DRL's added, Phillips LED kit

I like DRL's, especially on a dark truck. In urban traffic, they get the attention of other drivers. Rather than than do the parking light mod with the relays, I opted for a kit made by Philips that took all of 40 minutes to install. These give off a very high intensity light, similar to late model Audis, Mercedes and Porsches. This was extremely easy to install on my 2010 Tacoma, and the lights are very bright.

The Philips kit wires to your battery and splices to your parking lamp (if you want it to turn off when you activate your main lights) and has its own enclosed starter for the lights. They come on automatically when your truck is running and turn off when the engine is stopped. There must be a sensor in the starter box that can tell when the alternator is charging as they won't activate when the key is on...the engine must be running, and yet they power straight off the battery. They're very bright, and very white. Considerably brighter than I was expecting.

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/A...g/Daytime-Running-Lights/?475770060&0&cc5_754

The bad news. You have to order these kits from England. They're not available in the USA. Shipping is expensive (each light kit is about $ 80 British Pounds), shipping is $ 45, but the good news is two kits ship for the price of one, so I ordered two of them. The other one is going on one of my cars, but the install will be more difficult.

I'm sure these are not for everyone, but if you want a high quality drl kit and want to be seen, these will most definitely do the job in style.

Duane C.

 

cool! is there any reason you do not like the OEM blinker DTRL that is only $50?

 

Very clean. I'm not sure they're for me, but I can definitely appreciate the customization. Did you have to cut the grille any to mount them?

 

Just had to clip on of the plastic verticals in the grille bar as the only non-reversible mod.

As to why I didn't want to do the relay mod for the turn signal conversion - I really ordered just one kit to put on my '08 Porsche, but the 45 Brit Pounds shipping was pretty tough, so when they said they'd ship 2 for the price of 1, I figured the 'Taco could have the second kit.

 

So, is this a fairly straight forward wiring procedure? I did the DTRL mod but I like the look of this.

 

Yes, its very easy to do, 40 minutes tops:

1) Trim the vertical plastic support in the grille (I used a hacksaw blade). Its very soft and you can cut through it in just a few strokes.

2) Mount the lamp bracket to the grille using the supplied double stick tape.

3) Slip the lights into the bracket. Clik-fit

4) Mount the starter box using either screws or the supplied double-sided sticky tape. I mounted mine right on the 'shelf' in front of the battery.

5) Clik-Fit the wires from the lamps to the starter leads after routing the wires.

6) Piggy back the orange wire from the started to the driver's sides parking light using the tap-a-line supplied (only if you want the DRL's to turn off when you activate the headlamps, if you want them on all the time you can skip this step)

7) Hook the (+) and (-) wires from the Lamp Starter to the Battery.

8) Zip tie the wires as needed and you're done.

 

Pep Boys carries these now and there is a coupon out there for 25.00 off of every 100 dollars spent, I used mine so I cant find another, but heres one for 20 off http://www.pepboys.com/sale_specials/coupons/20off100_merch_jan13_cp/

total was 199.99 then my 25. coupon left me at 176.18

Very High Quality Product, I got the 8 led not the 4 Led model

 

Followed wiring diagram as its so simple, 1 neg wire to battery 1 pos wire to battery and 1 orange wire to be tapped onto parking light harness as instructed.

They dim when headlights are turned on which is correct, but they won't shut off even with the key out of ignition?

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

If you have the + and - directly to the battery, of course they will always be lit! Haven't seen the wiring diagram, but sounds like you need some sort of power source that is switched on when the truck is running.

 

Your correct, that's what the 3rd orange wire is for, it splices into the blinker, side marker or running lights and when you turn your headlights on the LEDs dim to make it legal to drive at night, mine do this but they do not turn off when you turn headlights off and or turn off the ignition and pull key out, they are still on, I followed directions to the T.

 

No, the third wire is a dimmer wire (and it obviously works if its dimming the lights when your headlights are on). I'm saying that if the pwr and gnd wire are hooked directly to the battery, the lights will always be on. You need to find a power source that is off when the truck is off and on when the truck is on if there is only a pwr/gnd wires

 

http://www.daylight-led.com/daylight/manual.pdf

Here's the manual, I have the three wire module not the 4 wire module kit
Is there something I'm missing?
Thanks for the input

 

ok. if you wire the LEDs directly to the battery they will always have power. in order for them to be off when you shut the truck down, you need a switched relay. search google if you want a long explanation, but basically this relay (control box in diagram) is wired directly to the batteries pwr and gnd, BUT it has to be activated in order for it to flow electricity. this is where the white wire that is connected into the "ACC pole (+)" is the diagram comes in. so if you are looking at the wiring diagram you reference...the LEDs are attached directly to the battery pwr/gnd. they are also hooked to the headlight circuit to dim it...BUT there is also that white wire that is hooked to the ACC pole that goes to the control box. in order for the electricity to flow from the battery +, the ACC pole has to have power as well. relays make a clicking sound when they are activated, which is why the diagram has that "click" by the 4. hopefully all this rambling makes sense.

since you got the 3 wire setup, you do NOT have this control box, so therefore you did not wire it up exactly like the diagram. you need to either add a relay, or hook the LEDs up to a switch that you turn on whenever you want the LEDs on.

 

ok, slight correction after reading a Amazon review:

The lights function by sensing change in battery load and automatically turn on. When the module senses the battery is in a steady state the lights turn off after ~10 seconds. This works well enough, but has some quirks. My car has delayed-off dome lights. So when I open the door and trigger the dome lights, the module senses the current and the DRLs turn on (no key in ignition). Not quite 10 seconds later the DRLs turn off (meanwhile my dome lights are still on). Then when my dome lights turn off, the module senses another change and turns the DRLs on again for 10 seconds. So while this could seem like a fancy convenience function of the DRLs, it is the consequence of the simplified hookup design. I do not find this objectionable except when the battery is connected to a charger that is cycling on and off and the lights are turning on/off as well. Personally I would have preferred wiring them to the ignition or the option to. As is when I approach the car and unlock the doors with my remote, the DRLs come on and help locate the car as well as illuminate the walk toward it - not a bad thing.

i guess everything is controlled and is meant to only hook up w/ the pwr/gnd directly to the battery. i have always done stuff w/ relays, so this is the reason for my previous post. also, this is what your attached diagram showed as well. so according to this amazon dude, you have to wait 10-20 sec for the lights to go off. did you wait this long?

 

Okay, the orange wire goes to the red wire with white stripe that goes to the socket of the headlamp,

When you start the truck the LEDs come on full bright for daytime driving
When you turn on the parking and or headlights they dim so night driving doesn't piss off anybody, they are bright!!!!!

When you turn off the lights they go back to full bright
When you turn off the ignition, they stay on for 5 seconds then they go off

Problem solved, thanks for your input as well, very helpful
I spoke to mike at Phillips about this and they are working on better USA directions as its a European product. Thank you guys, ill post pics

 

glad you got it all sorted out! i think electrical stuff is a pain..you cant see it! at least w/ suspension or other stuff, you can see if you are missing a bolt or screw!

FYI, the 4 LED module can be had on Amazon for like $85 and the 8 LED module can be had for $175. might even be better than pep boys if you live in a state w no sales tax for amazon!

cant wait for pics, very interested in this.

 

I wonder if these could be mounted in place of the trim piece under the headlight? Looks like not quite according to the pics above, just a bit fat.

 

dont think so. iirc, the lower part of the headlight is directly behind that pice, therefore there would not be enough clearance to mount this flush. now, you could mount it, but it would protrude out from the trim piece. if i still had my taco, i would start looking into mounting this unit inside the headlight, maybe cutting out the back of the headlight for the cooling fins?! there seems to be a ton of potential for this!

 

I started there in that spot, not enough room.....
Make sure to route the wires on things that are stationary so you can still get your grill off and such, major pain to zip tie the wires to things as its very tight in there. It would be awesome if the lights had a quick disconnect into them but the connectors are at the other end near the battery, so when I go to take off my grill I have to try and pry out the lights or undo all the zip ties and start over, they snap into the holders very a easy but they do not snap out as easy!

Thanks for the help and words, very appreciative of this forum