I always use my headlights in poor visibility and heavy rain etc but fitting them to my MX5, which I only use when the weather is good is as much a ‘nice to have’ feature as a safety feature that just makes the car look a little more modern.
DRLs shouldn’t be used at night. Surely the giveaway is the word Daytime. Cars come with perfectly good headlights which serve two purposes. Lighting the road for the car driver to see where he is going and for other motorists to see them.
cropduster - If fitted correctly ALL DRL’s should switch off when dip-beam is turned on. I might be wrong but it could be a MOT failure. The DRLs I have fitted do work correctly.
John
You are of course absolutely correct and all ‘legal‘ DRL’s should switch off when dipped headlights are selected as do these ILM versions and those that are factory fitted. This does not explain why some new cars seem to display their DRL’s whilst also displaying their headlights usually with the effect of blinding approaching drivers, I’m assuming these have been ‘modified’ by the owners as I believe it is illegal to display DRL’s at full intensity at night.
Hi, does anyone know if they can be fitted to the MK. 3.75 model , I see with a little adjustment they have gone into the MK 3.50 ?We have an Evoque which has DRL,s. when the headlights are switched on the DRL,s dim about half brightness but do stay on. The most important is when you use your indicators. Ours dims down whilever the indicators are on & resume full when cancelled. A car coming towards me the other day was turning into the junction i was waiting to pull out of. His DRL,s were at full brightness & in the same cluster as the their indicators. I could not see the indicators at all due to brightness of DRL,s. It was a newish Nissan Micra.
No, they are not suitable for the 3.75, but surely this model already has DRL’s?
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Well just been out for a drive and looked at the DRL’s and the ones I have fitted when on DRL mode have a cred U shape lens then when you change to lights on and fogs on the U shape cred lamp goes out and a center round cred lamp comes on. If I just use normal lights on and fog off then they are off. Perfect.
John
Good to know they work correctly. You can see the u shaped frosted area and the clear centre, now I know which is which. Hopefully with the kindness of a fellow member I will have mine fitted tomorrow??
Here are a couple more pics…
DRL’s fitted today thanks to the kindness of member Dave (safetymatch), as stated by Cypher they are impressive and are very bright. A couple of points, firstly I didn’t use the scotchlok style connector, but decided to remove a little insulation from the black/ yellow wire and solder the red wire to it as a more permanent job, secondly the picture in the instructions appears to show the middle of the three 15a fuses is replaced but the only one that allows the ’piggy back’ room to fit is the removal of the top fuse as you look at it from the front.
What am I missing here?
These pictures look light normal cars with the fog lamps switched on with no fog around!
The revised lights have LED DRL’s & fog lights incorporated within the same enclosure, pictures show DRL, can’t be fogs as they only illuminate with dipped headlights selected
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Oh ok, I didn’t realise the front fogs only illuminate with dipped headlights on.
They do look like normal fogs, would a bit of special wiring allowing fogs to be used with dipped headlights off be a viable (and cheaper) alternative to replacing the light units?
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Short answer is no.
In the flesh the DRL’s do not look like ordinary fogs as there is no beam pattern as such, the fog part is a separate light within the same enclosure with a normal beam pattern. The lights are LED’s so need special drivers to operate without damage, these are part of the Kit which also includes a well made wiring loom. The complete package IMO is good value when you consider the price of OEM fogs.
Slight correction, the fogs on my sport can be switched on without headlights, you need sidelights on though.
So the question why not just use your fogs, well yes you could of course but the rules state front fogs should only be used with headlights, well it was when I last looked up the rules.
I’m still considering buying this kit for my sport, anything to make us more visable has got to be good.
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I stand corrected and you are quite right illegal to use fogs in good light. It’s a nice, well made kit and the drl’s are very bright and are E marked and fully MOT compatibl.
^^^ I’m trying to resist but they look a good addition, doesn’t help that my car insurance needs paying for tomorrow.
Yesterday I replaced the standard yellowish sidelight bulbs with Osram cool white LED bulbs which I intend to have on during the dull winter days as daytime running lights (of course the rear lights will also be on), they’re much brighter.
Whether they’re legal I’m not sure because they say interior use only.
Interior means inside? So inside the lamp housing might also mean interior…
I think what they mean is that the LED bulbs can’t stand being wet, some of the ancillary components within the bulb are very small with tiny clearances and a bit of slightly salty damp could well upset them.