Quick question re: DRL's

[Riksta]

I still haven't had a chance to even look at putting mine in yet :( Been a busy little beaver in all other aspects of my life other than my car lately!

[roadtrack]

Riksta...funny how priorities interfere with a good project! I look forward to your report..especially on how much of the front needs to be dismantled. Interesting wiring info. from Tom Jones.... Bill

[mas89]

Got mail today,,, my DRL and Grille have made their way from China .was only ordered on the 27/8 and came today , thats dam good service. now to set aside some time to install them.

[ope126]

Mine arrived yesterday, but I collected them today.
They were ordered on Friday, very quick from DHL.

I will be installing on Friday / Saturday...

[mas89]

yes lets the game begin, removing the front bar withoout breaking anything..

[whitetdci]

I take it you all have MC's?

[ope126]

Originally Posted by whitetdci

I take it you all have MC's?

Sure do! The EcoBoost only became available in MC series.

[Riksta]

My install date now looks to be Monday, so those installing on weekend will beat me to it!!!

Pretty much a standard trend mod now for a non-Titanium!

[Greane01]

Originally Posted by Riksta

My install date now looks to be Monday, so those installing on weekend will beat me to it!!!

Pretty much a standard trend mod now for a non-Titanium!

I ordered mine on the 30th...! Got them from a UK seller on ebay for GBP99 plus postage. If they arrive tomorrow or Friday they'll definitely be in by the end of the weekend. I am hoping the gent who has already fitted them gets around to adding some photos/more detail of the install to remove some of the guess-work!

Cheers

[ope126]

So checked out the wiring loom in preperation for the install.

I have two relays and the following wire branches from it;
- Left hand connector (DRL)
- Right hand connector (DRL)
- Yellow Wire (connected to two greens in fuse box – ACC on - ignition)
- Blue Wire (connected to headlight loom, I think it connects to aBrown Wire)
- Black Wire with ring (This would be for ground)

But then I have one extra wire…

It is a Red Wire with a Red 20Amp Fuse Holder and a ring on it.Is this to be connected to the battery? If so, that is wierd as some kits do not have this extra wire.

I thought it would have got power from the ACC on / Ignition.

Any thoughts guys...

[mas89]

Yes mine has 4 wires also black,red yellow & blue. I am going to try red will be power for the relays, black earth, then most probably yellow ign to turn the lights on & blue to dim..was going to look tonight but did the GPS instead.

[Greane01]

Originally Posted by mas89

Yes mine has 4 wires also black,red yellow & blue. I am going to try red will be power for the relays, black earth, then most probably yellow ign to turn the lights on & blue to dim..was going to look tonight but did the GPS instead.

Mine arrived today! One week delivery time from the UK is impressive.

I believe the red wire with the fuse (mine is a 15 amp fuse) goes directly to the positive battery terminal as when the relays are activated, they switch to that power source to power the DRLs. You'll see that the red wire is thicker than the other wires (which are simply driving a relay and don't need to be as thick).

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by mas89

Yes mine has 4 wires also black,red yellow & blue. I am going to try red will be power for the relays, black earth, then most probably yellow ign to turn the lights on & blue to dim..was going to look tonight but did the GPS instead.

This must be a standard for DRL wiring. The kit I used to change the fogs to DRL's for my FG was the same wiring convention, the blue to low beam headlamp, yellow to ignition, red from 12V DC, and black to chassis of course. Not the best to have power from the ignition, which loads up that circuit.

A study of the wiring diagrams is a very good idea to find the best way of connecting them up. Dont know how the Mondeo is, but if it is of any help, with my FG I used power after the EEC relay for the yellow, LH low beam after the fuse for the blue, both were securely plugged into the back of an existing connector in the PDB using modified spade terminals to avoid any tapping or damage to the fragile wires. This way also, all wires were fused and do not affect power to or from the ignition systems.

[Greane01]

I fired up the DRLs to test them before installation:


(click to enlarge)

They're bright - very bright; I can't imagine the OEM DRLs would be any brighter! And yes, when you power the blue wire (i.e. when you switch on your headlights) the DRLs dim.

And here's the wiring loom showing the 2 x relays


I've noticed some of the DRLs on ebay only appear to have one relay: I assume this means that they don't dim when the headlights switch on?

[Greane01]

Ok, I have commenced the install with the hand of my good father!

Front bumper is easier than I thought to remove. You have to remove the plastic tray underneath, push back the wheel arch housings to get to two screws either side (removing the headlights helps here as well). Also pop out the plastic lugs on the plastic cover over the radiator. From here the bumper pops out of the front of the two quarter panels (you'll see the locating lugs when the headlights are removed - see pic)



The plastic blank is clipped in in two places, but just pulls away from the glue everywhere else - see pic (watch fingers with this, you can lose some skin on the sharp plastic edges of the bumper!)

[Greane01]

I have just installed the DRL mounting brackets using Sikaflex Pro. Decided against Liquid Nails as it isn't as flexible, which I thought was important.

Will leave them overnight (and while we have a look at the wiring situation) before installing the actual DRLs.

[ope126]

Thanks for the update and for posting the pics...

I will be doing this over the weekend also.

Glad to hear the bumper is easy enough to remove.

I have purchased some Loctite Automotive Epoxy to secure my grilles on, will see how that goes...

My concern is I am trying to do a really neat / stealth install, so want to make sure all the wiring looms are hidden and / or laid neatly next to factory looms to look OEM.

Quick question, do the front sensors / Active Grille Shutter looms just unplug also, or is there a trick to them?

[Greane01]

Originally Posted by ope126

Thanks for the update and for posting the pics...

I will be doing this over the weekend also.

Glad to hear the bumper is easy enough to remove.

I have purchased some Loctite Automotive Epoxy to secure my grilles on, will see how that goes...

My concern is I am trying to do a really neat / stealth install, so want to make sure all the wiring looms are hidden and / or laid neatly next to factory looms to look OEM.

Quick question, do the front sensors / Active Grille Shutter looms just unplug also, or is there a trick to them?

Hey Ope126 - there was only one plug connecting all of the sensors/fog lights (see photo - loom circled); once this is unplugged the bumper comes off. You don't have to touch the active grille shutter, so no need to unplug anything there:


On the wiring: so far it looks like we'll connect the DRL blue to the violet/green wire (pin 3) at the back of the headlight plug as this appears to be the low beam. This will dim the DRLs when the low beams are switched on (hopefully!)...

We will probably use the headlight loom rather than the fuse box wiring as we're having trouble finding the low beam wire in the fuse box - brown doesn't appear to switch off 12v when the headlights switch off - but we'll test this again tomorrow morning (plus I'll do a bit more research on the web tonight!)...


Then, as posted by others, the DRL yellow will go to the green in the fuse box, the red (with the 15 amp fuse) will bolt onto the existing constant 12v nut in the fuse box (see photo) and the black to an earth!

[Greane01]

This is what a Mk4.5 Mondeo looks like without a front bumper!

I had no idea that it had active radiator shutters - very cool! Also, check out the windscreen washer reservoir (pink fluid to the right of the photo); specifically shaped to fit perfectly and hold a huge amount of fluid!



You can see from the pic where the front bumper screws into each quarter panel, as well as where the bumper locates itself using tabs that go into the car body.

[mas89]

hey greane just pulled my bumper off,, did you see the unused plug on each side with a yellow end , i thought possible drl plug but is only 2 wires. the intercooler is behind those shutters if you what to upgrade it, the focus xr5 fits
i am changing the upper and lower grille aswell so doing two jobs at once

[ope126]

Thanks heaps guys for all the hints and tips!!!
Now for the money question, where are you goes mouniting the Relays?
I really want to have these somewhere hidden.

[Greane01]

Originally Posted by mas89

hey greane just pulled my bumper off,, did you see the unused plug on each side with a yellow end , i thought possible drl plug but is only 2 wires. the intercooler is behind those shutters if you what to upgrade it, the focus xr5 fits
i am changing the upper and lower grille aswell so doing two jobs at once

Didn't see any spare plugs - got any pics?

Haven't gotten to mounting the relays or securing wiring just yet, so not sure where that's all going to go.

[mas89]

I mounted the relay on the beam under the LHS headlight...plenty on cable to go underneath were the other cable's are in the bumper

Sorry no pic on the unknown plugs.

[mas89]

I mounted the relay on the beam under the LHS headlight...plenty on cable to go underneath were the other cable's are in the bumper

Sorry no pic on the unknown plugs.

[Greane01]

Originally Posted by mas89

I mounted the relay on the beam under the LHS headlight...plenty on cable to go underneath were the other cable's are in the bumper

Sorry no pic on the unknown plugs.

Excellent - thanks for that: we're kicking off the second stage of the install now. Will post pics/info shortly.

[Dusty1]

I'm contacting a Mod to see about making this a Sticky and/or placing in the Rech Resources area.

Excellent stuff!

[Greane01]

Project going well, and we're now wiring it up.

Below photos show where we're connecting the red (12V) power, blue (into headlight loom to dim DRL), black (earth) and yellow (into acc/ignition).

I'm not saying the way we've done it is the best - but it seems to work (so far!) and is just one option (especially how we've done the headlight (blue) input).

This is how we've wired things up in the main fuse box (we used a male connector as another forum member suggested to jam into the slot with the two green wires).


This is where we installed the relay:


This is the pass side headlight loom we're using for the blue wire to dim the DRLs - we WERE going to use the violet/green Pin 3, but discovered it's probably the wrong one. After another test this morning, we're going to use Pin 10 (anybody that's already done this agree/disagree?)...


As I said, it's just one way of doing it, not necessarily the most 'OEM' way!

[mas89]

looking good,,, i was just about to say pin 10 not pin 3. my relay system must be different to yours,my blue is full light and the yellow is dim light.

[Greane01]

For Sale: One pair (2x) of Ford Mondeo (MC) Zetec black plastic inserts. Slightly used, but only 12 months old.

These inserts replace the Mondeo Titanium DRLs located above the fog lights to give you that classic Zetec look. Makes your Titanium faster and use less fuel, as each insert weighs much less than a DRL!

Jokes aside, my DRLs are in. Very happy with the result and looking forward to giving the vehicle a tub after a very dirty rain storm here in Canberra (see pic!)... They're configured to switch on with ignition (so on all the time), and dim with headlights (but not parking lights).

[Greane01]

BTW, does anybody else have 'Hella' stamped on their DRLs?

(click to enlarge)


And mine have "Made In Slovenia" stamped on the back...