So it's slow at work today and I got to thinking a bit (which rarely ends well...) and I came up with this.

I have an '08 base TL, and the '07-'08 have been plagued with a DRL system that is to say the least, a pain in the ass.

If you don't want DRL's well then you need to put up with a "DRL" light on your dash if you unplug the bulbs. There's also no other magic plug you can pull like in other cars I've owned where you can disable the DRL's.

The system is under powered, which means any attempt at putting "cool blue" or "hyper white" halogen or xenon type bulbs or anything else eBay claims to be JDM just results in the same crappy yellowish\brown hue.

LED's sounded like a great idea, but you put in the LED bulbs, and there is a mismatch in power, so you get one bright bulb and one dim bulb.

V-LED's came out with a harness to remedy which was actually pretty smart. Split the power from the socket on one side so the output is even, and put a resistor on the other side to trick the car into thinking there is a bulb there, hence no DRL light on the dash.

The latter is the route that I took, however, the system is still under powered, and during the day, you don't see the LED's at all, on an overcast day, you can see light in that space, but it's so under powered that you see the individual dots of the LEDs in the bulb which looks a little odd. At late dusk however, it looks great, so that works for about 25 minutes in that magic time, which I'm ususally either still working at that hour in the winter, or I'm already home from work in the spring and summer, so as you can see, the benefit on this was minimal at best.

Enter my musing...

Has anyone tried thied what I'm about to propose (if this has been discusses before, please stricken this post from your memory, I apologize for wasting brain power and bandwidth...send me the bill).

What if you hook the LED DRL bulbs (or any other bulb in it's place for that matter) directly to a 12V source (the battery sounds like a good idea here) and then wire up a relay so when the DRL sockets kick on, it will allow power to get to the bulbs. To remedy the DRL light on the dash, you would put 2 resistors, one on each socket, to make the car think that you have the DRL's on.


Now, if this sounds like a reasonable idea, I ask that those better versed in electronics step in here and help me with a few of the following questions as my electrical knowledge is existant and enough to get me to wire up some lights, radios and the like, but this is above my grade level:

1. I understand the principal behind a relay and how it works, however I don't know enough about them to pick which is correct for this application. Any input on this?
2. As far as resistors go, I have a resistor that came with the V-LED harness already on one socket, but I can't read it's impedence (I think that's the correct term right? for the ohms?), so what would you all recomend as the proper resistor for this that type of application on each side?


Thanks for reading this novel. I hope I didn't put you all to sleep!

 

Like I said, I'm really bored at work so I figured I'd sharpen up the old MS Paint skills and draw something out as we are all visual creatures.

Please note, I left out all the connections to grounds, this isn't a technical drawing my any means, except to say that it's technically terrible...

 

LOL....epic MS Paint diagram FTW!

 

Anyone? Puhleeeasee?

 

Haha I love the drawing.

I don't know enough about relays to help you but I think just putting resistors on the DRL circuits and unplugging them is a good idea to get rid of the dash light.

Has been burning in my console since the day I got the thing...

 

Yeah, I figure it will all work, my main question if I leave out all the bullshit is:

What relay?
How big of a resistor?

 

This is what I'm thinking of doing which is going to be pretty spendy on my end but probably worth it to me. I know Matt from theretrofitsource.com is making S2000 replica projectors, so instead of dealing with the under powered DRL system, I'm just going to put a projector in it's place with 55w ballasts, which I think will look a lot better than any LED you'd put in there. Just another option you could possibly look at. Just need to find a spot to mount the ballasts.

 

I've been also looking for a solution for this problem. I've been in contact with VLEDs and they do have a solution. The following is an email they sent to me.

Hey Daniel,


We did get that done and found the solution.


We have not yet created a package for this application, but if you want to install it you will need these items:





LED BULB OUT WARNING FIX 25 OHM LOAD RESISTOR KIT
$8.99



V-HIDS 9005 9006 RELAY WIRING HARNESS FOR HID KIT
Relay harness for HID System. Allows direct connection of ballast to battery. Vehicle wiring is only used as a trigger wire. Only one headlight plug is used. Harness has two output plugs for ballasts...
$9.99



V-LEDS 9005 PLUG N' PLAY DRL DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT MODULE
$9.99


If you buy these parts like this you will have to assemble everything yourself. We will have a plug and play in the near future, but no exact date as of yet.


To make this work you need to use the resistors on wiring that plugs into the stock halogen bulb. Then use the DRL module to step up the voltage to trigger the relay in the wiring harness. Then route the wiring harness back to each LED bulb you install.




Regards,
the tech@v-leds.com

 

^ Nice, sounds like thats the easiest and cheapest answer

 

The HID is a good idea, but your headlights already do this. I mean, they are a few inches further out, but the look would be exactly the same.

I'm only here because I like to run my fogs without headlights or DRLs. Color has never been my issue. Current solution is running without a fuse. But that means I have the DRL light issue during the day and no DRLs. And if I'm running fogs without headlights, I have the light. I hate the thought of resistors.

Has anyone just pulled the bulb from the cluster? Probably a pain.

 

That's exactly what I want to do, but I guess they already made a harness for it which makes this way easier. I already have the harness that plugs into the driver side socket and powers both bulbs (http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior-LED/D...01806-1-3.html), an so I was just going to use that since I already have it and add a relay, but for $10, I might as well buy a new harness. The old kit I have already came with an "LED Bulb out Fix" (aka resistor) so I should be all set.

I don't however see why you need the "V-LEDS 9005 PLUG N' PLAY DRL DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT MODULE". Could it be because you need a full 12V to trip the relay?



Well I just ordered the harness. I already have the resistor so I'll let everyone know how this works out!