Parking lights as DRLs

Hello people,

I have been searching the forum up & down, and I haven't been able to find an answer to my question... so I've decided to post it here, hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

A couple of years ago, a law was passed in Switzerland making DRLs compulsory. In absence of DRLs, headlights are required to be on.

As you can imagine, the last thing I want is to have the pop-ups on all the time. Instead, I could leave the parking lights switched on, as they go off once I turn off the car.

The issue with that approach, however, is that the dash lights and the tail lights are also on. This is really not necessary during the day.

I was thinking of installing the brightest LED bulbs I can find at superbrightleds.com, and somehow (and this is the question), hack the electrics so that the parking lights are on all the time, without even having to twist the light switch (thus avoiding having the dash & tail lights turned on all the time).

I have seen a few threads talking about the same, but applied to the fog lights. In my case, as explained above, I'd like to use the parking lights as DRLs instead.

Has anyone done this before? If so, what needs to be done? I'm terrible at electrics, but I guess there's always a first time

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Why not just rewire your fog lights to turn on at ignition and run them as DRLs?

 

yup, that is what all 348/355 do here in Canada...

 

Yes, in Canada as well here. Just get the wiring schematic for Canada cars. I'm positive the relay setup is clamped to the side of the fuse box located on the drivers side under the front trunk hood.
I know thus because I noticed after my air conditioning was recharged, right where the relays are,my DRL's didn't come on anymore. I investigated and found the blown had unplugged / relays for more room to work, but installed them backwards. Reversed and they worked again!

 

I just run with my fog lights on all the time but would like to see some rewiring ideas as well.

 

How is that typically done to be Canada legal?

 

Read my post above, a simple relay install., it should have read 'the clown....' not blown lol

 

I just leave the fog light switch on and dont rewire anything. It passed inspection when i imported it.

 

Oh and turn down your dash light dimmer switch. End of problem and comes on with the key.

 

Hi people, thanks a lot for the answers.

The reason for having the parking lights as DRLs instead of the fog lights was because I wanted to keep the fog lights for when it really is foggy, while putting the parking lights to use (which otherwise are never used alone).

In any case, I will check whether the relay installation that you guys have in your Canadian cars is also present in my car. And if that's the case (and changing the wiring to power the parking lights turns out being too much of a work) I might end up using it.

Thanks for the ideas! I'll keep you posted.

 

Hi again people,

I have been able to get some time to investigate and make up my mind about this, and I must say you guys have finally persuaded me to use the fogs as DRLs. Thanks for pointing that out!

I did not know that the fog light housing contained 4 different bulbs:
1. Indicator
2. Fog light
3. Parking light
4. Daytime running light

It was actually the #4 that I did not know about. It was by doing a check on the lights that I realized that one of the corners of the housing was not lighting up despite of having all buttons and switches turned on.

Then I investigated a bit, and it looks like the bulbs on that spot (DRLs) and the fog lights are indeed two different bulbs.

So today, I popped up the fuse box lid with the intention of activating them, but I saw that the relay for the DRLs was already there. Despite of that, the bulbs would not turn on.

I haven't tried to swap the relay with an equivalent one, but I'll certainly try it this weekend. That being said, if swapping the relay doesn't work, and the bulbs turn out to be in working condition... do you have any idea of what else can I check?

Thanks in advance!

 

What you actually have is:

1. Indicator
2. Fog light
3. Parking light
4. Daytime flash

No.4 operates by pulling the lighting stalk on the steering column towards you without having to rotate it first to lift the headlight pods and turn the headlights on.

Instead of the headlight pods lifting and the main beam flashing (which would take too long to be useful as a warning to others on the road), the pods stay down and the daytime flash in the front lower lamp set illuminates.

Try this:

Go out to the car when it's dark and the car is facing a wall, turn the ignition to position two (or start the engine if you want to), do not rotate the light stalk to raise the headlight pods but simply pull the stalk towards you.

You should see the day time flash illuminate.

Hope that all makes sense and helps!


(iPlane: I've PM'd this post to you as well just to make sure you get it okay! - Belts and braces and all that! )

 

Thanks a lot for the explanation and also for the PM! Now it all makes sense!

I read "Daytime" in the manual, and I assumed straight away that they were referring to daytime running lights instead. My bad, should've read the whole thing before posting!

Now I guess I'll just try to find the way to wire the fogs... I rather keep the daytime flash operative then repurposing them as DRLs. Safety comes first!

Thanks for the help once again!

 

Glad to be of help!

As it's the Swiss authorities you're dealing with, just be careful to make sure using the front fogs as DRL's doesn't breach some other regulation there.

 

I give up, DRL in countries that require them, ARE the fog lights, simple relay wired in.

 

It's not quite that simple, DRL's mounted where the fog-lights used to be have a different lens to a fog-light lens to give off a different light pattern.

Depending on your local/national Laws, you could be pulled over by the Police for using fog-lights as DRL's. (whilst it may be unlikely, it cannot be ruled out).

You would also need to be aware that modifying the fog-lights to stay on as DRL's could also possibly fail national vehicle safety checks, hence My comment about checking with a local test station/garage to ensure your car will still pass any tests required.

 

Hi Fernando,

If you want to use the parking lights, you can wire them as shown on the diagram. One relay will be fine for both, left and right.

If you decide to use the fog lights, you need to find their relay(s), disconnect the wire(s) to the relay's pin 85 or 86 (whichever is positive) and bring an ignition switched +12V to the disconnected relay pin.
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I totally agree with your statement, understand your point. I can also see where some confusion can come in with the initial question. Here in Canada, and sure US cars are the same, our 'fog lights' have a clear lens, hence more like a driving light. Maybe that's why ours are used in Canada as DRL's.
I would think asking the authorities making the rules would be your first start, instead of 'trying' to circumvent the laws a bit from the beginning. Just ask what's acceptable and choose your desired choice, if any, and go from there, as each car model may have different options. Example, my 355 uses the 'fog lights' (clear factory lens), yet my Toyota 4Runner uses park lights as acceptable, Ford truck is headlights, Mercedes is headlights etc etc.

 

Wow, thanks a lot to all of you for all the answers! This forum is probably the main reason why I didn't feel intimidated about buying an old Ferrari I knew I could count on you guys in these cases! Thanks again

Anyhow, regarding local regulations, I am afraid that unless I use the pop-up headlights, I won't really be complying with the law.

That's because the DRLs that are used must comply with the euro normative ECE R87. In any other instance, headlights must be used. As you can imagine, since the ECE R87 normative was drafted in 2008, our fogs do not really qualify as legal DRLs.

So wiring the fogs, the parkings or the indicators would really make no difference in the end. That being said, I have the feeling this is not rigorously enforced. As long as I have some lights on, the police won't mess with me (I'm assuming here based on what I see in the road... I'll report back if that's not the case in the end).

Thanks M.Stojanovic for the diagram! I have struggled to find something like that around here... I am quite terrible at working with electrics, since I have absolutely no knowledge (I'm ashamed to confess I can't even use a multimeter). But I see this as an opportunity to learn a bit about it... so let's see what I can do with it! I'll probably give it a shot this or next weekend. I'll let you guys know how everything turned out in the end.

Thanks once again for the help!

 

The Police more than likely will not be that interested in pulling you for having your fog-lights on as DRL's, but if you encounter a real "jobs-worth" doing the MFK test (Swiss version of an MOT/safety inspection), then your car's likely to be banned from the road until they are made legal.

This very topic came up on another motoring website a while ago: Daytime Running Lights - PistonHeads

There was quite a panic in the UK amongst classic car owners when these DRL Laws were brought out as it was thought at first that they would be retrospectively applied to all cars here.

In the end it was decided that the DRL Laws would only apply to vehicles made after the Law was introduced.

 

hmm, i have 91 US 348 and my fog lights doesn't light up by pushing that switch. should they light up just by pressing that switch? or would i need to have other lights on too? i have checked schematics of lighting but it is really confusing. i have 3 bulbs in there, maybe i don't have fog lights at all in there? and why theres 2 filaments on indicator and parking bulbs?

i don't get it

 

Driving lights are no longer required for our cars in canada because they are 15 plus years old.

At least that was what they told me when I registered mine because I did not need to do that.

 

You should talk to Stephan from switzerland. His wedsite is scudingswiss or something like that.
He has a bunch of products and might have allready found a solution. Very nice guy and extremely smart with electronics.

 

Sorry not sure how 348 works Ernie or Bruce would know.

 

I almost got on top of this, what i havent figured out is use of that 21w? Filament in that parking light?