Daylight running lights

[mikemol]

Hi,
I need to modify my VX for inspection in Canada and daylight running lights is one of them. How can I do it so that the headlights would turn on as soon as I start the car and go off as soon as I turn it off?

[crotchrocket]

I would guess you need a wiring diagram (available in the downloads section i think) and you need to wire it to an ignition wire in the fuse box so effectively the ignition key turns on the lights

[VehiGAZ]

You would have to bypass the on/off part of the light switch, but not the high/low beam part. That would be trickiest. A relay for the lights tied to any ignition-switched power source would get them to come on when you start the engine and shut off when you stop it.

That's not very helpful without specific details, I realize, but that would be the strategy. Try googling "daytime running light conversion canada" and see what comes up...

Good luck!

[Ldub]

Hi,
I need to modify my VX for inspection in Canada and daylight running lights is one of them. How can I do it so that the headlights would turn on as soon as I start the car and go off as soon as I turn it off?

Get in touch with Kenny...:yes:

He's been there & done that...:_wrench:

[tom4bren]

This website claims to have a kit for us:

http://www.hamsar.com/drlkits.htm

Click on the application hyperlink near the top.

[pbkid]

yup, talk to kenny, i know that he got new lights for the grill, and just wired those ones up...some really nice LED ones :naughty:

[mikemol]

actually I don't want to buy a kit but want to find out info on where to feed a wire from and where to run it just so that I will pass inspection. Once I pass it I will turn it back to the way it is or it was before inspection

[Riff Raff]

MIKEMOL--- Yes, "Kenny" is your very best source for any Canadian requirements/questions related to the VX. Kenny is a very smart VX guy and extremely "crafty". His advice ranks right up there with TONE (R.I.P.).

Please E-Mail Kenny direct...

[mikemol]

MIKEMOL--- Yes, "Kenny" is your very best source for any Canadian requirements/questions related to the VX. Kenny is a very smart VX guy and extremely "crafty". His advice ranks right up there with TONE (R.I.P.).

Please E-Mail Kenny direct

Thanks. I sent him a PM earlier today and will send an email now.

[Kenny]

MIKEMOL--- Yes, "Kenny" is your very best source for any Canadian requirements/questions related to the VX. Kenny is a very smart VX guy and extremely "crafty". His advice ranks right up there with TONE (R.I.P.).

Please E-Mail Kenny direct at: -------------

:mbrasd: me? - I'm just a hacker...:smack: who'll try anything :eek:.

Anyways, here's a copy of my PM:
Chime in people if I'm off the grid here.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
mikemol:
No prob. It's been years since I did this, so I'm going with splotchy memory...

For your headlights, it's a bit of a wiring job. I have an HID kit that makes things a bit easier... But for stock wiring it may be a bit harder. I had a dealer do mine and it cost $600 because he went to the root next to the steering column and used a series of relays to keep the low/high beams operational. Waste of money, I disabled that after a year.

First off, I would try to get your fog lights rated as your DRL, not the headlights. Not sure who's going to fill out the RIV paperwork, a dealer? or Canadian Tire?
If you get a hard time due to brightness, try to put in Hella Micro D or similar fogs in place of the stock. For me I run LED fogs as my DRL, no complaints yet.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/3204/LED_FUN_03.jpg

The ON/OFF/ON/OFF on the headlights burnt out my HID bulbs too much - very $$$.

If you're doing the wiring yourself, it may be possible to tap into the existing wires with relay(s) run off the ignition wire. You'll have three wires going to your headlights, low beam - high beam - ground (i think). Use circuit tester to measure voltages in lo/high modes to identify them.

Insert a relay in the lo beam wiring (one relay to both headlights) the 12V power to the low beams should now come from a distribution block off the (+) battery terminal, not the lo beam switch from the steering column. Tying in the ignition wire to the relay will then close the circuit to the lo beams when the car is turned on.

For high beams, leave the wires in place, when you turn on the high on the steering column, it should then run 12V to the HL.

Preferably you'll add inline fuses (20A?) to the hot hires going back to the headlights to protect the ignition wire.

The ignition wire I tied into is in the wire cluster next to the power steering fluid reservoir. I think it's a blue with red strip - depending on the VX year. Use voltage tester. I'll take some pics.

Let me know how it turns out.


As for the miles to kilometer on the speedo - useless.
There is no gauge cluster you can put in to replace the Vehicross cluster. The typical solution for the dealer is to put stickers on the speedo to indicate that the ODO is in "miles" and put little numbers next to the miles as kmh equivalent. (i.e. "100 km/h" sticker next to the 60 mph tag.) My dealer thought it was dumb, so he just ticked off on the form that he did do it, but didn't. In the end I put in glow gauges that had Km/h and mph. (FYI - these are hard to find now)

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/white_face_gauges_2.jpg

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/white_face_2.jpg

I did it more for the look as opposed to getting km/h.

The dealer is also expected to put on French seatbelt, tip over, air bag labels too. Mine again didn't, but just ticked off on the form that he did.

Yours is a 1999, so it will also need child safety hooks in the floor behind the rear seats for RIV approval . Only 2001 came with them stock.

Good Luck. Let me know if you need more info...

Ken

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[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/showphoto.php?photo=14694&cat=500

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/DRL.JPG

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

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/medium/wiring.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8677)

[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.

[stangri]

Kenny,

these "glow gauges that had Km/h and mph. (FYI - these are hard to find now)" -- where did you get them?

Also, any fellow canucks with prior to 2001 VXes cares to share how did you get around the child restraint anchors issue?

thanks!

[stangri]

This seems to be the thread with the most technical information about the DRL (Daytime Running Lights), so I've decided to ask here.
What I want to achieve is get the same lights on the moment I start the car as if I switched the light switch stick to the ON position. I'm not proficient enough to figure out how to do it, but hopefully will be able to follow instructions if anyone can help me out with them. Any ideas?

BTW, when I spoke to the Canadian Tire folk doing both federal and provincial inspections I asked them if there were *any* regulations for the power output or the size of the DRL and they said no. So if anyone is giving you hard time with the fog lights as DRL -- ask them for the specific regulations and post here please.

[RallyDude]

I apologize if this has already been discussed, as I didn't read the entire thread.

Rather than have the headlights come on with the ignition, I would probably wire some LED driving lights to the ignition. As the headlights have a lot of power draw and occupy multiple fuses, it seems like it would just be easier to wire up some low power lights to come on with the ignition. It would be easy to do and you would end up with more light at night. Good Luck