Fog Lights as DRL's

Electronic systems, stereo and Holden iQ, wiring, it all goes here....
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

A member who is installing the HID capsules from AU did not want the low beam HID bulbs to be on all the time for DRL's so I think I came up with a solution to use the Fog Lights as DRL's in the WM models. This requires that you have the DRL's activated in the BCM.

The headlight switch sends out a ground when turning on the Fogs and the BCM also sends out a ground to activate DRL's. So the first part is joining those two wires at the BCM . As I found out with the trunk release BCM bypass the BCM does not seem to have an issue with grounds feeding back to it.

The next part is to find J100 (Wire junction 100) and cut it from the Headlight circuit and add a wire to go down to the fogs to power them.

In this situation the DRL Relay acts also as the fog light relay.
imageedit_16_3185055035.gif
imageedit_16_3185055035.gif (129.71 KiB) Viewed 8786 times

J100 is spot 11
J100 DRL Splice.png
J100 DRL Splice.png (516.09 KiB) Viewed 8786 times
So on to open some harnesses and do some testing!!

Thinking it might be easier to grab the wire as it comes off the fuse box plug and leave the harness alone.
Here is the layout of the Underhood Fuse box:
Screenshot 2020-06-18 at 12.35.33 PM.png
Screenshot 2020-06-18 at 12.35.33 PM.png (257.18 KiB) Viewed 8746 times
Looking for X2 66 brown wire
Noticed an Error - X2 Spot 7 the yellow wire coming out of the fuse box is actually on plug X3 not X2 diagram is wrong. Corrected in the Pinout.
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by lastcall190 »

Reminds me of the f-body cars, fogs and DRLs are pretty unmistakable on those.

Interested to see where this goes!

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

Took the brown wire out of the connector at X2 66. Hooked up a test light. Good news. The DRL circuit shuts off the DRL's when the auto lights system commands the headlight on. That's good news. So when you hook them up to the fogs when the auto lights come on the fogs will turn off unless you have the fogs engaged on the switch.

Video Test:
https://youtu.be/HvegCeyXLNY

Here is the spot where you can grab the brown wire from X2 66. A wire would get attached here and run straight down to power the fogs. See if I can find a single cavity connector and terminal to mate up to it.

Steps to getting to brown wire:
Unscrew main battery cable from front of under hood fuse box (13mm socket)
Wrap cable in in non conductive cover as cable is live.
Unscrew the 2 10 mm bolts in center of fuse box to release connector assemblies. (bolts do not come out of fuse box they just keep spinning)
Release the 6 tabs along the outside of the fuse case while lifting up on the top portion of the box till it is free.
X2 will be the large connector on the right as you are looking down on it.
Look for the small cavity numbers imprinted on the back of the connector to find your way to #66 (there is a brown wire with a white stripe right next to #66 in spot 65)
Once you know what area you are in lift up the white secondary terminal lock on the front of the connector that corresponds to the area you need to get to and remove it completely from the connector.
Using a pic push the release away from the side of the terminal while pushing down on the terminal from the top.
Fish it out from the mass of wires and send it out the back of the connector towards the harness.
imageedit_33_7635423620.gif
imageedit_33_7635423620.gif (225.09 KiB) Viewed 8729 times
imageedit_26_8734701612.gif
imageedit_26_8734701612.gif (226.83 KiB) Viewed 8729 times
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
Pursuit
Administration Staff
Posts: 969
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:39 pm
Location: Omaha, NE area

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by Pursuit »

This thread got me thinking. I have the DRL turned off in the BCM and the fog light function turned on. I had already added the correct headlight switch (with fog light option), added the wire from the headlight switch to the BCM and then added the fog light output from the BCM. I just hadn't extended it out to a relay in the engine bay. So, I used the DRL relay in the IP fuse block in the Drivers side kick panel. I removed the BCM DRL input from the relay and inserted the BCM fog light input.
At the under hood fuse block I left the brown wire in the fuse block, EDIT: Removed the X3 #7 yellow wire from the fuse block and inserted one of the same yellow gauge wire from a donor G8 in X3 position 7. I taped the one yellow circuit X3 #7 back against the harness. I spliced that output to my positive fog light wire. It works.

Maurice
Maurice Sheil

mhsheil@gmail.com

2011 Caprice Phantom Black 9C3
2012 Impala 9C1
1995 9C1 Caprice
1996 GMC Sierra C1500
1996 Chevrolet K2500 Extended Cab, long box, 454, 91,000 rust free miles
1974 SJ Grand Prix 455 well optioned with factory moon roof
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

Ah Nice!! Now that's getting much closer to a factory install!!
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

Wait " removed to two yellow wires from the fuse block "

2 yellows? Is not one yellow the Left Low beam feed? Need that!
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
Pursuit
Administration Staff
Posts: 969
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:39 pm
Location: Omaha, NE area

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by Pursuit »

Steve,
Yes, sir! I found that out today when I was tidying things up. DOH!! I put the yellow wire in X3 22 back in its cavity. Everything works well now. Just needed to step away from the car and see both headlights at the same time. My bad... :|

Maurice
Maurice Sheil

mhsheil@gmail.com

2011 Caprice Phantom Black 9C3
2012 Impala 9C1
1995 9C1 Caprice
1996 GMC Sierra C1500
1996 Chevrolet K2500 Extended Cab, long box, 454, 91,000 rust free miles
1974 SJ Grand Prix 455 well optioned with factory moon roof
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

Ah OK though we found yet another error in the GM documentation!

Glad you got it worked out!
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
Yuckydog
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2019 6:51 pm
Location: Holly Springs, GA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by Yuckydog »

Can the eyebrow lights be wired to be used as DRLs?

I saw these at Walmart and thought it might be worth a shot to get these wired up to the eyebrows if those can be used in lieu of the regular headlights.
IMG_2777.JPG
IMG_2777.JPG (2.02 MiB) Viewed 8267 times
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2203
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fog Lights as DRL's

Post by smwalker »

Yuckydog wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:25 am Can the eyebrow lights be wired to be used as DRLs?
Sure anything is possible. But would not want to put to much heat generating bulb in the eyebrow portion of the headlight. I was someone melt the lens with like a 3 watt over size bulb. The factory ones light up pretty bright if you ask me those would be fine for DRLS I think.
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
Post Reply