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How to: set up foglights as DRLs

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  • How to: set up foglights as DRLs

    Why would you want to set up your foglights as your DRLs? My main reasoning was for HIDs - running the HIDs as DRLs (at least in the low beams) is apparently bad for them and will toast the DRL fuse anyway.

    I am planning to put HIDs in at some point in the future, but wanted to keep something as DRLs (yes, I'm one of those crazy people who like DRLs). I chose the foglights instead of the high beams, to avoid all that flash-to-pass crap.

    If anyone spots any deficiency in the following, please let me know.

    First, you need to disable your DRLs. You won't need the factory DRLs anymore. Keep the fuse - you can use it later.

    You need the following: 2 automotive relays, an inline fuse holder, and a bunch of wire. You should also get connectors for the relays and a couple loop connectors (for the ground and battery).



    One of the relays must have a pin 87a - there are lots of relays out there that have two pin 87s and those will not work. The other relay can be any old automotive relay (the ones with 2 87s will work)

    The side should be marked like this:



    I got the relay with the 87a at NAPA - seemed overpriced at $11. The other one I bought at Canadian Tire for $5.

    I wired the relays first, then mounted them to a piece of flat aluminum I had lying around.



    I then mounted the aluminum to the power steering fluid cap bracket:



    You will have to wire your relays as follows:



    Basically the first relay controls when the second relay gets power. When the key is turned on, pin 85 gets power and allows power to flow from pin 30 to pin 87.

    The second relay controls when the foglights get power. When there is no power to pin 85, electricity moves from pin 30 to 87a. When the headlights turn on, pin 85 is energized and power to pin 87a is cutoff, shutting off the foglights.

    Note that I wrote "Pin 30 of DRL relay" and "Pin 30 of foglight relay" - this is actually the front, passenger side corner of the relays:



    Just pull out the relays, jam the wire in there, and shove the relay in on top.

    I used the 10amp DRL fuse in my inline fuse holder. which is connected to the battery hookup at the end of the fusebox under the hood.



    I used the existing ground:



    Once it was mounted, I hooked the wires up. This is where I ran into snag #1. None of the fuses or relays under the hood are keyed. All of them appeared to be hot all the time. Since I didn't want the fog lights to be on if the car wasn't running, I had to run a wire to the fusebox in the passenger footwell.

    This is where I ran into snag #2. I could not reach anything by the firewall because of the clutch fluid reservoir. Has anyone with the 6MT installed an aftermarket amp? How did you run your power line to the amp? I would like to know...

    Because the wire I was running is quite small, I just went under the corner of the hood, through the top part of the fender, through the driver side door and then into the dash:





    This is the part that I would like to redo at some point, once I figure out a better route to the other fusebox.

    I hooked this wire up to the HVAC (ign) fuse. I don't remember what number it was but it's easy to find.

    I needed to cut a small portion of the underhood fusebox cover (not the battery cover) to allow the wires to pass through:



    And that's it! The finished product:



    Some things to note:

    Foglights turn on with car. Foglights turn off when headlights come on.

    Can not disable these DRLs using the headlight switch. They will stay on as long the car is on and the headlights are off.

    I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to turn the foglights on with the DRLs on. They would be powered by 2 separate circuits. Any ideas?

    Foglights are on at full intensity with this mod. You could put a resistor in the line from pin 87a to the foglight relay to reduce the light output; I didn't bother.

  • #2
    Can I do the same trick to relay the lights into the highbeams instead? I want that early Alero angry look.

    I was thinking about this when I was thinking about HIDs.
    <-- Gray G6? Click!
    2006 G6 SE V6 3.5L Sedan "Sharon", Stealth Gray Metallic, 1SA+CF5+PCM+PDX - Sold but will not be forgotten... will always have a special place in my heart.
    2006 Solstice 2.4L I4 "Kristin", Shadow Gray Metallic, 1SA+JL9+G80+PCQ+ZQ2+ZQ3
    Life moves fast, don't miss a thing.

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    • #3
      You probably could, except I'm not sure how you would make the flash to pass work. If you don't care about the flash to pass, you could do what I did but tap into pin 30 of the high beam relay instead of the fog light relay.

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