Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fog lights, DRLs, and wiring. Oh my!

Collapse
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Fog lights, DRLs, and wiring. Oh my!

    I'm starting to get tired of having a separate switch hanging under the steering wheel for the fog lights. I also don't want to cut a hole anywhere to put the switch in. Instead, I'd like to wire them up to the headlight/parking light control. That's simple enough, but I'd like to run the "city lights" as DRLs that will also switch off when the headlights are turned on. So I know I will need a relay of some sort. Problem is, I'm no wiring master and have no idea what I could wire the city lights up to for DRL use or what kind of relay I'll need. If anyone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated

    #2
    Got the fogs wired to the city lights for now. Still looking for suggestions on how to wire the city lights as DRLs.

    Doing tie rod ends and ball joint today so throw some suggestions out.

    HTC Droid DNA

    Comment


      #3
      Resistor is the heat sink on the driver side strut tower ( drls ). What I would do is trace the leads to and from the resistor , remove it from the circuit and use the input lead to light the city lights. Small issue is when headlights are on = no drls = no city lights


      Sent from my iPhone5
      using Tapatalk


      Comment


        #4
        Not much of an issue since I was planning on having a relay or something to switch the city lights/DRLs off when the headlights are on. So if I can wire it up without a relay, it would be nice. I'll have to take a look around since I don't remember seeing anything on the strut tower except two relays and the cruise control module. I wonder if my Haynes manual has a wiring diagram showing what I need.

        Thanks for the info.

        HTC Droid DNA

        Comment


          #5
          If you can post a wiring diagram, I'll figure it out for you.
          sigpic
          1992 Familia GT-X
          1988 323 GTX
          2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost
          2014 Civic Touring

          Comment


            #6
            It looks like the DRL circuit was for Canada only (as I thought). Here's the wiring diagram from the back of the Haynes manual. (Warning: Large resolution)

            Click image for larger version

Name:	IMAG0840.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	362.6 KB
ID:	1237482

            Edit: Right-click and "Open in New Tab/Window" should provide the full resolution image.
            Last edited by irishkev90; 09-16-2013, 10:10 PM.

            Comment


              #7
              being a US car you wont have the drl resistor ( forgot you were in the US .)


              Comment


                #8
                I figured as much. But at least this give me an idea of how I could wire the city lights up to become DRLs. I'll have to play around with the multimeter this weekend.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Did a little probing before work and it looks like I can use the ABS fuse slot (I don't have ABS) to get the power from, then I'll just need to wire in a relay to shut the DRLs off when the headlights turn on.

                  Any idea what relay I would use for that?

                  HTC Droid DNA

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Sorry, I missed that you posted this. I will look at it tomorrow.

                    Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2
                    sigpic
                    1992 Familia GT-X
                    1988 323 GTX
                    2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost
                    2014 Civic Touring

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Click image for larger version

Name:	IMAG0840.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	343.5 KB
ID:	1237484

                      You will need 4 relays, 2 normally open, and 2 normally closed.

                      Edit: With this however, your city lights wont turn off if you pull back to flash your high beams. I can fix that with another relay if you want.

                      Edit2: If the ABS is hot in run only, you can use that, and bypass the top right relay, just run the wire that comes out of the top right of the top left relay to the ABS fuse.
                      Last edited by DuRWooD; 09-18-2013, 05:35 PM.
                      sigpic
                      1992 Familia GT-X
                      1988 323 GTX
                      2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost
                      2014 Civic Touring

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Wow, that's a lot easier than me trying to figure it out, haha. Thank a lot! I think the high beam flash will be fine, I won't worry about shutting them off with that. I can get the normally open relays from Radioshack, but I can't seem to find any normally closed in stores.

                        What do you mean by "Run Hot" in the upper right corner?

                        Other than that I think I've got it. Thanks again, very appreciated!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I recently bought some relays for a very similar setup. The contacts have 3 prongs, you can run them normally open, or normally closed. Make sure they are automotive, 12V 10amp minimum relays (I don't know how powerful your lights are, so that's just a guess, I believe I used 20A relays). I got my relays at Princess Auto, similar to Harbour Freight in the states. Hot run, means it has +12V when the key is in the on position only.

                          Remember when fusing, and selecting relays, Volts * Amps = Watts. If you have 100 watts total, you divide by 12V to get 8.3Amps. I would recommend 14 gauge wiring minimum at 100 watts.
                          Last edited by DuRWooD; 09-18-2013, 05:46 PM.
                          sigpic
                          1992 Familia GT-X
                          1988 323 GTX
                          2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost
                          2014 Civic Touring

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Okay, that's what I figured you meant. There's a Harbor Freight not too far from me so I'll try there this weekend. I think the city lights are only 3.4 watts or something like that. Not sure what the fog lights are, I'll have to pull them out and check. The ABS fuse gets power at all times (just checked it), so I'll have to find somewhere else to get power from.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              If that's the case with the city lights. I wouldn't use that top right relay at all. Just splice into your IGN power, and run a small 2.5 amp fuse close to the splice. My wire of choice would be 18awg, you can get away with smaller, but then the insulation gets very small and easily damaged. You can use a small 3 amp relay. Size the fuse smaller than the relay.

                              Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2
                              sigpic
                              1992 Familia GT-X
                              1988 323 GTX
                              2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost
                              2014 Civic Touring

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X