zax123

Hey all,

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that a car of our caliber should have automatic headlights. Not just auto-off, but auto-on as well. So I found a unit from DEI, the 545T, here it is on eBay. It hooks up to your parking light and headlight wires in the steering column, and has a photosensor which sits on top of your dash. It turns the headlights on when it's dark and off when it's light out. Your headlight control knob stays at OFF all the time, but if you want to have your lights on even when it's light out, you can just turn them on.

I did the install today, it took about 1 and a half hours because I take my time and solder all wires (5 in total) and do lotsa testing.

It works great, and it's very cool. I never need to worry about my headlights again.

If you guys wanna do the mod and need any help, let me know.

Rob

Sniper 55

You have any pic's of the photosensor On your Dash So we can get an Idea of what it looks like ??

AAP

Dam ... man ... you have the coolest little mods ... the unit is like $30 ... this is sweet ...

Any chance of doing a write up ... like which wires you tapped ... and where you found the wires ...

and ... PICS PICS PICS!!!

Thanks

skyy406

very cool dude... write a how-to

zax123

OK HOWTO time:

Before I get into this, I unfortunately didn't take pics while I was doing the install. I forgot my camera at home. I did the install in the warehouse where I work... I have a pic of the photosensor though, I'll post that in this thread.

1. Remove steering wheel top-bottom covers (there's three screws and some snaps to do this -- be careful, you can break the snaps)
2. Remove driver's kick panel (there's one screw and a bunch of Honda clips -- probably a thread somewhere with diagrams)
3. You only need to use three of the wires the 545T provides. The red, yellow, black, blue and green one. The blue and green wires come off a three-position harness that plug into the 545T unit and then go to two automotive relays which are included. Cut off the whole relay assembly as you don't need them since our headlights/parking lights are triggered by a ground connection, not +12V.
4. Connect the red wire to ALWAYS ON +12V. You can use the thick white wire at the ignition harness for this.
5. Connect the yellow wire to an ignition switched wire (only +12V when the car is ON). I used a wire from the optional fuse positions I'm using for my PS2/Navi conversion setup. You can use the switched ignition wire on the ignition harness. I'm not sure which one that is. It might be white/black, but don't quote me on that.
6. Connect the black wire to any good ground. Ground is everywhere.
7. In the steering wheel, there's a 12 position plug on the right side of the steering wheel. It plugs in there but comes from the left side of the steering wheel (out of the headlight control post). You connect the blue wire to the red/black wire and the green wire to the black/red wire of that harness. Wish I had pics guys, but I don't. And I don't want to risk taking apart the steering wheel assembly again because I could break those clips.
8. Pass the wire from the photosensor down the side of your dash. You might need to use a solid fish to get it down there. I don't think you need to take off the A-pillar cover, but you might have to. I passed the wire down while installing my Viper 791XV, so I had the A-pillar cover off anyway.
9. You need to open up the 545T with four screws and snip the red wire in there. It's a new daytime running light feature which has your headlights on ALL the time. That sucks in my opinion especially with HIDs.
10. Make sure all wires are soldered solidly. You don't need to cut any oem wires, just remove some shielding and solder directly to the wire.
11. Plug in all harnesses, test the system, and then hide the 545T box somewhere under your dash and secure it with wire ties.
12. You're done!

Here's a pic of the photosensor (it was too dark WITHOUT a flash -- sorry):


If you guys have any questions, let me know!

Rob

Adobeman

Neat mod but I guess I am a member of the "other camp" that doesn't like auto-on lights.
Considering price of bulbs and that the #1 enemy of HIDs is short cycles and re-strikes (re-lighting before cooled down from the last use) I ask the following:
Can you you adjust a delay or some other setting to keep them from coming on each time you start the car in a garage since they will only go out as soon as you pull out ? That adds up to a few hundred un-needed cycles per year.

Burgman

I am also one that does not like auto-on lights since I normally like to turn mine on before it gets dark outside. I guess it is a cool mod if you like that kind of thing.

03CoupeV6

Re-ignition of HIDs when they are hot requires more voltage and is a killer of the bulb. This is why Acura's design of the stock alarm is stupid.. it flashes the HIDs.

HiTEC

When my alarm arms the parking lights flash, not the main HID lights.

MichaelBenz

iTrader: (2)

Mine also....

zax123

My Viper also flashes the parking lights. The unit does not turn on immediately in a garage when you first start the car. It takes about 10-15 seconds to calibrate and then comes on. Enough to get out of a garage. And when turning off, it waits a bit to make sure it really is dark. There is always a delay to make sure there's no unnecessary turning on and turning off.

There's also an override switch which disables the system if you don't want it to go on automatically.

Does anyone actually know the duty cycle of our HIDs? including burn hours and/or number of power-ups/power-downs?

03CoupeV6

I was referring to if the stock alarm is set off.. it will flash the HIDs.

When you arm/disarm it flashes parking lights.

03CoupeV6

HIDs should last about 3000 hours of use. The worst thing for them is to be cycled on and off without cool-down time.

zax123

Just wondering... when you say cool-down time, I guess you mean a time to cool from last use before being turned on AGAIN right? Because, that wouldn't be a problem if coming out of a garage and they turn on while in the garage... because then they'd turn off when coming out into daylight and stay off. Otherwise if it's already dark out, they'd just stay on.

03CoupeV6

HIDs have a "halogen cycle" that requires them to be running for a while to work. Let me explain:

When a HID light is ignited, it vaporizes some of the coating off the electrodes in the capsules. These collect on the capsule, but are removed by this halogen cycle when the lights stay on while you are driving for a while. If the headlights are flashed repeatedly, this causes deposit build-up and if they're not given time for the halogen cycle to work then the deposits build up and can cause hotspots on the capsule, leading to fragility of the bulb, failure of the bulb, or possibly explosion.

If you are going to turn on your HIDs, let them run for a while. The worst thing you can do to them is flash them, igniting them, taking power away, reapplying it, etc. If the auto system you have turns the lights on and off under overpasses or through shade and you notice it doing it frequently, then you may want to consider this mod's potential consequence.

However, if it isn't overly sensitive then it shouldn't be a problem.

zax123

Thanks for the info!

The manual says that it is intelligent about overpasses and that kinda thing. Basically, it waits to make sure it's "dark" or "light" and then does something about it. It kind of acts the same way you would. If you're going through a dark tunnel, you'd be required to turn your lights on, so the system will wait a bit to make sure it stays "dark" and then will turn the lights on. I think this is how auto-headlights work in other cars like Toyotas and Nissans.

ayethetiense

does it turn you rear lights on as well? does it dim the interior lights?

zax123

It's wired directly to the light switch so it does exactly what happens when you turn your headlight switch to ON. So it turns on all parking lights and the headlights. It also displays the little green headlights-on indicator in the instrument panel.

acura911

where did you buy the part from and how much did it cost you and did you ever hear about the dei556t timer &temp remote,and if so how does it work?
.

zax123

I bought the unit on eBay. I think it was about $30. You can search for 545T and you usually get a couple hits. Or google it.

I haven't heard of the 556T timer nope... My remote starter has a built in timer that can start the car and warm it up every couple hours, but I really don't think that's necessary with a new TL.

acura911

i have the Viper 791XV but it doesn't have a built in timer i don't think

zax123

Really? I'm pretty sure that you can set it to start the car every 2 or 3 hours... check your user's manual.

gt1

Zax, nice install!

zax123

Thank you sir! I'm loving it! Never need to worry about headlights anymore.

Tecciztecatl

hmmm...I did not know that, thanks for the info. So I take it that it is not good to "flash" people (alert for cops or to let them out) ... any idea of how much it degrades the life of the HID? I'll have to look into this one a little further ... thanks.

And that is a cool mod, my Sable has it and I kinda miss it ... the photosensor is also small and kinda hidden there in the corner next to the inspection sticker.

Thanks for the post!!!

03CoupeV6

Well I don't think there is any standard decrease in life from doing this, but it's very bad for the bulbs. If you've been doing this regularly your bulbs will likely fail earlier than they should, but that doesn't mean it will be tomorrow or even next year.

maybe people doing this is the reason we see so much HID failure on this board. It isn't because its a common occurence, it's because people don't know how to care for them.

drdamian

i have 2 questions. ---when you say "flash" does that mean actually turning your headlights on and off. or , once they're on, hitting the high beams a couple of times. my other question is what about other cars with auto on headlights equiped with HIDs. are those cars more prone to have their headlights burn out or is there some kind of safety mechanism that stops this.

03CoupeV6

Hitting the high beams in the new TL only moves a shield.. this is harmless.

Flashing is turning them on/off/on/off - this includes pulling back the lever while the lights are off.

There are almost always safety measures built in, but automakers aren't always concerned about HID life. In Acura cars, if the stock alarm is set off (by a break in or by hitting PANIC), the HIDs will be flashed on and off for almost 3 minutes if no one deactivates it. This is poor planning.

bluenoise

I'm a bit torn on this mod for me. On the one hand, it looks like a great way to get automatic headlights, but I'm not sure I want them. My wife's Yukon has them and she loves them. I admit it's pretty cool and she complains that our "fancy Acura" doesn't have them. On the other hand, I tend to drive with my lights on most the time anyway, especially since I need to turn them on when I get to work and into the parking garage. I don't want to turn them on when I get to the garage and then turn them off within a minute or two when I park due to that whole halogen issue.

Speaking of that, though, how long does it take the HID bulb to heat up? I'd think it would be around 10-15 seconds, but that's just a WAG. Before I knew about this issue of bulb life, I used to like that flicking the lever made the lights look like a camera flash bulb and it was a good attention-getter. I've probably knocked about 50% off the life of my bulbs! Now, if I must turn them on for any reason, I try to leave them on for at least a minute just to make sure they get warm. I was not aware of the problem of re-igniting them when they're already hot.

Actuary

Great mod, Montreal Canadian


Now about the HID life, how are other manufactures dealing with it? Do BMW, Lexus, MB has auto lights? I try not to flash at people during the day. If I do, I turn on the light first then flash at them, when they get out of my way, I turn off the light.

I find HID has slow response time when I flash it from off (as it stabilizes it, changing color).

03CoupeV6

It's restriking a hot bulb that is the killer. That requires huge amounts of voltage (more than cold bulbs) and is very hard on them.

cM3go

sweet mod, I will have to look into this!

cM3go

Zax, quick question, when you park the car, and lock it (once) do the headlights still have the same auto-off function like OEM (turn off after 30 seconds, or more if you have that setting in the MID)?

ocwill1

I do not think it is a problem with the HID's and auto on/off.. My wife drives a Nissan Murano with the HID and they are auto on/off, and the RL comes with auto on/off heads.

willlie

RoRi8909

My mom's MDX has the auto feature and when she unlocks it or opens the car and its dark the lights come on before the car is started, and in my TSX when I have the lights switched to on my car does the same.

Will I have the same feature after I install the device? Or does the device only work with the car is started?

Tmerema

Before I get flamed, I do realize how old this thread is. I'm looking at this unit, but I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the wipers on-lights on feature of this module. Does anyone know if this is possible at the wiper stalk? Maybe with diodes to include the intermittant/low/high in the activation? Many thanks in advance to anyone with electrical diagrams of the wiper switch wiring.

MarcoNorthPolo

Starting in 2007 the 3G TL had automatic headlights from the factory, so you could probably get most of the parts needed out of a wrecked TL, or if someone was parting one out. I would prefer that personally over using an aftermarket module. I think you'll still need a wiring diagram though.