Daytime running lamps

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Mcshadders

Mcshadders

New Member
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12
Location
Wetherby
Hi, I've seen the Twisted Performance vehicles with their led running lamps in front bumper and wanted to recreate my own. Together with an auto switch harness/relay, I've wired them as the diagram, black to battery earth, red to a point that's live when ignition on (cig lighter) and orange into sidelights so they auto switch off when sidelights activated and the remaining two red and two black into drl lamps. They work but blink on then off quite slowly, about 3 secs on and 3 secs off! Any ideas? Doing my head in but not quite ready to throw towel in yet.
 
Without seeing the kit or the wiring diagram, that sounds about right. DRLs are supposed to switch off when the normal side lights are on.

The first thing is to isolate where the fault might be; in the lights or the harness/wiring. Check that the lights themselves work properly when they alone are connected to a 12 volt supply, wire them temporarily across the battery.

If they're OK then start looking at the wiring and the relay. If not then it looks like you're going to have to get them back to the supplier.

The cigarette lighter wiring should be able to power the circuit easily, but it might be worth making sure that your connections to the circuit are secure.
 
Thanks, will try that. Now you mention the headlights, I do remember having a problem about a year ago where there was a poor connection involving main beam which led to headlights turning themselves on and off just as you looked at them (without touching anything) might be that I've knocked something. Cheers.
 
Just had another thought, after testing headlamps and finding all seems ok, it occurred to me that this Landy is '91 and has the dim/dip feature where the headlamps come on dimly when sidelights are on and ignition switched on. Might try to wire into dipped beam and see if it has any effect.
 
Right, tried wiring from several different live feeds and now they still flash slowly when ignition on so tried starting engine and they work just fine! Any ideas? Am told that to leave them like this would be an MOT failure.
 
do you have any calbe lying around? if so, try running them on the end of a long bit of cable, Im wondering if the voltage drop is too great when the engine is off,
Where are you grounding them, with the headlights, or to their own earth? if with the lights, try their own, good earth, it doesnt need much for the earth to be bad on somthing as low current as LEDs.
 
Quick update, tried again direct to battery (earth and live) and they do stay on for a few secs then go out and don't come back on, getting very p o now. Thinking of just getting a relay from motor factors but not sure which one to get. Again, help appreciated.
 
can't help but think the lights themselves must be the prob? if you can't connect them up to the battery directly and get them to work then either: 1 battery is knackered, which I don't think is the case 2 earths aren't good - have you tried earthing them to a bolt that something else u know works is earthed to/battery neg? 3 the lights are dodgy?

circuits are simple, just check each component, wire, switch, relay in isolation until you find the weak link. but bad earths cause a v high % of landy electrical probs

let us know how u get on ;)
 
Was only resting cables on battery terminals to test so not ideal so properly wired them in and now they work only when engine on, and go off when dipped beam on as they should. stay on for about 10 secs after turning off but I can live with that. I think they look great, £3 inc del off eBay for lamps and £12.50 for auto switch off Amazon, couldn't work out how to upload pic so changes avatar instead. All comments welcome.
 
Thanks, I did originally have them wired that way but when I checked the regs it said to go off when dipped beam on. Will check again and change back if required.
 
brian47 said:
Well done on getting them to work properly, however I don't want to pour water on your bonfire, but I thought that DRLs should go off when the side lights, not the dipped headlights are switched on.
Click to expand...

Don't get confused between "Driving lights" which are usually additional forward facing spotlights wired so that they do go off when the dipped headlights are on and "Daylight Running Lights" which as I said, I thought had to switch off when the side lights are on.
 
Just typed in DRL regs into google, Halfords site says sidelights as you say, talk ford site says headlamps and I think it was teoc or similar that had a quote from Halfords saying pre-2011, you can manually switch them off so totally confused now. If I see one of the boys in blue parked up I shall get their take on it and change if I have to mate.
 
Yeah, I see what you mean, most web pages seem to be confused too; one paragraph says sidelights and then the next paragraph down the page says headlights.

The AA says that DRLs should go off when any other lights are turned on and it appears that the only other regs regarding DRLs refer to placement and not causing a nuisance because of dazzle to other road users.

Since fitting DRLs only applies to new vehicles and retro-fitting isn't a legal requirement in the UK, it looks like a case of "owner's common sense" applies.

Meanwhile have a word with your local MoT tester, he's far more likely to know more about it than any plod you might find lurking at the side of the road.

At least you've got them working.
 
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