LED DRL / Fog lights

I posted this in the Aus section a little while ago, but thought I'd post here too.

I bought some of these 18 SMD 'Xenon White' LED 'bulbs' to try in the the fog / DRLs, along with some matching LED parkers.


Install was a simple 'plug in', but initially the car detected both sets of LEDs as lights 'not working'
In the case of the parkers, the lights are shut down a couple of seconds after the f'ault' is detected (note that the Aus spec cars don't have the side markers). The fogs stay on, but the light warning light remains on too.

Both were fixed with the addition of resistors in parallel with the bulbs. The resistors are sized to create a similar load to the original bulbs being replaced, and everything works properly once the resistors are installed.

Its pretty hard to get a pic that shows what they look like, but I’m pretty happy with the look.

They do bugger all in terms of casting any usable light in front of the car to drive by, but they are very ‘visible’ to others (if that makes sense) and not only from straight in front, these LEDs seem work OK with the reflector to still be very visible from a fair angle too.

Anyway, here’s a couple of pics to try and give you some idea what they look like.

There's no editing on the pics, the first one makes them look possibly a bit brighter than they actually are to they eye.

Very nice. They are very attention getting..good as DRLs for sure.

What type of resistor do you need to wire in to get this working? and where do u wire the resistor?

That's pretty kick ass!

POLARBEAR666 said:

What type of resistor do you need to wire in to get this working? and where do u wire the resistor?

Click to expand...

For the parkers, there only small 10 W resistors that you can get from Jaycar etc. for just a couple of bucks. I can't recall now, I tried a couple to find highest resistance that would trick the error sensor, I think I ended up using around 47 ohm (Don't quote me I'd have to check)

For the fogs I used 50W 5.6 omh resistors. They get fairly hot because your simulating a 40W bulb, so you need to mount them somewhere suitable (I put mine on a heat sink behind my open fog grill)

In both cases you just wire them in parallel the bulb, don't even need to cut the wires, just splice in a join and put the resistor in parallel.

I actually have 2 spare of the 50W 5.6 omh resistors. If you interested in them let me know.

Thanks for the info

"I both cases you just wire them in parallel the bulb, don't even need to cut the wires, just splice in a join and put the resistor in parallel."

When you say parallel. Do you mean that the power wire goes into the resistor and then out and into the lightbulb?

looks sick
what kinda leds?

scratch that ^

Like this

Do you happen to know what color temperature the LEDs are? They look like 8000K.

Can you get a shot of how much light it actually puts on the ground, I have seen these before and thought about getting them for the projector fogs i have. By the looks of it it may work better in projectors.

Sorry not sure what colour temp spec is. I checked the packet but its not specified.

re. light on the ground - Not much, certainly less than half that of the standard halogens.
As above they are good for being visible, but not for light to drive by.

dumb question... your DRLs run off the high beams? my DRLs trigger the low beam/HID lights... did i miss something? :help:

I think US spec is different to Aus/Euro spec.
Aus Fog/DRL can be switched independantly of headlights

If you actually look at the pictures the OP provided, you can clearly see he does NOT have the OEM Bi-Xenon lights, but the darkened dual Halogen units. The blue light you see in the high beam is the Halogen lamp's City Light. The B-Xenons have the City Light under the bi-xenon projector. In other words, no the City Light is not the DRL.