Volkswagen Eos Forum banner

Installing Philips daylight running lights

27K views 39 replies 14 participants last post by  voxmagna 
#1 ·
I've been toying with the idea of daylight running lights for a while now, and have done a fair bit of research to try and find the best looking and most reliable type.

Look on Ebay, and you'll find dozens at all sorts of prices, anyway in the end having done a lot of reading I decided upon Philips. Having had hub dynamo powered Philips LED had and tail lights on my bike which have performed brilliantly ( every pun intended ) and the fact that all the streetlights where I live have been replaced with Philips LED lighting, thought they'd be a safe bet.

They make several types, and I had initially decided upon the "Daylight 8" which dim rather than turn off when the sidelights are switched on, however not being too sure of the legality in the UK of having 2 sets of sidelights ( they recommend replacing the normal sidelight bulbs with dummies, something I didn't really want to do ) and the fact that these came out in 2010, I finally decided on the "Daylight 9" ( introduced 2014 ) which switch off completely when the sidelights
are on.

These are not exactly cheap compared with some of the Ebay "bargains" but it's a job I want to last, so thought it worth wile paying the extra.

Prices in the UK vary from £105, to the cheapest I could find which was Amazon at £75, however they're on sale in Germany for £54 with about £5 postage.
Needless to say I ordered them from Germany, and 2 days later they were delivered.



The obvious place to fit them was on the foglight covers, the lights come with metal mounts which are designed to be fitted into a grill, with the lights snapping into the mount. All well and good if there's a suitable grill, the one on the EOS is far to small and wouldn't look right or be legal as far as the spacing of the lights goes. ( 600mm minimum between the lights )
I really didn't want to have the dris protruding from the front of the foglight covers, preferring to flush mount them.

I firstly made a cardboard template by trial and error until I had the right aperture to accept the light ( they taper slightly being a bit wider at the front than the back, so the size of the aperture is critical to not have the light sticking out too much, or pulling right through.



I used the card template to mark the cover with a felt pen, then carefully cut out the aperture, firstly with a small cutting disk, and then a hacksaw blade. Finally filing to the finished size. I decided on the lower of the two positions, which still meets the minimum legal (European) height of 250mm.




After which the light could just be pushed through from the front, leaving about 5mm protruding.



There are two M5 threaded holes on the rear of each light, so it was a simple manor to fabricate U shaped brackets out of aluminium to secure the lights into the cover.



The lights come with 3M of wire on the right one and 2M on the left, more than enough to route them through to the control box.
Bearing in mind that the covers will at some stage have to be removed for replacing foglight bulbs, I thought it prudent to bundle up about 50cm of wire with a tie wrap to the rear of the lamp to facilitate easy removal of the cover in future.

The wiring couldn't be easier, there's a small electronic control box which senses the voltage across the battery, so there's no need for switches. There are three waterproof connectors on the box, one for each of the lights and one for the power connections, simply a red fused wire which goes to battery pos, a black one to battery neg, a blue wire which also goes to battery neg, unless the car has start/stop technology, in which case it goes to vcc on the fusebox ( mine hasn't so went the battery neg)

There's also an orange wire which shuts off the lights when it "sees" 12volts this is connected by a scotch lock type connect to the sidelight wire on the headlight unit.



The hard bit was to find somewhere to put the control box, although being small, space is at a premium. I finally decided to secure it to the air filter box, so had to make a suitable bracket out of aluminium.






The instructions recommended that the car's battery be disconnected before making any connections, I was a bit dubious about this in case I lost the radio connection, not being sure if the radio code I have works. Anyway, I did as was suggested, and there wasn't a problem, however, when I re-connected the battery and started the engine, several of the warning lights stayed on, this I was expecting having seen something in the manual about it.



Anyway, after a 100 metre drive, they all went out again much to my relief!

As for the lights, they worked perfectly, came on as soon as the engine started, and extinguished when the sidelights are switched on. When the engine is turned off, there's a couple of seconds delay before they go out again.



Quite pleased with the visual results, though don't know whether they'd have looked better on the upper section of the covers, ( I was a bit worried of close proximity to the towing f eye )

I was a little disappointed initially with the brightness of the lights, as can be seen by the picture above, however when you get down really low and look at them they're very very bright. Looking at the angle of them they're pointing slightly downwards, and putting a piece of paper in front of them, there's a very clean cutoff at about the height of the top of the lights, I'll heave to remove the panels and modify the mounts to angle them up a bit, as they're definitely pointing at the road, as can be seen in the pic below which I've just taken now that it's dark and easier to see exactly whats happening.



I hope this may be of some help to anyone who's contemplating a similar job.

Pete
 
See less See more
10
#3 ·
Decided to alter the angle of the lights up slightly as the foglight covers seem to slope inwards a little at the bottom, so made some new brackets with one leg longer that the other , the longer one being at the top of the light to pull it back slightly, thus angling the light upwards into the vertical position (new clip shown on the right of the pic)



Certainly made a difference, and the lights look a lot brighter now, difficult to show in a pic, but the image below shows the before (top) and with the new brackets (below)



All finished now let's hope the effort was worth it and they last the distance!
 
#4 ·
Hi cymro, I have the same daylight 9s fitted just like yours in the same lower section near the fog lights. Got mine from Amazon & paid £68, but I am not capable to do the job so I had to bite the bullet and pay £70 to have the fitted( see what you have saved !!) I am very pleased with outcome, the auto electrician who did the job said they are top quality as well. Regards Rick.
 
#5 ·
I can offer you a tidier solution to picking up supply from the battery which I discovered last week:

Remove the cover from the fuse box to the right and depending on your feature version, you should have some empty fuse holders. Use a voltmeter to find which end is permanent +12 volt. You can then get some thin copper sheet and make a single 1/4" blade to push in the hot side going to your fuse. Ignore the other side unless you fancy undoing loom tape to find out where the wire goes - but you could never be sure what they did with the end! You should be able to bring your fused hot wire out through a grommet on the side and there is a convenient slot on the right side of the fuse box to run one wire along. Your fuse should be inside the box with only a short wire to the blade for safety reasons.

For safety reasons, the fuse box contains NO ground wires and any added ground wire should be OUTSIDE the fuse box! You can either use the battery ground terminal just behind the fuse box or put in your own self tapping screw close by.

Making your DRL power connection this way means you don't have untidy spaghetti to deal with when swapping a battery.
 
#6 ·
Drl's

Just a couple of quick questions. Do the eos UK models have the low beam headlights as day time running lights standard,if they do are you running both the factory and the aftermarket together.
 
#8 ·
A Few questions to answer, regarding the daylight dim headlamps, they're not functional on my UK spec EOS, and I wasn't able to program them using the indicator stalk as described in the handbook. Not too sure about the legality in the UK of having 2 sets of position ?side lights, they recommended removing the sidelight bulbs on the dimming DRL that Philips make.
Regarding the routing of the wires to the fusebox, I presume there's a good reason for Philips to say to connect straight to the battery, as the blue cable which normally goes to the battery neg, is actually connected to the vcc connection on the fusebox if you've got stop/start technology, one would presume it's the same voltage as the battery pos. Maybe it's because it's just easier?

However, in the instructions they do mention connecting direct to the fuse box, if there's a problem with the lights coming on whilst the engine's not running


LED DayLight 9 random switch-on while the engine
is off. The Philips Control box may detect outside
electronic disturbances, such as the alternator signal,
that might turn the lights on.
To solve this issue, it is legal to connect the red cable to the
12V KL15 or ACC accessory pole (+) in the car’s fuse box f.


A question for Rick,
are your lights flush with the black panel, in which case, are they parallel with it?
as I stated in an earlier post, I had to angle mine up slightly to stop them pointing at the road.
£70 is not bad for fitting when you consider the amount of work to cut out the holes etc, I think my local VW dealer (which I don't use!) charges over £90 an hour.
All good stuff!...cheers...Pete
 
#9 ·
Morning Pete, mine are fitted on the lower section near fog lights but the auto elec bloke did not cut the panel but fixed somehow without doing so, they consequently are not flush but they still do not protrude in front of the body work, if that makes sense! I am still very happy with the look + they are fixed in place solid. Tek care. Rick.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for that Rick, I guess he's either mounted yours from the back of the foglight cover with a couple of M5 screws, or mounted the metal clips onto the back cover or the colour coded central portion.
I noticed in the dark last night, I turned the sidelights off before cutting the engine, so the drl's came on, that they stay on for 4 to 5 secs after the engine's turned off, very noticeable in the pitch dark! can see why they have to be off at night, would certainly dazzle oncoming traffic....cheers...Pete
 
#15 ·
I've thought about this and here are some 'ideas'.

Legality often depends on what happens at mot. Yes you might get pulled over for something obvious like 1 megawatt of HID lighting, but other stuff in detail is probably less likely until you get to mot.

Now I know that fogs and DRLs do not have the same light pattern or intensity. We just got a Skoda Yeti and the DRLs on that look to me like a wattage reduced halogen in a standard round light unit looking quite naff really because the color matches no other front lighting - even yellower than the parking light!

If you put your car in for mot they will turn on the fog light switch and expect fogs to work only with dip and main beam, so I don't know what you do about that. You can do sneaky things with a relay and switch inside the glove box that will 'return to normal' but that implies you are using the fogs as DRLs. Then you have the night time problem where operating them would strictly speaking be illegal, although if they were tied to come on with main beam only, they probably wouldn't be a nuisance.

If you want to stay legal I really think you should keep the fog lights and switches as they are, but consider adding white led DRLs on the front bumper. LED add ons discussed here are low power and can be tied into the OE wiring without causing problems. If you start taking out lamp units or fit low power leds inside on these cars, you could have issues with the bulb failure monitoring. Driving on side lights in daytime seems an obvious alternative to DRLs but there are plenty who will flash lights at you to turn them off. The led DRLs stand out as something different and avoid this. I think I've seen some vagcom coding options to enable dipped headlights (or was it sides?) as 'always on', which may be required in some countries (Germany?)

These are now the kind of cheap things coming in from Asia that may not be good quality unless you can get something sold by Philips or Hella. Those DRL's would cost more but would be a rugged spec. and designed for auto OE use. I'm thinking if you start cutting the front fender to fit them, you don't want them failing after a year and not be able to replace with the same.
 
#16 ·
Hi Kano,
I wonder if you've made any progress with the DRL's?
As far as the foglights go, I think Hella make a set of replacement foglights which contain both foglights, which are switched as normal, and the drl which is effectively a ring around the outside of the fitting, and which, I presume is connected so that they come on automatically with the ignition and dim/switch off with the sidelights.

The bad news is that they won't fit on the EOS, I think they're too big, and also the EOS lights have an angled glass on the front to follow the body contour, so they're right/left orientated.
I've been very pleased with the Philips lights, but sadly they're no more!

No fault of the lights, they were brilliant! I don't know how, 'cause I'm usually very careful, but I either didn't set the handbrake properly, of it slipped, anyway the car ran down a slope and into a wall causing a couple of thousand pounds worth of damage. I removed the lights and associated electronics before it went in to the body shop, so it will be a re-fit when I get it back. I'll probably fit the old foglight cover on the undamaged side, and just cut another hole in the new one on the repaired side. All in all a very expensive hassle!

Incidentally, the repair shop said they've had at least 15 similar incidents regarding VAG vehicles, they said there's a known problem that after heavy braking, the discs expand, then when they cool, the callipers are not so tight, so may slip! Why VAG vehicles should be any different i don't know. Their advice was to pull up the handbrake up as tight as you can, then try for an extra click, and put the vehicle in reverse ( something I always do, but for some reason didn't on this occasion)

The drl survived the bump without a scratch, they're very well built, with thick glass not plastic fronts. ( see pic )

C'est la vie! Thank goodness for a good insurance policy with protected no claims!!

 
#17 ·
Ouch!
 
#18 ·
Incidentally, the repair shop said they've had at least 15 similar incidents regarding VAG vehicles, they said there's a known problem that after heavy braking, the discs expand, then when they cool, the callipers are not so tight, so may slip!
I don't think it's just vags. It started to be a problem when they went from drum rear brakes to cable operated rear discs. But I think you are right, the hot discs and pads shrink whilst cooling after parking, causing the reduced contact pressure.

You may notice that vags whilst still keeping to mot guidelines, seem to have more clicks on the hand brake. I think this is to give maximum pressure with the least effort on the hands.

We are old school using the clutch changing down gears approaching stops and always park in gear. Although that habit comes about from using a handbrake to gear shift lock, which is about the smallest thing you can buy to give some additional visible security.
 
#19 ·
Glad it was just property damage. Hope you get fixed and back on the road soon!

Make sure they re-align your headlight. My shop didn't and I had to re-align it and I was near the limit of the adjuster screw.
 
#20 ·
My wife did the same thing with her Mk VI GTD Golf when it was only one week old. Buried it under the back bumper of her sister's Volvo Wagon. No damage to the Volvo but $8000.00 to the Golf. New set of Zenon headlights and a new bonnet plus painting. I had always told her to park it in gear too! Our panel beater also said it was a monthly occurence but not necessarily VAG vehicles - rear disc brakes are the culprit.
 
#21 ·


Got the car back at the weekend, the body shop had done a fabulous job, perfect colour match, took a while because the first, and second bonnet (hood) they got were damaged, so had to get a third! looking at the list of parts fitted, I noticed a new headlight washer jet and valve, I never even knew there were washers fitted!!

Anyway, all was well until the night time. when I used the headlights, only to find that the new left hand headlamp (£190) was pointing to the ground on full beam. The dipped beam was fine, and moved up and down in tandem with the right hand side when adjusted with the dashboard control.

On examination, the bulb was not centred properly, but hardly enough to make it shine on the ground a few metres in front of the car.
Took it back to the body shop where the guy looked at it, and on removing the full beam bulb, the reflector could be moved about by putting his finger in where the bulb went!
Anyway, he's ordered me another new lamp unit, so hopefully that'll do the trick.

The bill came to £3070, no wonder insurance premiums are so high!
Incidentally, I visited my dentist yesterday, who drives an EOS the same age as mine, and in the past, his has run away whilst on the handbrake too!

Maybe should start a thread to see just how common it is.
 
#22 ·
Thanks Cymro and Vox for the content of this thread...... I've just purchased and taken delivery of the Phillips DRL 9 and plan to fit this weekend.

Two questions from me.

  1. I intend to connect to the small pilot lamp that is lit when sidelights are selected to ensure they switch off when lights come on. Can anyone tell me which of the festoon of wires that go to the back of the lamp cluster I need to splice to!!
  2. I would like to fit an override on/off switch. Not that I'm paranoid but I'd hate to flatten the battery if some spurious event caused the DRLs come on with the car unattended. I'm thinking that the neatest way of doing this is to use one of the switch blanks in the central console. Can I get a latch on / off switch that fits here and if so, what is the recommended way of breaching the bulkhead between engine compartment and car interior?

Thanks in anticipation!
 
#23 ·
If you wait a couple of days I'll come back with a write up and photos. I'll give reasons for doing things my way but 1. I'm picking up an ignition switched line from the under bonnet fuse box and 2. I'm going for surface mounting. These units are not designed for flush mounting and lack a bezel surround at the front. It would be hard to make them like this for universal aftermarket fitting on various curved surfaces. They missed a trick on the mounting. If they had provided tapped holes in each end of the lamp housings as at the back, then a custom bracket allowing the lamp unit angle to be set would have been an easier job.

Having looked at OE factory DRLs coming towards me and in my rear view, their beam centres are straight in my eyes and the same for pedestrians, which is why they are switched off by the side lights when night driving. I think they need to be mounted so they will give a beam parallel to the road or slightly upwards. If you can see them as a light patch on the road surface at night, then I think they are to low. I shall go for the top black panel, I don't expect the towing eye to be an issue.

For me, cutting a large rectangular hole then having more issues working out the fixing and adjusting the angle upwards were made more difficult by flush fixing. Surface fixing only requires 3 small holes which can be filled with a panel grommet if the DRLs are ever removed.
 
#24 · (Edited)
MY07 EOS TDi Philps DRLs Part 1 of 2 posts

Thanks to previous posters for their contributions which persuaded me to do this. I'm not a fan of aftermarket farkles which can be poorly designed, finished and rarely up to OE quality. Getting the best result from the Philips kit is definitely not easy 'plug and play'- level 7 on a 10 point dificulty scale to do what I did. Daylight Running Lamps (DRLs) are becoming standard requirements for new vehicles. Their objective is to use the higher color temperature leds to stand out in daylight, making your car more visible to pedestrians and other road users. They are not for adding more light and in my personal opinion should not be aimed at the road surface.

Legal DRLs like these are rated at 3.5 watts per lamp unit, although the overall power taken is around 10 Watts. Being bright and aimed at eye lines, they could blind at night and their use at night is forbidden. Philips provide a control box which delivers constant brightness whilst allowing the DRLs to be lit only when the engine is running AND no other lights are on.

I bench tested my kit before install because some posters were concerned about current draw or flattening batteries. The DRLs power on at about 13.5 volts and are off at 12 volts. If the lamps are forced on at 12V a pair take 0.9 A (12W). At 14.5 volts (alternator charging) current draw is 0.7A (10W). When the DRLs are 'off' the control unit draw is 3mA. This small current should not significantly add to battery drain. I have a particular problem because I have added a 12 volt external charging point for a 24/7 tender. MY07 is a second car used less frequently and I can't have the DRLs lighting up when my battery reaches full charge on the tender. Also a new battery with high terminal voltage might cause the DRLs to stay on for a while after stopping. I didn't like adding skimpy wires to battery terminal posts and my solution connects the DRLs to an 'ignition on' power feed inside the main fusebox in the engine bay.

The Daylight 9s are a universal kit. Like most kits, their design and supplied parts would not achieve an OE quality installation. This is some of the extra work required and kit short comings: 1. A custom bracket to secure the control unit (they could have supplied it with heavy duty velcro pads). 2. Make a paper drilling template. 3. Buy piggy back standard ATS blade fuseholders with 2-3 Amp blade fuses. These allow an empty fuse slot to be connected to a wire, or provide a second fused outlet to a wire if a fuse slot is already filled. 4. Make plastic 'wedges' to create an upwards aiming angle. 5mm raised along one edge worked for me. The orange wire from the controller has to be connected to a side lamp feed to turn off the DRl's when lights are on. I hate Scotchloc type joins and crimp splice connectors. I always solder and heatshrink sleeve over. Use butt crimp connectors by all means, but for a neat reliable and waterproof job, butt solder and heat shrink sleeve.

Flush mount or surface mount? From conception this kit is designed for surface mounting. There is no front bezel to tidy up an untidy cutout on the EOS ABS fog panel and you only get one chance at a neat job. If you want to remove the DRLs you will have a large rectangular hole to repair or replace both mouldings. The DRL's come with spring clip brackets. I saw no point in them and I'm always suspicious that these exposed parts are the first to deteriate in weather. Each lamp unit has an M5 tapped hole at the back. DON'T fit a clip if you aren't using them, they are hard to remove! If you flush mount there will be less air circulating behind to cool the lamp modules. Their diecast heat sink is pretty substantial, but it will work better in moving air. The fog panel is not vertical and has a slight downwards (and curved) surface. To get best visibility when fitted low on the EOS fog panels they need to be angled upwards. If the units are flush mounted they sit back and when angled upwards will be screened by the painted front molding. Everthing therefore points to surface mounting for best results - They are small and do not project in front of the painted cover. I think mine look fine.:) Philips dropped off with mounting options. Had they included tapped holes at each end of the unit, a clip on bracket fixed at the sides would have allowed the angle to be set when fixed to sloping surfaces. My solution was to make some taper wedges and fit them under the mounting screws.

Top or bottom slot?
My personal choice was the top slot. Being a little closer to the headlight they look right belonging more to the headlight than the fog. I was also aware of lifting up the angle and wanting more height. I don't think the towing eye will be an issue in the right side. I've never ever used one and our breakdown people don't use them.

Preparation is 80% of the effort:

Tools: Torx driver for front grill, 5mm, 5.5mm drills, electricians 'mouse' to re-thread their wires through sleeves. Sheet metal, soldering iron solder and heat shrink 4.2,6.5mm ID. blue crimp eye for chassis ground. Black silicone to seal cable entry through fog panel.

1. Before you start: Open the kit and mark each DRL left, right and top on the back. Right side has the longest 3M wire and assumes the control unit is mounted furthest away on the left near the air box (UK Model). Each lamp lens is marked on the front and the lettering must not be upside down! When you remove each fog panel molding, mark them on the inside 'top' right and left. It is very easy to get them upside down and start drilling the bottom slot instead of the top slot. Lay each DRL on its respective molding. Note that whilst both units have the same M5 bolt positions at the back, power wires come out to the right and left of the center line in different positions each side. Both lamps have the same codes and I think it's only wiring length making them right and left. Continued post 2
 

Attachments

#25 · (Edited)
MY07 EOS TDi Philps DRLs Part 2 of 2 posts

2. Access and trim removal: You don't have to remove the bumper! Remove the front grill (2 screws at top on lock cover, 2 screws up underneath the bottom grill). Remove the air filter cover screws and prop open with some wood. Each fog light trim is in 2 parts. The outer painted trim is fastened by fragile wedge clips to a black ABS carrier, parts of which you see as the black slots. Keep the painted trim and black carrier as one piece, always resting the painted side downwards on to a towel or when drilling holes. Removing the fog trim can be a pain. In the trunk there's a funny hook tool. In principle you hook this through the small hole in the black cover and pull. If you are lucky, you will hear a click as one wedge clip releases whilst the others stay firm.

I've attached a photo of the carrier showing the position of all 6 wedge locks. Do NOT lever up against the painted molding, you will probably destroy its fragile fixings and require JB Weld! Using a thin blade locate the nearest wedges and push them downwards to release their claws. Work all the way around, holding the circular painted part and pulling helps, but don't force using a tool.

3. Locate a tap connection point in the fusebox for 'ignition on' power: Remove the engine bay fuse box cover. WARNING once the cover is removed there are now exposed high current + 12 volt connections. For safety reasons there are no ground wires inside the cover and the biggest risk is you shorting an uninsulated tool. Now you have to identify a fuse or empty slot which is only powered with ignition on. Make a table of your fusebox with the fuses and values it contains. Do not rely on the glovebox manual - even ElsaWin may not coincide. Using a voltmeter, turn off the ignition and probe each fuse and both blades of empty slots, mark on your table which slots and blades have 12 volts. Those will be 'always on' and the chances are those without voltage will be 'ignition on'. Now turn on the ignition and repeat to confirm which fuses and slots previously 0V are now +12V.

You now make a choice as to which ignition on fuse slot you will use for the DRL power. If the slot is empty, you can use it, although it's worth checking what it would have been used for. On TDi's there are empty fuse slots which would have been used for gasoline ignition etc. If yours is a Highline EOS with all the features, most fuse slots will be filled and your piggy back fuse holder will contain the original fuse plus a 2-3 amp fuse for the DRLs. Locate a fuse which is ignition on and has a fairly high rating 10-20A and is NOT for your steering or ECU. Accessories or wipers could be suitable. Note its number, this will be your DRL tap point. Now I would advise disconnecting the battery (have radio code ready) because you will be using metal tools around the fuse box which has very high current terminal connections. If you want to take chances, it is your call!

4. Parking light tap: The orange control unit wire must be connected to the parking light. On my TDi the bundle of wires for the headlight is easy to get to at the top left front of the engine bay. I stripped back 25mm of their loom tape to expose the wire bundle. Which wire? On my EOS the parking lamp is Gray/Black, but test with a pin and voltmeter you get 12 volts when the side lights are lit. I made a sleeved solder tap then repaired the loom cover with cloth loom tape.

5. Make the control unit 'L' shaped bracket and check it fits the corner screw on the airbox cover.

6. Make 4 plastic wedges which will kick up the bottom long edge of each unit 5mm.

7. Remove parts of the kit you don't need. a) On each drl, cut off the 2 pin power connector, leaving about 50mm of wire to re-splice, then pull the sleeve off and keep. Cut off their inline fuse holder. Cut off their terminal on the black wire. Discard their spring fixing bracket. Discard most of their fittings, except tywraps.

8. Using my template as a guide for drilling the top slot or make your own, locate it on the back and mark the drilling points with a sharp point. The template can be reversed, check it is the right way around, in the top slot and mark the correct location for the wires. Place the correct lamp on the front and check the marks are correct before drilling. Drill the 3 holes 5.5mm, pass the power wires though and seal the hole with silicone. Repeat for the second lamp. I cannot stress you must get the correct lamp with the correct moulding both with their top marks to the top and drill the top slot.

9. From my photo, locate where I made a chassis ground, drill and fit a self tapping screw. You will use this instead of attaching wires to the battery post.

10. My fusebox had a spare unused section at one end where I was able to drill a hole in the corner and bring in the DRL power wire. If your fusebox is packed with wiring you will have to work out how best to do it. Drill the hole.

11. Philips supply plenty of wire and sleeve. Start with the longest run right side. I rested the fog surround on a towel on the ground just in front of the fender on the basis I wanted sufficient length to be able to drop the front plastics down without pulling out the DRL wires. Test run the right side wire across the front behind the grill and hidden. Allow an extra foot to the control box and cut to length. Shorten and replace the sleeve, then solder splice back their 2 pin connector. Repeat for the left side DRL.

12. Control Box: Remove the blue wire from its single sleeve and thread it through the sleeve containing the red and black wire. You will be joining the blue wire to the black wire. Their wire is pretty thin and I didn't like using it for the fusebox and ground connections. I solder spliced on short lengths of thicker wire. You will need to fiddle with the length of wire wire and sleeve coming from the control box for neatness. Adjust the length of the orange parking lamp tap wire and connect it with solder and sleeve over.

13. Thread the new thicker red supply wire from the bottom to inside the fuse box. Solder and sleeve to the piggyback fuse holder and fit in the correct slot. GOTCHA: The piggy back fuse holders can be fitted in a fuse slot either way around. The blade furthest from the wire exit should be the supply input side but you cannot easily tell which that is. If the fuse slot is empty the blade furthest from the wire will go into the slot you previously measured as switched 12V. If you already have a fuse fitted you will have to remove it, turn on the ignition then test which blade measures 12V. Hopefully after replacing the original fuse there will be no fault codes!

14. Final Testing: Refit the fusebox cover and reconnect the battery, turn on ignition, both DRLs should be on. Turn on side lights, DRLs should be off. Turn off side lights then ignition. DRLs should go off after about 2-3 seconds which is the CAN bus delay for ignition switched items. Refit both fog panels pushing hard around the outside edge until you get positive clicks as the claws engage. Remember to peel off the plastic protector films on each lamp. Park your EOS on a straight road with the engine running and somebody in the driving seat. Now walk in front at various distances. Your older EOS now looks like a newer model, whilst still keeping the classic front lines. Close to or with binocculars you may see the yellow of the led substrate, now you know you are looking straight down its throat! Safe daylight driving - Vox.
.
 

Attachments

#26 ·
Vox.... A very comprehensive and useful post.... Unfortunately I didn't think to read it before fitting mine. I've taken a broadly similar approach with the following key differences. I mounted the lighting units at the bottom of the top slot so that I can gain access to the towing eye. Although I hope never to have to use it!
I mounted the control unit directly to the air filter cover without breaching the air tight seal and I wired directly to the battery connections. The photo showing this is before I tucked the wire neatly around the battery and top fuse box casings. I also tapped into the Dipped Beam headlamp in place of the parking lamp connection. This gives me the option of running the DRLs with the side lights / fog lamps on.... What I haven't done and need to is to modify the angle of the LEDs as they do point downwards a little too much.




 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top