I've been wanting to adjust the behavior of the front headlight units since I got my car. I finally completed exactly the necessary circuit modifications I was looking for.

For starters, the side marker lights will behave exactly like the front blinkers used to. They will be off even when the headlights are on though. The will blink with hazards, blinkers, and the remote locking.

The stock blinkers are the DRLs now. They are on whenever the car is on. They blink off when the side marker (now blinkers) blink on. The effect is that when blinkers or hazards are on, the two lights alternate blinking, acting as a blinker to traffic to your side as well as in front of you. I've always thought the car needed side blinkers in front.

Initially, I was going to just swap the wiring to the two lights, but that would require turning on the parking lights while driving, which dims the interior lighting, like the clock. That would annoy me a lot during the day.

Then, I was going to just leave the side markers the same and make the front lights go on with the car and blink off when normally they'd blink off. That would take them out of the loop blinking with the remote, which is a minor point, but annoying nonetheless. So I considered making sure they'd blink on when the car was off and blink off when the car was on, but the configuration of relays to do this was very complex and I kept creating ground loops and other problems (not to mention burning out fuses like nobody's business...).

My final solution requires only one relay per side and eliminates the need for resistor packs and diodes and creates much less of a headache in general.

Anyway, there's a pic in my profile of my car with the DRLs on in case anyone's curious.
-N

 

Wow, you just blew my mind.

way to go

 

So would you mind sharing the wiring technique?
I like the idea of having them on whenever the car is on.
I kind a have a similar setup on my other car using city lights. It has small bulbs and draw very little current so what I did was just tap + wire to one of the unused fuse slots in the engine bay. I picked the one that comes on when the ignition switch is turned on.

 

Sure... I used a single standard automotive relay on each side. Bosch 0 332 209 150. It's a 5pin 12V automotive relay - probably made by a thousand different places. I know lots are only 4 pins, which is fine as long as the relay is normally "connected" or "closed."

I also ran a wire from the cab to get ignition power (I couldn't find any leads for ignition switched power under the hood.) I also needed a ground point on each side, but that was essentially accomplished by loosening the nearest chassis bolt to each light and tightening it on a ground wire.

I cut the wires that normally control the side markers and taped off those wires, as they weren't necessary anymore. Then I cut connected the blinker's wires and led them to the side marker lights.

The relay takes a lead off the positive (pin 85) and negative (pin 86) blinker signals that have been rerouted to the side lights. Those connect to the two sides of the inductor on the relay. Then, the ignition-switched power wire is connected to the input (pin 30) on the relay. The output of the relay (pin 87) is connected to the positive wire on the front light. The ground wire is connected to the negative on the light. Repeat for each side and you're done. Pin 87A on the relay is left with no connection.

Since I imagine a lot of people may not know how a relay works persay, I'll describe the words I used above to describe it. A relay is a physical switch that is pushed/pulled by electrical current. There are two pins (pin 85 and 86) to the relay on each side of the inductor. When current carries between those two pins (which are connected to the blinker, so when the blinker switches on), the relay kicks in and pulls the switch.

The switch connects 2 of the other 3 pins. The input pin (pin 30 ignition power) is connected to the positive on the light (pin 87) normally. When the blinker signal triggers the inductor, the inductor pulls the switch and connects the ignition power and the other pin (87A, which isn't connected to anything). So the front light goes off.

I hope the diagram helps... I offer it as help, but if you're uncomfortable with electronics, you may want to ask a friend to help and buy some extra fuses.
-N

 

Well, you're in Canada, so I'm assuming you have a Canadian Lancer and so already have DRLs. It occurs to me if you didn't realize that, then this would seem totally pointless.
-N

 

Nicely done. Will put that as one of my to do list for my car.

 

Ha ha, I know, but you know how you want what you dont have, and what you have you don't want? yea well thats me

I'm doing kind of the same thing.... kind of.

We already have the DRLs as you well know, but I hate that instead of putting a nice little projecter style light in, they put a FUGLY turn signal, so I'm turning them into hyper white LEDs witha switch running to the interior for optimal on/off use. I'm hoping it will give me a nice hyper white/regular headlight contrast, kind of like a skyline head light.

Then turning the side lights (parking lights?) into the turn signals


Your explanation was just do damn... right on the money and precise, it was mind boggling to read.

 

looks pretty good

 

Thanks for the feedback... Much appreciated...
-N