DRL-Fog Light Hack

[pilut2]

Originally Posted by JayG

In Canada, the cars have DRL from the factory

Mine is a US car- I purchased it in North Carolina. No DRL's. I am just leaving my fog lights turned on.

[Bilmar72]

Originally Posted by particlewave

Do you just want the fog lights on at all times when the ignition is on?
If so, pull the headlight switch and connect a jumper wire between the violet wire and the yellow with white stripe wire, which are both on the headlight switch connector (back of switch - do not sever them from the switch, just jump between them).

That will do it on UK cars.

Particlewave you are brilliant. The above works for Australian cars as well. So simple. Thank you.

[Anker]

I have the fog light/DRL hack installed.

You should be aware that in many places the DRL is supposed to turn off when the flasher is turned on if there is less than a certain distance between them. I believe this applies to all US cars.

[Oldcarguy]

Did the DRL/foglight hack today with OPT7 H7 CREE LED Fog Light Bulbs and a toggle on/off switch. Very happy with the result. Some specific items:

- trimmed the hook off of the fuse tap that I used on relay post 86. Rounded the corners of the tap end and fine sanded lightly to ensure a smooth blade, re-bent to fit the relay body and taped the tap to the relay body. Goes in and out like butter and less likely to snag on or distort the relay socket

- used a dual fuse tap on A7 to get power. This insures both the original and new circuits are fused correctly. The fuse tap 'just' fits under the fuse box cover due to A7 being under the 'finger indent'. The cover still snaps securely into place.

- used a 25A toggle switch mounted to the foot well relay shield with 3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener TB3550 so that I could have on/off control of the DRLs when I want it. 25A is overkill with the LEDs, but I wanted the switch to have the same capacity as the circuit.

- used insulated blade connectors for all connections.

Here's a couple of pics (the other fuse tap is for my Valentine 1 and BluTrznlt bluetooth):





I hope this helps to stop the zombies from pulling out in front of me.

[BruceH]

I did mine a few months ago, I don’t know why I waited so long! Easy and it looks great! Sorry though, it doesn’t stop all of the zombies

[Oldcarguy]

Just a quick clarification regarding the ‘OPT7 H7 CREE LED Fog Light Bulbs’ I used to convert my fog lights to DRLs in my earlier post.

The OPT7s seem to be great daytime DRLs but they are terrible fog lights. In fact, IMHO they render the fog light function worthless due to light scatter and they should not be used at night for the same reason (they could blind oncoming drivers). That’s one of the main reasons I installed the on-off switch.

Not a concern for me because my 986 is a fair weather car driven mostly during the day, but could be a major consideration for others.

[soxfan1966]

I got some LED bulbs for my fog lights and already have them installed.

From reading this thread, it looks like there are two ways of doing this.

One is the fuse tap and the other is the wire tap on the two wires coming off the switch.

Do both work on US cars? And are they basically the same thing?

Is there any advantage to either one?

I was leaning towards the wire tap version, but since it's raining here today I want to hold off. So figured it was a good time to start?

[savinor]

I developed the fuse tap and have not looked at the other approach. This mod. is specific to the Boxster. Other vehicle wiring will likely be different.

[Lew]

You might want to raise the new fog lights. They are set to shine low. I raised my LED's up 10 full turns. They look much better set a little higher.

[savinor]

My 2000S fog lights are not adjustable.

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by savinor

My 2000S fog lights are not adjustable.

Yes they are. All 986 headlights are the same and all have adjustable main beams and fog lights.

[soxfan1966]

I just did this - went with the fuse tap version, just seemed a little easier.

Everything is working, just not sure if I have the connection on pin 86 of the relay correct, I have it wrapped around the pin, and the relay does not seem to fit snugly any more - unlike the other end on the fuse which is snug.

I also have some DRL's in addition to the change I made to the fog lights (LEDs). The other DRL I have are synched to the turn signal and are white when the turn signal is off, and orange when the turn signal is on (they flash orange - off - orange... with the turn signal, and when the turn signal is off it goes back to solid while).

Here's a few pics. One of the driver's side with the turn signal off, the other of the passenger side with the turn signal on.

[soxfan1966]

Oh, and I did raise them (or at least I think I did, used my hand to see where the beam was as I turned the adjustment screw). I did reach side 10 turns. Not really sure if it made much of a difference, maybe from further away it does.

[Lew]

I pulled up to my garage door and adjusted the fog lights. Ten turns makes a big difference.

[tonythetiger]

Performed this hack on my 2002 and 2001 booster s.
the hack worked perfectly on both cars, then after a day, on the 2001, DRL stays on all the time with ignition on. The headlights don't toggle the fogs off. 2001 has litronic headlights, but the circuit is identical.
I'm figuring the relay is stuck, yeah?
Anyone else have this?

[gonzzo]

FYI....

Back in the day, I remember I had a small piece of a ziptie wedged behind the headlamp switch knob, it was just wide enough to keep the fogs on as DRL's, I'll have to see if I can do it again now that I have the boxster again.

Hope this helps someone....

[Troy.Boxster]

I tried this hack today but came across a problem. Everything works correctly except the shield solenoid is activated (or not activated, not sure what the normal position is) so my projectors (thanks Fred!) are fully on when I turn the headlights on. Activating the brights doesn't change anything. Flashing the brights turns off the fogs when the headlights are off, so that works as expected. Has anyone with Fred's projectors had a similar experience or otherwise have an idea of what may be causing my problem? I'm assuming this has something to do with how the projectors are wired, but that's a guess.

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by Troy.Boxster

I tried this hack today but came across a problem. Everything works correctly except the shield solenoid is activated (or not activated, not sure what the normal position is) so my projectors (thanks Fred!) are fully on when I turn the headlights on. Activating the brights doesn't change anything. Flashing the brights turns off the fogs when the headlights are off, so that works as expected. Has anyone with Fred's projectors had a similar experience or otherwise have an idea of what may be causing my problem? I'm assuming this has something to do with how the projectors are wired, but that's a guess.

It's because of the low load of the high beam solenoid. If you want it to work properly with the fog lights as DRLs, you'll need to add a load resistor in parallel with the high beam solenoid (the same type of load resistor used to fix LED flashers).

This fools the car into thinking that a normal bulb is in the high beam socket.

[Troy.Boxster]

Originally Posted by particlewave

It's because of the low load of the high beam solenoid. If you want it to work properly with the fog lights as DRLs, you'll need to add a load resistor in parallel with the high beam solenoid (the same type of load resistor used to fix LED flashers).

This fools the car into thinking that a normal bulb is in the high beam socket.

Thanks Charles, you are a rock star! Perhaps I'll just use the LED spars I bought as DRLs and use the fogs as my high-beam flash when I don't have the headlights on.