New DRL headlights, need help ASAP

[bumblebee]

I wouldn't be surprised if the traffic branch have far greater issues to be concerned about

[powermad]

Seems to be the case, given the very high number of vehicles driving in a clear Adelaide day with their fog lights on. And it's reasonably obvious too

[bumblebee]

I see it every day in north qld also

[burfadel]

They were looking at making it compulsory to have the lights on during the day, at least for rural highway driving. Although it's not law, it's not a bad idea especially with darker colours or those that blend in with the countryside or sky. I doubt you got fined for driving with your foglights on, especially if doing so for safety reasons. However, the DRL's should automatically be switched off when the headlights are activated, and in poor light conditions the normal headlights should be used anyway.

[Quismiff]

I think I've figured out how they get around it. Legislation calls that park lights don't emit more than 7 watts of power, and DRLs no more than 25w. Looking at the bosses VW Amarok, when park lights are on the DRL strip in the headlight is very dull, much like ReeceCozaas' CF lancer, and when the ignition is on and no headlights are on the DRLs are at full brightness. So I would say they have dodged around it by lowering the output of the DRL for the park light function (and removing a park light bulb as earlier mentioned) while the headlights are on, it doesn't excuse aftermarket fitments of course where this would not be an option. So it is possible that the traffic division just can't be bothered with a lux meter on the side of the highway at 10pm which can be harder to read than a DB meter for that hoons exhaust...

It could also explain Reece why your DRLs are dim, as they most likely share a circuit with your headlights, if you can find that circuit you could probably isolate the DRLs and get them back to full brightness while headlights are on, or the DRL in the headlight is on at least.

[ReeceCozaa]

i’ve been wanting to get them fixed for while but it’s always been put to the back off my mind, when i get to it i’ll defs report back to everyone how it went, got my cousin to see what he could do to see if a relay would help, he wrote up a diagram which looked like spanish to me, said if the diagram is like this on the stock headlight layout he can easily fix it

[bumblebee]

Ah ha
Now theres some good info in the posts
Cheers

[Mooman]

Quality isn't great but these circuit diagrams might help, not sure how much the CF differs (This is for a 2008 so wire colours may have changed or even plugs etc.) but may lead to a solution.

DRL LED is right at the bottom, controlled by a CPU. Older DRL's replaced the fog lights and used relays and fuse locations set aside for them so the CF with factory DRL and fog lights will probably be completely different but may at least give a ball park area to look at.

[ReeceCozaa]

you are a legend mooman, sent these to my cousin which happens to be a sparky, said should be relatively easy to fix the headlight issue, it may be a relay fix or running them parallel, i really suck when it comes to eletrical but he said he’d have a look and fix it if possible, i’ll report back once i get mine done

[rasit.aslim]

Would you be able to take a photo of the headlights turned on, in the sunlight so we can see how bright the DRLs are?

Edit

[ReeceCozaa]

looks great bro! also does any cf owner know if our DRL are meant to dim at all whilst headlights are on, my cousin said from looking at an AEM one the diagram has a relay making it dim it

[Quismiff]

looks great bro! also does any cf owner know if our DRL are meant to dim at all whilst headlights are on, my cousin said from looking at an AEM one the diagram has a relay making it dim it

From best I can tell Reece they are, when the park light circuit is engaged they dim to an equivalent 7W output, so to comply with ADR park light regulations, if they weren't meant to I'd say they would turn off all together with an aftermarket headlamp like yours installed.

Did your factory headlights have a parker bulb in them?

[ReeceCozaa]

hmmmm this is more complex then i thought, mine do have parker’s, tiny little bulb on each corner of the headlights, i never noticed if my DRL dimmed when my stock headlights were on, but that makes more sense, if they do dim a bit to cater for light laws at night time, the problem may be that the new headlights are draining to much from the DRL so they dim quite a lot, shall try fix soon!

[rasit.aslim]

looks great bro! also does any cf owner know if our DRL are meant to dim at all whilst headlights are on, my cousin said from looking at an AEM one the diagram has a relay making it dim it

Cheers bro!! I also noticed something else that dims along with the factory DRL, the touch screen unit screen brightness

When I switch from parker to normal dip, the screen brightness goes down and its easily noticeable too. Dimmed DRL doesn't look too bad but its heaps brighter when undimmed, I'm also looking at getting a relay for it as the dude who installed my lights confirmed that it's definitely the relay.

[ReeceCozaa]

hmmmm, so we need a relay to give both lights full brightness ?