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Converting a quad fog into the newer led strip wiring theory
Hey fam,
I've been looking into possibly doing an E63 bumper swap on my car, it would be pretty straightforward if I had any other W212 model except the one I own today - 2010 P1 halogen with the quad fog lights. I have limited knowledge of electrical wiring but I'd be really interested in doing this mod. Here is my theory - I would tap into the DRL light and fog power wires of my current setup and combine the two. Then I would connect the power wire to the power wire of the new led bar after striping it and exposing its wires. And finally, I would strip and connect a ground wire together from the previous light source. I feel if this wiring can be done, I would have a perfect control setup. The DRL power line would power the lights in the day like normal. Then at night, I would manually turn on the 'fog light' switch in my car to also get the same led strip to be powered on at night. Am I making sense to anyone? Could someone with further knowledge guide me in the right direction for this mod? I wouldn't mind splicing a few wires if I could get the new look and functionality. I understand that these aren't great fog lights but I am solely doing it for the looks as I live in Southern California and don't really need a fog light. Could this add an error message to my dash? I wouldn't mind that if it could be removed with STAR. Let me know your thoughts and whether you think it could be done or not. I have seen threads about quad lights to LEDs in the past but I am not sure if anyone ever achieved it. LMK if you've done something similar.
Thanks,
T
This is the bumper I am looking to get.
This is my car right now, iJDMToy LED DRLs and LED Fog lights.
Finally, these are the lights that come with the bumper, that I would be cutting into.
Hey fam,
I've been looking into possibly doing an E63 bumper swap on my car, it would be pretty straightforward if I had any other W212 model except the one I own today - 2010 P1 halogen with the quad fog lights. I have limited knowledge of electrical wiring but I'd be really interested in doing this mod. Here is my theory - I would tap into the DRL light and fog power wires of my current setup and combine the two. Then I would connect the power wire to the power wire of the new led bar after striping it and exposing its wires. And finally, I would strip and connect a ground wire together from the previous light source. I feel if this wiring can be done, I would have a perfect control setup. The DRL power line would power the lights in the day like normal. Then at night, I would manually turn on the 'fog light' switch in my car to also get the same led strip to be powered on at night. Am I making sense to anyone? Could someone with further knowledge guide me in the right direction for this mod? I wouldn't mind splicing a few wires if I could get the new look and functionality. I understand that these aren't great fog lights but I am solely doing it for the looks as I live in Southern California and don't really need a fog light. Could this add an error message to my dash? I wouldn't mind that if it could be removed with STAR. Let me know your thoughts and whether you think it could be done or not. I have seen threads about quad lights to LEDs in the past but I am not sure if anyone ever achieved it. LMK if you've done something similar.
Thanks,
T
This is the bumper I am looking to get.
This is my car right now, iJDMToy LED DRLs and LED Fog lights.
Finally, these are the lights that come with the bumper, that I would be cutting into.
I don’t know with your model year car how the DRLs are programmed to work. I have the hockey stick DRLs and they work such that in daylight they are on 100% but at night when the headlights come on they dim down to 20% or so. They stay on but at a lot lower power so they don’t startle oncoming traffic in dark.
DRLs are in place to make the car VISIBLE TO OTHERS so they are bright and emitt light in all directions they can. At night these lights with full power would not be good to others as they are just as bad as high beams to the oncoming traffic.
As you have the separate fog lights you don’t have the bi-xenon lights like I have. My head lights double as fog lights with the shutter control to keep light beam very low, which you need in foggy conditions.
If you want those LEDs so bad for the looks then look into getting the straight DRLs working with your current power supply and see if it can be programmed to dim down like my car has it. Keep fog light bulbs connected as they currently are, just hide them behind the bumper cover. This way you would not get error messages as with what you explain to do I think your lights would not work.
I don’t know with your model year car how the DRLs are programmed to work.
The DRLs stay on all day until the headlights automatically come on at night, when this happens, I switch over into manual headlight mode and then activate the fog lights (for the look). This is why I want to use both wires for the single light, so I can have full control of the LED Strip, day or night.
Originally Posted by Arrie
I have the hockey stick DRLs and they work such that in daylight they are on 100% but at night when the headlights come on they dim down to 20% or so. They stay on but at a lot lower power so they don’t startle oncoming traffic in dark . DRLs are in place to make the car VISIBLE TO OTHERS so they are bright and emitt light in all directions they can. At night these lights with full power would not be good to others as they are just as bad as high beams to the oncoming traffic.
DRLs mainly came out in recent years for looks so you can differentiate between the different car brands. I get where you are coming from but I don't think it would affect that much if I had them on at night. A lot of people ask for their DRLs to be fixed at 100% from their mechanic. This is also another problem that just arose... I don't know if my car would be able to change brightness so I'm not sure how bright it would be out of the box. But you are right, my S550e DRLs do dim down when the headlights are activated.
Originally Posted by Arrie
If you want those LEDs so bad for the looks then look into getting the straight DRLs working with your current power supply and see if it can be programmed to dim down like my car has it. Keep fog light bulbs connected as they currently are, just hide them behind the bumper cover. This way you would not get error messages as with what you explain to do I think your lights would not work.
Originally Posted by Arrie
I think this is also a viable option... the DRLs would turn off as soon as the headlights come on though. I was thinking T Tap wires (DRL to headlight power) would work in this application but after thinking longer on it, that means it would also power on the headlights in the daytime which I do not want.
Thank you for helping me gain further knowledge. No one responded for days and I thought this was just going to be another lost thread. I am going to keep up on the research and update people on this mod/topic. I want to make it happen.
The DRLs stay on all day until the headlights automatically come on at night, when this happens, I switch over into manual headlight mode and then activate the fog lights (for the look). This is why I want to use both wires for the single light, so I can have full control of the LED Strip, day or night.
DRLs mainly came out in recent years for looks so you can differentiate between the different car brands. I get where you are coming from but I don't think it would affect that much if I had them on at night. A lot of people ask for their DRLs to be fixed at 100% from their mechanic. This is also another problem that just arose... I don't know if my car would be able to change brightness so I'm not sure how bright it would be out of the box. But you are right, my S550e DRLs do dim down when the headlights are activated.
I think this is also a viable option... the DRLs would turn off as soon as the headlights come on though. I was thinking T Tap wires (DRL to headlight power) would work in this application but after thinking longer on it, that means it would also power on the headlights in the daytime which I do not want.
Thank you for helping me gain further knowledge. No one responded for days and I thought this was just going to be another lost thread. I am going to keep up on the research and update people on this mod/topic. I want to make it happen.
Your easiest option would be to get your DRLs to dim down and not to turn 100% off. This way you would have the lights for looks at all time.
Another option could be to use third party DRLs. I used to own a minivan that did no have DRLs. I installed a set of Philips DRLs with 8 LEDs. The lights powered directly from the battery with a sending wire connected to the parking light power.
These DRLs stayed on at full power unless the parking lights came on, which happens when head lights come on. At that time the DRLs dimmed down not to startle on-coming traffic but they stayed on at lower power.
Hey, I’m just checking in if you were ever able to complete this project. I am interested in doing the same thing on my c207 with the dual fog/drl bulbs but wanted to know if wiring in the new leds was possible.
01-05-2019, 03:05 AM
I have limited knowledge of electrical wiring but I'd be really interested in doing this mod. Here is my theory - I would tap into the DRL light and fog power wires of my current setup and combine the two. Then I would connect the power wire to the power wire of the new led bar after striping it and exposing its wires. And finally, I would strip and connect a ground wire together from the previous light source. I feel if this wiring can be done, I would have a perfect control setup. The DRL power line would power the lights in the day like normal. Then at night, I would manually turn on the 'fog light' switch in my car to also get the same led strip to be powered on at night. Am I making sense to anyone? Could someone with further knowledge guide me in the right direction for this mod? I wouldn't mind splicing a few wires if I could get the new look and functionality. I understand that these aren't great fog lights but I am solely doing it for the looks as I live in Southern California and don't really need a fog light. Could this add an error message to my dash? I wouldn't mind that if it could be removed with STAR. Let me know your thoughts and whether you think it could be done or not. I have seen threads about quad lights to LEDs in the past but I am not sure if anyone ever achieved it. LMK if you've done something similar.
