Chuey

Yea, that's also how I'm understanding it. Also the mounting tab in the back of the assembly being shaved off leads me to believe there's no bumper modification needed. However, I would like to have it on whenever the engine is on. So that means going the sidemarker or cig lighter route. I saw a wiring diagram made in paint on the other thread. lol it looked pretty simple. i guess.. lol

Doanster

Just get this harness and don't worry about tapping into the sidemarkers or cig lighter.
I've had it for over a year and no issues whatsoever.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00552...dsc_automotive

dolvio

Can you describe how this is wired in? Also, In Canada we are hooped as our Low Beams are always on.

Chuey

So this will make the LEDs function like true DRLs?

katuga

Even better approach. Wonder if the existing Fog Lights deleted. If so, how did you handle the CANBUS error code?

Doanster

Dolvio/Chuey/Katuga...

Going this route is basically connecting the new DRLs you're thinking about purchasing directly to the battery, thereby bypassing all stock systems and not interferring with anything. The little black box has the caps/diodes to control on/off depending on the key being turned on or not.

Being in Oregon, I have no need for the fog lights, so I left the stock connectors dangling. I put in H7 LEDs and used this harness to provide the DRL funtionality. By not hacking up the stock connectors, this mod is 100% reversible.

Because the stocks fogs are dangling, I get no bulb-out msgs. Actually, I may have gotten it once, but none after that.

Layout is: one pair of postive/negative on the battery side of the black box, then two pairs of wires for each of the fogs. Passenger side pair is shorter, naturally, and the driver's side pair is plenty long to reach. After I buttoned everything up and put the wires inside black split-loom tubing, it all looks completely stock.

katuga

Thanks. I know exactly how your DRL Controller works. It has nothing to do with the car electrical wiring because switching is controlled by input voltage. Thus when the engine runs, the battery get charge up to 13.5V minimal. And the cutoff threshold should be down below 13V when engine is off.

Having said that, what if your battery died and you charge it at home using one of those Rapid Batt Charger or similar. I am guessing DRL will turn on the whole time batt is on charge, right? Please correct me if I misinterpret the theory.

Btw, that is a smart way of eliminating the bulb error code.

Chuey

hmmm.. wait so did you do the LED conversion? The pic is throwing me off. lol

dolvio

I am curious what you did here...? Did you just replace the fog bulbs to H7 LED bulbs? The stock connectors still have the stock blubs in? Can you provide a bit more clarity here...?

Cheers,

Adam

katuga

Yes, but not with LED Bar. He said, he removed the stock fog bulb from the fog light housing and let it hang with the wiring. He then installed a H7 LED in place and utilized the DRL Controller from the link.

I would imagine the under carriage would glow when the stock fog is switch on Unless he concealed the bulbs really good.

Doanster

As Katuga said, I did not do the conversion to the new-style LED bar. I only replaced the stock H7 halogen foglight bulbs with LED units and directly connected them via the harness.
However, I didn't leave the stock halogen bulbs in tact, Katuga. Having a glow coming from the bumper would look kinda weird. Only the stock foglight CONNECTORS are dangling, i.e. there is nothing connected to them. The H7 LED bulbs plug into the foglight carrier as normal and I plugged the harness wires into the back via female spades.

Bottom line, I just wanted DRL functionality for the foglights. Instead of using H7 LEDs I could've just used Sylvania Silverstars or Philips Diamond Vision Plus. I chose the specific LED bulbs because of the layout of each individual diode. Knowing that these bulbs are not meant to provide enough light to illuminate the road, they look very good as DRLs. The pic doesn't do them justice because the camera cannot pickup/discern each LED. In person, the "tower" of LEDs along w/ the star pattern on the end is very distinct.

Back to your guys' topic at hand. If you're going to do the full LED bar conversion, use this harness. Done.

To answer your question about a dead battery, Katuga, if you need to rapid-charge, etc., just disconnect the two harness wires from the terminals before charging. Why risk blowing out your DRLs? Done.

katuga

hmmmm...and NO error code? Are you suggesting newer W204 models will not throw an error either? Just curious!

Absolutely! Just expect DRL to illuminate when batt is on charge.

Doanster

For my '09, I've only gotten an error msg one time, that's it.
I cannot speak/vouch for any other model year, but I do believe the msgs are based on the load presented when a bulb is connected, but burned out vs leaving the circuit open by not having a bulb connected at all.

Easy test for you... completely disconnect one of the tail lamp connectors and see if the car throws msgs for rear parking, brake, and signal lamps being out. That's basically what I did with the foglights.

dolvio

Okay, I have a better understanding of this black box now. So this is going to have to work in conjunction with the resistor boxes and wiring that come with the LED's. Couple Questions:

1) So it does work off the battery voltage. When car on lights on, when car off, lights off?

2)Is there a better place to wire this other than the battery?

3) how are there not "bulb out" error codes from leaving Fog Light bulbs out..?

dolvio

The reason you are probably not getting a code is because no voltage is going to the fog's. Go and try turning them on... bam, error code.

Adam

katuga

No disrespect but can you elaborate this statement? I kinda do not understand what you're trying to imply here, sorry!

katuga

I will not speculate but AFAIK, the ECU performs a quick bulb check each time the engine is started. You'll get an error, regardless.

Yes

Recommended, unless you're willing to run wire. Either way, you must install fuse for safety reason. I bet you've seen cars went up in smoke.

Ditto.

Chuey

hmm.. this thread is making me a bit more confident that this mod could work.. So if I'm understaind this correctly, we are to use the relay switch to gain full DRL functionality and the capacitors to eliminate the flickering issue?

Doanster

You are probably right, but since my intent (and yours as well) was to do away with the fogs and implement DRLs, I will never have a need to turn them on, so will def never get the error msgs.

You guys are making this more difficult than it needs to be, IMO.
Worry first about the actual LED bar conversion, then decide whether you want to manually wire/tap into the sidemarkers/cig lighter. If you don't want to go that route, drop the $30 and get this harness, if for nothing more than just an experiment. Going straight to the battery is the safest as you're not tapping into anything and it provides 100% reversibility. This is akin to wiring up an amp for a sub. You should go directly to the battery vs trying to tap into the +12V in the trunk...

dolvio

Actually this now has me thinking you would not need resistors that come with the LED's... Those would be used if they were wired into the cars electrical system. What we are discussing above is adding an external light source off the battery itself... hmm...

Doanster

If you use the harness, there is no flickering nor need for a capacitor because you're going directly to the battery. Flickering happens if you tap into the existing car circuits.

Sheesh, don't think I've ever posted this much in one day. Hopefully we're done...

katuga

I doubt if the LED Bar will flicker with the Controller since the connections has nothing to do with the car internal wiring system. LED's normally flickers during system ECU bulb check but at fast rate and unnoticeable. Worse case scenario, install the caps.
Like wise, you don't need to install the Load Resistor supplied with the LED Bar. Doing so will put more load into the DRL Controller resulting in premature failure. Dunno know what's the box max load limit.

Hope this helps

dolvio

Thinking more about this, there is no way error codes will not be thrown. My car flips on the Fog lights when I hit the unlock button from the remote. It will detect no bulb and throw a code upon start up. I will maybe try and unplug my fog connector tomorrow and try a few things.

irod

These guys seem to have the full set of instructions for hooking these up to the battery on their auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-daytime-...-/321145861880

katuga

You guys eased my boredom although I'm totally confused on how the MB error codes register in the CIC. Night, night