in "cool" look is the overhead and dome lights inside.

-Phil

Did you go for cool-white or warm-white for the overhead and dome lights? I wasn't sure, so I went with warm to make the inside look warmer than the outside (which are all cool white).

<rant>
It really bugs me that we see higher color temperatures as "cooler" and lower color temperatures as warmer... What's wrong with our eyes?

And another thing; the colors are a spectrum from low (red) to high (violet), but we see the colors as as a circle with red blending into violet. And why are the colors in the color wheel "complimentary", when in actuality it's not a circle, but a line?

Weird.</rant>

 

[lukati]

<rant>
It really bugs me that we see higher color temperatures as "cooler" and lower color temperatures as warmer... What's wrong with our eyes?

And another thing; the colors are a spectrum from low (red) to high (violet), but we see the colors as as a circle with red blending into violet. And why are the colors in the color wheel "complimentary", when in actuality it's not a circle, but a line?

Weird.</rant>

Nothing wrong with our eyes, but they have evolved they way they have and that has consequences as to how we perceive the world around us. Color is "seen" in the retina by using three types of pigments with overlapping excitation spectra. The retina obeys physics and the arrangement of the three excitation spectra is entirely linear, not circular. But subtract a color from "white" and you see the "complementary" color, hence the color circle as a way visualize this phenomenon. Other creatures, for instance bees, see the world differently. Their photoreceptors also obey physics, but they would draw a different color circle.

 

[gascant]

I too have the LED's in the License plate lamps, Marker Lamps, etc. The biggest difference in "cool" look is the overhead and dome lights inside.

-Phil

I only did the dome light so far in the passenger compartment, but I'll definitely order them for the map/overhead lights. I also want to do anything that's on when the lights are on.

 

[DeaneG]

How do the DTL-CW8HF DRLs look in bright daylight? Are they as visible as say an Audi DRL? They only draw 1.5 watts or so of input power, so I'm guessing each has roughly the same total brightness as a single focused W5W bulb.

 

[GeekEV]

I haven't really compared them, nor studied them from outside the car, but they are bright enough that I can clearly see them reflecting off the bumpers of other cars. And they are designed to be DRLs, so I sort of take it on faith that they're appropriately bright.

 

[TomT]

They are quite bright and visible, yes. I'd say they are on a par with the Audis...

How do the DTL-CW8HF DRLs look in bright daylight? Are they as visible as say an Audi DRL? They only draw 1.5 watts or so of input power, so I'm guessing each has roughly the same total brightness as a single focused W5W bulb.

 

[DeaneG]

They are quite bright and visible, yes. I'd say they are on a par with the Audis...

Thanks, I'll get my order in. Did anyone ever find an better connection point for the hot wire? I'd prefer to mangle the stock wiring as little as possible (up to my ears in speaker mangling now).

 

[gascant]

Did anyone ever find an better connection point for the hot wire? I'd prefer to mangle the stock wiring as little as possible (up to my ears in speaker mangling now).

I didn't see where there was any exposed wiring to tap into--almost all of the harness is covered by corrugated plastic. It's pretty simple and clean to use a 22 gauge fast tap in the power control module and use a chassis ground most anywhere it's convenient.

 

[TomT]

If you are going to do it that way, the Posi-Lock, Posi-Tap and Posi-Twist connectors are far more reliable and easier than the cheap and crappy fast taps...

Did anyone ever find an better connection point for the hot wire? I'd prefer to mangle the stock wiring as little as possible (up to my ears in speaker mangling now).

I didn't see where there was any exposed wiring to tap into--almost all of the harness is covered by corrugated plastic. It's pretty simple and clean to use a 22 gauge fast tap in the power control module and use a chassis ground most anywhere it's convenient.