DIY - Wiring Facelift (2004 -06) Angel Eyes as DRLs

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

but like you said, the cold or hot monitoring is not the principal issue... main thing is - not to fry something... that is why we should electrically isolate the modules.. as long as the solution doesn't require hauling a trailer full of electronic components!!! lol...

Here's another solution that I didn't use but want your opinion. Maybe this way will isolate the module. This is Tom's solution by the way.

Leave the stock angle eye bulb connected to the stock harness. This will stop any errors from appearing like check side light - because its exactly stock. However you are just placing the assembly to the side.

Now you wire the LED AEs with separate positive wires (just like I have now) from the LED AEs to the ECU. You just add separate negative wires that run to a ground in the engine bay (had it wired this way before).

What do you think?

[TerminatorX5]

This solution is doable, with couple of minor adjustments...

the original AE lights will be shining somewhere, and it will look weird, so the light output needs to be contained, or utilized somewhere... It is just a matter of boxing the lights into some black box or whatever...

For the second part - you do not want to power anything directly from a circuit that was not designed for powering things... find a wire in the ECU box that is hot with ignition, tap into it and wire that tap into a small relay that draws a very minimal amount of amperage I use the one from Radio shack, rated at 37.5mA, and wire the light directly from the battery via the contacts of the relay... I have had this set up in my 4.6 for several years - tapped into some weird wire in the ECU relay box, and that wire was hot with ignition, and would turn off after variable period of time after i turned the car off - i think it was an AC wire, or maybe something else wire...

By using a relay, you are only powering the 37.5mA coil, which can control a direct power from the battery - that is the main purpose of the relay, it is like a lever, using little power to control big power...

As far as for the spare lights - maybe shine them into the kidneys, from inside?

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

This solution is doable, with couple of minor adjustments...

the original AE lights will be shining somewhere, and it will look weird, so the light output needs to be contained, or utilized somewhere... It is just a matter of boxing the lights into some black box or whatever...

For the second part - you do not want to power anything directly from a circuit that was not designed for powering things... find a wire in the ECU box that is hot with ignition, tap into it and wire that tap into a small relay that draws a very minimal amount of amperage I use the one from Radio shack, rated at 37.5mA, and wire the light directly from the battery via the contacts of the relay... I have had this set up in my 4.6 for several years - tapped into some weird wire in the ECU relay box, and that wire was hot with ignition, and would turn off after variable period of time after i turned the car off - i think it was an AC wire, or maybe something else wire...

By using a relay, you are only powering the 37.5mA coil, which can control a direct power from the battery - that is the main purpose of the relay, it is like a lever, using little power to control big power...

As far as for the spare lights - maybe shine them into the kidneys, from inside?

The stock AEs won't be visible or light anything up. Just leave them in the same compartment as the stock location with the cover. Only concern would be to make sure the bulb does not burn any wires. You can leave the whole AE bulb/reflector assembly inside - it will fit.

So, I should add a relay and not a fuse or should I use both?

[TerminatorX5]

relay - it actually isolates electrically the control unit (ECU in this case) from the controlled unit (AE in this case). The draw on the relay is minimal, 37.5mA rated, therefore the fuse, if any, should be no more than 50mA, fast acting (fast acting burn as soon as the current exceeds the nominal value, thus protecting the main equipment).

In my line of work, when I run a wire from point A to point B, my main concern is, that I don't want anybody to tap into that wire, thus I am making my line balanced - any introduction of a wiretap triggers a series of events to which our US Marines respond with whatever their engagement rules are!!!! Therefore I am very aware of the BMW engineers and would not underestimate their technical abilities...

do you know which relay I am referring to? I had the specs posted somewhere on this forum...

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

relay - it actually isolates electrically the control unit (ECU in this case) from the controlled unit (AE in this case). The draw on the relay is minimal, 37.5mA rated, therefore the fuse, if any, should be no more than 50mA, fast acting (fast acting burn as soon as the current exceeds the nominal value, thus protecting the main equipment).

In my line of work, when I run a wire from point A to point B, my main concern is, that I don't want anybody to tap into that wire, thus I am making my line balanced - any introduction of a wiretap triggers a series of events to which our US Marines respond with whatever their engagement rules are!!!! Therefore I am very aware of the BMW engineers and would not underestimate their technical abilities...

do you know which relay I am referring to? I had the specs posted somewhere on this forum...

No, I'm terrible when it come to electrical stuff. I'll search for it later. If I have questions I'll post or PM you.

I'll just take your word for that stuff. I don't want any marines responding to me! LOL!

[TerminatorX5]

here is a picture of the relay that I used along with the "breadboard" from the Radio Shack... This relay is rated at 37.5 mA at the coil, there is another version that is rated at 17 mA which would be even better, I just did not easily find that one...

the smaller the draw of the coil, less interruption to the main function of the module it presents - it is like a water channel that passes 10 gallons of water a minute to feed a mill, and then you dig a small, tiny channel to draw a little water for your flowers, but you have to make sure that your side channel does not draw 3 gallons for itself, leaving 7 gallons in the main channel... you want yours to draw only a few ounces of water...

But you make the couple ounces of your water run a tiny mill that opens a big flood gates - I mean, the power to feed into the Angel Eyes!!!...

And no, we don't want Marines to respond - they usually shoot first and ask question after!!!

[Hollywood516]

I know this is an old post , but I'm looking to do the same on my wifes X5 , Can I just do the Y wiring diagram to the ECU Red/White wire and call it a day ?

[SMOKEY53]

I'd like to know also.

Tapping the ECU wire and splicing it into the +ve on each angel eye seems the simplest and neatest method.

Relay seems the safest, but a bit more fuss and wiring around the engine bay.

Term will say 'relay' no doubt...... :-)

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by SMOKEY53

Term will say 'relay' no doubt...... :-)

And I will echo him...

In all my angel eye installs I use the ECU wire to trigger a relay or ACC+. And the other input of the relay is the interior foot well so the angel eyes fade on/off with unlocking/locking the car. This is probably the most common (and most documented) way of wiring angels eyes. I'll be doing this when I retrofit LED AE's into my permaseals.

[SMOKEY53]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

And I will echo him...

In all my angel eye installs I use the ECU wire to trigger a relay or ACC+. And the other input of the relay is the interior foot well so the angel eyes fade on/off with unlocking/locking the car. This is probably the most common (and most documented) way of wiring angels eyes. I'll be doing this when I retrofit LED AE's into my permaseals.

Fair enough, well looks like I'll be going relay from ECU. If tapping the footwell light, do you run it to the same pin on the relay as the ECU? As in two trigger wires?

Looking forward to seeing that! Pesky permaseals