DRL (Now fog lights too) always on

[thebrainhart]

Here is my RS package DIY to not only make the DRLs work as DRLs, but to come on with the park lights too.

I have shrunk the pictures, if you want the original large ones, let me know.

It does require stripping and splicing wires to the factory wiring harness in the front bumper.

This is my idea, and it may or may not be perfect, if you see improvment areas, be my guest. I've run with this for 3 days now, with no problems.
Yet, as always, perform and use at your own risk.
The way I wired it, you can easily disconnect the whole harness if something happens, without ruining the main vehicle harness.

Parts required:
Two (2) 12volt Zener Diode (I got from radio shack for $1.50) (Pic 1)
Solder
Electrical Tape


1. Either remove the front bumper (there are other threads with instructions),
or drive the front wheels onto ramps (Some people remove the right wheel too),
and partially remove and gain access through the right wheel well liner to the area behind the front bumper.
2. Locate the wiring harness connector you had to disconnect to remove the bumper, above the right DRL. (Pic 2)
3. Pull the connector out of its tab, and pull it enough out of the bumper to work with. Unwrap the electrical tape. (Pic 3)
4. Cut slits and then strip the outer wire coating, being carefull not to cut the actual wire.
Do this to the purple, brown, light blue, and dark blue wires. I made my first slits all in a row. (Pic 3)
5. Then strip towards the bumper on the purple and brown wires, enough to solder one end of the diode in. Then strip towards you, on the two blue wires.
6. Using the beautiful wiring diagram I scribbled in the field, (Pic 4), install the diodes in place.
The direction of the diode is critical. If you notice, on one end of the diode, there is a black bar.
As in the wiring diagram, in the right upper corner, power flows from blank to bar. It does not flow the other way.
7. Connect and wrap the blank end of the diode around the purple wire, pointing towards you (Pic 5)
8. Solder the diode into place (Pic 6)
9. Wrap the soldered end with electrical tape, ensuring all exposed wire and diode is wrapped. (Pic 7)
10. Connect and wrap the other end of the diode around the exposed light blue wire. (Pic 7)
11. Solder diode on (Pic 8) and tape it up too (Pic 9)
12. Now straighten the two wires and your new diode out, and tape it together (Pic 10)
13. Now do the same thing to the brown and dark blue wires.
Ensuring the blank diode end is on the brown wire(Pics 11-15)
14. Now tape all wires up together, just as it was from the factory (Pic 16)
15. Now place the connector and wiring harness back in place, it their tabs, just as it was from the factory. (Pic 17)
16. Now reinstall the bumper

And walla!! If done correctly, your driving lights will come on as they normally did, and when you turn your park lights, headlights, or even high beams on, your new fog lights will also turn on!

[thebrainhart]

Here is the finished project of this DIY, I am still in the process and design of the rest of it.....

[LS3SSRS]

very detailed writeup! thank you for the pics, i will be doing this mod for sure

[Justcallme61]

Very nice. Did you blur out your fingerprints? lol

[JohnForeman]

ok. if i'm reading this correctly, the fogs now come on when you turn your park lights (halos) on? I would prefer that my halos come on with my DRL's since they come on all the time. So my basic electrical knowledge is telling me that if I reverse the diodes, I will get what I want.. correct?
-John

[Michael_Js]

Hmmm...will that work? Don't the DRLs go off when the halos are on?

[JohnForeman]

Originally Posted by Michael_Js

Hmmm...will that work? Don't the DRLs go off when the halos are on?

Yes, but if the DRLs are on, by reversing the diodes, they should power the halos. At least that's what I'm thinking. Now that may feed power to the rest of the parking light circuit so it may require some additional mods. I guess what I'm looking for is I want my halos to come on in place of my fogs since they come on all the time.
just thinking out loud..
-John

[thebrainhart]

Originally Posted by Justcallme61

Very nice. Did you blur out your fingerprints? lol

Yes, I did, with my dirty fingers, you could see the fingerprint perfectly, so I thought about it, and blotted them out

Originally Posted by JohnForeman

ok. if i'm reading this correctly, the fogs now come on when you turn your park lights (halos) on? I would prefer that my halos come on with my DRL's since they come on all the time. So my basic electrical knowledge is telling me that if I reverse the diodes, I will get what I want.. correct?
-John

If you reverse the diode, then it will only power the front side marker lights with the DRLs.

In order to halo only on with the DRL, you'll need to do some splicing and diode in to the main wiring harness, just out of the main power module. I dont know any wiring diagrams for it, so I dont know which wires that would be.

Although, there are halo fuses...... you could probably run a wire from a DRL into the fuses, then in theory it would power the halo when the DRLs are on..... Dont know for sure, havent messed with that......

[qbert48]

sweet

[teapot]

Nice DIY writeup. I'm gonna try it this weekend!

[daphatgrant]

Excellent .

[DMAX]

Nice job that will be my next mod , Thanks for the info

[thebrainhart]

Originally Posted by thebrainhart

Although, there are halo fuses...... you could probably run a wire from a DRL into the fuses, then in theory it would power the halo when the DRLs are on..... Dont know for sure, havent messed with that......

I was wrong, looked into it today, and there are not halo fuses. You'd have to find the wires to the halo.
The good thing, you can connect the DRL wires to the halo wires without any diodes, and each will power the other on.
Halo's on with DRL, DRL on with halo's (and therefore park lights, headlights)

[BumbleDs]

Quick question can you tell me how to run a hot switch to manually actuate the foglamps? If you can thank you!