Hey guys, i have a 99+ with the daytime running lights in the highbeams. I recently installed hids in them since I never use my highbeams, unless to flash other drivers to pass.( My 55w lows and fogs are good enough for woods lol) Problem i am having is that they wont run on drl mode, only on high beam mode. I installed a relay harness so it could use the drl plug as a "switch" but still wont work. What else do i need to do? Thanks in advance.

 

DRL runs the halogen bulbs in lower voltage for a dimmer light output. HID's on the other hand run on high voltage, the ballasts wouldn't be able to supply the voltage needed to make the xenon gas in the bulbs glow if it's only getting low voltage.

 

Don't know if they exist, but if you can find a relay harness that has a switch that operates at a lower voltage that would work, otherwise I can't think of another solution that would work here, as you need 12v to activate the switch on the relay, and like said above the DRL's operate at a lower voltage so the lights are dimmer.

 

Yeahh i just looked into a 5v relay but no dice. I can prob make my own but i dont wanna risk messing things up lol.
Guess ill keep searching, thanks!

 

Take out the HID's and just buy LED bulbs.

 

You totally missed it, what you are saying would result in your highbeams being on when the DRL's normally would, as you can imagine you dont want your highbeams on all the time you would blind everyone on the road, unless they can be pointed down far enough I have no idea if that is possible normally they are pointed like high beams.

you cannot run HID's at half the light output so once you put HID for the highbeam the DRL wont work (Sorry).

the original dual filament bulbs are special and only because they are halogen can they get a lower light output by putting less power through a second filament.

thats why the DRL has a lower voltage and second filament on the bottom which does not produce nearly as much light as the high beam on the top.

you can replace it with an HID and have HID high beams, but to replace it and have the HID work as a DRL only would be an interesting trick to not have it blind everyone on the road, you need a special type of bulb I think.

btw I had a HID kit that was both low and high beams, it works by having a deflector in there when in "low mode" and the deflector moves out of the way in high mode, maybe you could use one of those low/highbeam bulbs in the highbeam housing and set it to run on low all the time? sounds whacky and will probably be a bit blinding still but closest I can brainstorm for doing that.

Good answer, LED is the easiest way to get a good looking DRL solution that will match the HID's but the high beams will be useless.

 

The way those work is by a solenoid on the projector shield that moves the shield up to allow more light through when the high beam circuit is activated. It would require a retrofit as it's not the bulb that does it but a solenoid on the shield itself thats attached to a circuit. He'd have to retrofit a bi-xenon projector into the housing and have the solenoid hooked up to a relay on the high beam circuit with a seperate switched power relay turning on the HID's with the DRL's so he'd still have the same problem of turning them on, unless you're talking about having the low beams operate as bi-xenons, which would still be more trouble than it's worth on these cars, though not impossible.

 

Found the fix! I had to cut off the ground from the oem highbeam plug, and wire in my own chassis ground to the relay. Got the idea from another clublex thread.

Also, this DRLs are exactly that, only used during the day. I wont be blinding anyone in the day, especially 35w hids. I even aimed them down a little to prevent anything. Once it starts getting slightly dark, i turn on my lows and fogs anyway. I have 55w morito hid kits in them both which light up the road in front of me better than any high beams could. Also, they are aimed slightly down as well to make sure no one is ever blinded by my fogs.
Looks great. Im happy.

 

Here are two pics. These are DRLs only. DRLs still turn off automatically when my low beams are turned on.

 

looks pretty bright still but if it works for you then it works for you.