One mod I am contemplating doing is wiring the little parking light bulbs in the high beam housing to run as always-on daytime running lights with led bulbs. Basically I would need to drill little holes in the back of the headlight housing and solder or tap the parking light wires into a DRL always-on module. The main issue with this is where would I string the wire back to the battery area? My instinct would be to go along the top of the radiator with a wire housing, but I'm not sure if that would be a good place with the heat. Where to people typically run wires to the battery? Also what do you think of using the high beam parking lights as DRLs? I think it would look kind of cool but it would require like the brightest LED bulb you could buy. I only have the 5-smd LED bulbs in there right now and at night they are just a slight glow, but fine for parking lights. I found some bright cree bulbs I could use though. I'm just running it by you guys to see what you think. It would be modifying the original look of the car so some of you Jaguar purists might be against it, but I think it would be pretty cool looking as long as I could wire up the wires in a safe location and make sure it's soldered well. I think it would look pretty badass, what do you think?

It would look sort of like this during the day:

 

By law you cannot have DRLs on while head lights are on at the same time , so you have to tap into your parking lights for connection and run it threw a relay so your DRLs turn off when your lights are on . If you want the best led go to Hella lights they have the brightest you can get, also they have a wireing D. showing how to wire your DRLs .sorry I can't help with where to run your wires ,different car to mine. Bernie.

 

True but in this case the daytime running lights would just become the parking lights at night when the headlights were on Bright parking lights but still parking lights none-the-less. Plus in Canada they are probably a little more strict about the law because DRLs are mandatory on every car. In America people get away with all kinds of stupid mods to their cars, pitch black windows, Black tinted taillights, blinding xenon lights in headlights and foglights designed for halogens, ridiculously loud exhausts... I'm not saying you will get away with all that stuff forever here, but I'm just saying in comparison I don't think having the front parking light bulbs on during the day would raise any real concern.

 

04xtype04, you can do this mod fairly easily. You would need to tap 1 source of power off of the #4 pin for the DIP/low beam relay and then you would need to add another relay to act as an auto on/off switch so the DRLs know when the car is on or off. That way, you meet all the laws and the wiring would be fairly simple. If you need me to go into more detail, let me know. Making a diagram for you to wire to would be pretty straight forward. All the points you need are inside the engine bay. So, no need to run wiring through the firewall.

 

I see what you're saying but since it's just the parking lights that are going to be on, I really don't think it would matter. If I were installing some of those aftermarket LED bar running lights, then I would think about wiring them to turn off at night. For the most part I don't think the police would really care even with those, LED running lights are so common on cars now even at night I don't think people would notice. You might eventually get a warning for having aftermarket running lights on at night, but for the most part I don't think they would mind as long as they aren't blue or green or anything stupid. I guess they might be kind of distracting at night though, but worse in my opinion is people who drive around with their headlights and foglights both on for no reason, blinding on coming traffic. All I am talking about doing is wiring the front parking lights to be always on during the day. At night they're supposed to be on anyway, so I really don't think you're doing any harm other than making the car more visible and safer in the day when the headlights aren't on.

 

How do fog lights blind people? They are placed low, aimed low, and aren't very bright. That's what makes them fog lights. Light scatters in fog making it even harder to see if you had your brights on during heavy fog. That's why fog lights are... fog lights. Your talking about replacing a very dim parking lamp with a really bright light, and not going to bother setting it up to work like a proper drl should so it turns off when you turn the headlights on, how is that better than driving with headlights and fog lights on.


And I dont mean to sound like an *******, it comes out naturally sometimes, but it seems like every time someone gives you advice on the proper way to do something you look for a short cut. That's just asking for trouble down the line. Do it right the first time, or don't do it at all, other wise you'll be going back and fixings "mods" you made later down the road and wasting money one way or another.

 

justin, I don't know about other parts of the US, but I have seen some people in the area that I am in put 50W HIDs into their fog lights. It is very obvious which people have done that. Granted, these are also the people that seem to think 50W HIDs in the headlights are OK also. I have also seen where some people have replaced their fog lights with something more of a driving light which projects the light more like a headlight. So, they have essentially 4 headlights on at all times. All in the name of them seeing better.

 

Well that's a whole different problem, people who think they need to harness a star in every light that points forward in their car. I can understand doing that with the brights, but its just obnoxious in any other headlights. Around here there are a lot of lifted trucks with really bright hid lights, in the city... typically behind me, you know, in case I wanted to read whilst driving.

 

I put 35w 8000k hid's in the fog lights and low beams and LED bulbs in the DRL's and it all works well together. It's basically 4 headlights at once. I like it.

 

What I'm saying is a lot of trucks around here seem to think it's "cool" to put HID kits in their halogen headlights AND foglights and run them both at the same time to show how "cool" they are (Both of which aren't designed for the brightness of the HID light). Basically you are blinded by a wall of blaring blueish xenon light for 2 miles as the car approaches you. The best thing to do is slow down and stare towards the side of the road til they pass you. Basically the most obnoxious thing ever. As if one set of HID headlights in their halogen housings weren't bad enough, they seem to think two sets of halogen upgraded xenon lights will make them even more awesomer. It's great that they can see the road for 5 miles, but it also makes it extremely difficult to drive on the same road as them. That's why now if I do a xenon upgrade, I put in projector lenses as well. The halogen housings on most cars just aren't made for xenon lights. People think putting in xenon bulbs makes them look "Euro" but it doesn't. It makes them look like a cheap piece of sh*t that didn't take the extra time to get projectors and do it the right way. *End Rant*