[REQ] BRZ Halo Lights always on w/ Ignition

[Marcoscrdo]

One thing I wanted to know is that "halo lights, or big "L" lights I call them "sexy lights" for the BRZ anyways, but is there a way to make them brighter or as bright as the day time running lights? Those lights are hard to really see during the day and its like what else are they useful for?

[IloveBaldEagles]

I was going to remove my DRLs, paint its housing black and install a halo ring around the projector and wire it to the DRL. Then said meh. Because of school being a factor.

[Lee358]

Originally Posted by feedbag

Hey, has anyone made it so that the halo lights (or whatever you want to call them) are always on when the car's running?

I'd imagine it's a fairly easy mod but I'm afraid to go off and do it without any guidance -- LEDs can easily be burnt out if you don't give them the proper voltage / amperage, also there's the fact that some of you probably know of some convenient wires to tap in the area, so I thought I'd put a request out there and hope that somebody's done it before :P

You are looking for the black and green wires coming out of the back of your headlight the green is the positive for your led and the black is the negative.

[dsgerbc]

Originally Posted by Flat Black VW

Ill get around to it eventually, pretty low priority for me. Been busy at work lately, but eventually I will do it.

I did try to get to that pin 50 in the diagram I posted. It's on the back side of 'body integrated unit'. Not too hard to get too, but it's kinda cramped in there to try to add wires to the harness.

The pin itself is unused, but I'd need a metal contact core (not sure of the proper term) that goes inside those plastic harness connectors and to which the wires are soldered to. Not sure where to get one that would fit OEM connector. Gonna look around.

[Flat Black VW]

Originally Posted by dsgerbc

I did try to get to that pin 50 in the diagram I posted. It's on the back side of 'body integrated unit'. Not too hard to get too, but it's kinda cramped in there to try to add wires to the harness.

The pin itself is unused, but I'd need a metal contact core (not sure of the proper term) that goes inside those plastic harness connectors and to which the wires are soldered to. Not sure where to get one that would fit OEM connector. Gonna look around.

if you contact @SVXdc he may have a source for the pins.

[dsgerbc]

Originally Posted by Flat Black VW

if you contact @SVXdc he may have a source for the pins.

Thanks, didn't think of that.

[dsgerbc]

Ok, so I finally added a terminal to the OEM connector, and so far it worked as expected: with engine off the halo lights come on when I ground pin 50 pictured above.
So, tomorrow I'm gonna tap some ignition fuse to trigger a relay that would ground that pin whenever ignition is on and make sure this works with engine running.

[Doborder]

Please post results... subscribed!

[dsgerbc]

Ok, it works, but has an unfortunate side effect.
So here's a recap:
1) I added a wire to pin 50 of connector 3A on the back of the 'body integrated unit'.
2) Grounded that wire through an ignition-switched relay (tapped into one of the fuses on the bottom of the 'body integrated unit' for a source of ignition).

Results:
Halo lights (and all other parking markers) come on with ignition, stay on no matter what position the headlight stalk is in. Headlights work.
However, triggering tail relay seems to be what's controlling the dimming feature of the navigation unit in "headlight" mode. So by having halos on navi unit is sent into night mode. Which is really unfortunate (although not unexpected now that I think about it), since navi going into night mode is a major annoyance cause the unit can't seem to read/calculate sunrise/sunset time off the GPS network.

If I pull the fuse in the "panel" line on the diagram above, the navi stays in day mode; so I think if I turn that fuse into a relay that switches on with actual headlights it's gonna be fine. Gonna see if there's a way to do it.

[dsgerbc]

Ok, new plan, 10000000 times easier.
1) Pull the TAIL fuse,
2) Take ignition switched power off the fuse for pass. side bun warmer (not used by me anyway) and route to the exit of the TAIL fuse.

Should do what I want. Will report tonight.

UPD: works as good as one can hope for if one doesn't want to cut into factory wiring. The only drawback - you can't put fuse block cover back on. I might procure a spare cover and make holes in it later.

All you need is two of [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Littelfuse-FHA200BP-ATO-Add-A-Circuit-Kit/dp/B0002BGELQ/ref=pd_bxgy_auto_img_y"]these[/ame] (or even [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-BP-HHH-ATM-Add-A-Fuse/dp/B000GKEXK2/ref=pd_sim_auto_1#productDetails"]these[/ame], can't figure out from the pic if this one has two fuse seats), and three fuses.

Connect wires of both tap-in adapters. Insert two fuses into the adapter that will go into the source of ignition-switched power (I used RH seat warmer). Insert one fuse into the adapter that goes in place of "TAIL". Pick one of the two slots so that there is no connection between the legs (as if original TAIL fuse blown) of the adapter. Don't remember exactly which way should the adapter go into the TAIL fuse, but if you get it wrong your halo lights will be off and your navi will be in night mode all the time. If that happens - rotate the adapter.

If your car blows up while doing this - don't blame me, lol.

UPD: quick picture added.

[dsgerbc]

And not a single fck was given, lol.
Some more notes:
1) It is feasible to separate the tail lights, so that you only get Halos and side-markers come on. To do that - pull terminals 12 and 13 of the 3C connector on the front of the 'body integrated unit' (you're gonna need some very-very thin screwdriver or possibly a needle) and connect them to the wire coming off your source of the ignition (RH seat warmer in my case). You don't need a second adapter in this case and you can leave the TAIL fuse in place.
2) Separating Halos and sidemarkers - I don't know how to do it. They are both fed by the same power wire coming off the 'body integrated unit', which then separates into two and the wiring diagram doesn't label the location of this junction.

[DNAPoPo]

Thanks for looking into all this!

[retrosmiths]

It would be safer to run the halos on clean 12V, so two things: relay and regulator.

I will get more into this later today.

[ssekien]

Thank you guys!

This is something that really bugs me with this car... I would love to have the halos truly act like drls.