[Cosmo1956]

Hello,

I need some help/suggestion(s) with connecting my recently installed Hella LEDayLine DRL's on my 2014 428i. The whole process took much longer than I expected, and in retrospect, I probably should've done something entirely different. However, they're in now and ready for hook-up, so I am committed to finishing this mod. The harness has 3 connections; power, ground, and a trip wire. Ultimately, I would like to tie into the passenger side headlamp harness, but I'm having difficulty figuring out which wire(s). The lights work when I connect them to power and ground jumping terminals. There are no external drivers for these units like the Sylvania's, as these have integrated drivers. The kit came with a relay, however the instruction manual seemed to indicate that the relay should only be used when the DRL's are used a position lights, with the main one's de-activated. So, here is a picture of the pinouts on my passenger side headlamp connector:

Passenger side front headlamp electrical pinout.pdf


I also took voltage readings under various conditions to determine connection suitability. Here is a table of the readings:

Voltage Measured at Headlamp Pinout - 428i.pdf


And the following image is a schematic showing Hella's recommended connections:




The 3 wires from the Hella harness seem simple enough (red, brown, and grey), but when connected to power and ground the lights remain on regardless of whether the car is running or not. The Hella's are apparently supposed to dim when the main headlamps are turned on, and of course are suppose to turn off after the engine is shut off. But I'm confused as to which wire(s) I need to tap into. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Daftasabrush]

I'd give up now if I were you, inside the headlights is a control module and a ballast etc (assuming you've got xenons), this would lead me to think that you don't just have voltages present, you have data wires. I very much suspect you have permanent live, ground, and some CAN wires. Your car already has DRL built into the headlights, and the kit is not designed for modern cars like yours.

[Cosmo1956]

I was afraid someone would say something like this. Yes, it does have the standard HID xenon's, and I love the built-in corona rings. But I'm a lighting fanatic and don't give up very easily. I suppose I was thinking in the back of my mind the same thing. Would a relay of any kind be useful?

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by Cosmo1956

I need some help/suggestion(s) with connecting my recently installed Hella LEDayLine DRL's on my 2014 428i. The whole process took much longer than I expected, and in retrospect, I probably should've done something entirely different. However, they're in now and ready for hook-up, so I am committed to finishing this mod. The harness has 3 connections; power, ground, and a trip wire. Ultimately, I would like to tie into the passenger side headlamp harness, but I'm having difficulty figuring out which wire(s). The lights work when I connect them to power and ground jumping terminals. There are no external drivers for these units like the Sylvania's, as these have integrated drivers. The kit came with a relay, however the instruction manual seemed to indicate that the relay should only be used when the DRL's are used a position lights, with the main one's de-activated. So, here is a picture of the pinouts on my passenger side headlamp connector:

The 3 wires from the Hella harness seem simple enough (red, brown, and grey), but when connected to power and ground the lights remain on regardless of whether the car is running or not. The Hella's are apparently supposed to dim when the main headlamps are turned on, and of course are suppose to turn off after the engine is shut off. But I'm confused as to which wire(s) I need to tap into. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Don't give up. I did the same thing on my car... in fact i hooked up two sets of Phillips Daylight 8 DRLs Easy as pie. Here's the thread where i posted my work.

Typically, these types of DRLs work off detection of voltages differences in the car, meaning that they automatically turn on/off (with a delay) when you turn the car on/off. Its odd that yours doesn't do that, but i guess everyone does it differently. My third wire was a dimming wire. It hooks into the low-beam so that it will dim at night when the low-beams come on, but I ultimately did not hook up this dimming wire as I did not find the DRLs excessively blinding at night. And actually, it looks more cool running a little bit brighter. But this may be illegal in some places.

If you really have your heart set on tapping into the low-beam. Here is the info you need. This comes from another posting in made in when i hooked up my Morimoto Quad Bi-Xenons. If you have issues, just bring the car over to my house, and we'll get her going... I'm about to replace my headlights with some new headlights, so i'm about to take apart the same areas where you want to tap into. Just bring some beer over if you are coming over ...

[squidlyboy]

Sorry, just noticed you have the xenons... but no matter. I looked up the wiring for xenons awhile back, and its almost the same as F30 halogens. I can do a quick query in Rheingold to confirm.

[Cosmo1956]

Hey, I was kinda hoping you would respond. I happened to notice some of your posts while searching the forums for my project. Since you live in Chandler, that shouldn't be too hard to get together. I'm off next week, maybe I can come over then. Just let me know a good time for you. Thanks!

[Cosmo1956]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Sorry, just noticed you have the xenons... but no matter. I looked up the wiring for xenons awhile back, and its almost the same as F30 halogens. I can do a quick query in Rheingold to confirm.

I tried to send you a PM but it said your box is full.

[squidlyboy]

Sorry... my inbox has been slammed of late, and its been hard to keep it clear. i deleted a couple this morning i have a whole day Salt River rafting trip next saturday, so sunday would be better.

Whats really odd about these Hella lights is that i couldn't find any simple explanation of this 3rd (trip) wire anywhere. I'm usually pretty good about hunting down stuff on the internet, but nada, zero, zilch. But for all the reviews and opinions people posted about your DRLs, no one seemed to complain either about the wiring, so i assume that its pretty straightforward and it does what you would expect it to do. The biggest gripe i read was that it needed to be angled properly to see them in full brightness. But no wiring gripes.

Do you know how this 3rd trip wire is supposed to work? It almost sounds like a relay switch wire of sorts.

But i do find it odd that the lights just stay on forever whether the car is running or not. How long did you wait (to see if they went off by themselves)?

Mine will stay on for about 5 seconds after turning off the car before they shut down.... long enough for me to exit the car and for that cute girl on the side to notice them and go, "whoa, whats up dog?"

[IndotagSwizz]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Sorry... my inbox has been slammed of late, and its been hard to keep it clear. i deleted a couple this morning i have a whole day Salt River rafting trip next saturday, so sunday would be better.

Whats really odd about these Hella lights is that i couldn't find any simple explanation of this 3rd (trip) wire anywhere. I'm usually pretty good about hunting down stuff on the internet, but nada, zero, zilch. But for all the reviews and opinions people posted about your DRLs, no one seemed to complain either about the wiring, so i assume that its pretty straightforward and it does what you would expect it to do. The biggest gripe i read was that it needed to be angled properly to see them in full brightness. But no wiring gripes.

Do you know how this 3rd trip wire is supposed to work? It almost sounds like a relay switch wire of sorts.

But i do find it odd that the lights just stay on forever whether the car is running or not. How long did you wait (to see if they went off by themselves)?

Mine will stay on for about 5 seconds after turning off the car before they shut down.... long enough for me to exit the car and for that cute girl on the side to notice them and go, "whoa, whats up dog?"

Just taking an educated guess here... I feel like that third wire might be the accessory wire, like old school fog lights sets used to come, positive/ground/and accessory which is basically like a remote to be connected somewhere that tells the daylights when to come on

[squidlyboy]

That makes sense. I would think he would want to hook the trip wire up to the OEM DRL wire so that they come on and go off with the OEM DRLs.

Do the OEM Xenon lights keep the DRLs on when the low-beams come on or do the DRLs get turned off?

[Cosmo1956]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

That makes sense. I would think he would want to hook the trip wire up to the OEM DRL wire so that they come on and go off with the OEM DRLs.

Do the OEM Xenon lights keep the DRLs on when the low-beams come on or do the DRLs get turned off?

The OEM DRL's stay on when the low-beams get turned on.

[squidlyboy]

My laptop with Rheingold is kaputz right now, so i dug up this wiring diagram from the kapikalmd thread for the xenon retrofit. The pertinent wires you probably want to hook into are the same between the xenon headlights and the halogen ones.

If you are looking for your Hella DRLs to be on the same time your OEM DRLs are on, then wire #5 (upper right wire) on either driver/passenger side is your man. Use the pics i posted above as your guide when you are trying to tap into the right wire.

[Cosmo1956]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

My laptop with Rheingold is kaputz right now, so i dug up this wiring diagram from the kapikalmd thread for the xenon retrofit. The pertinent wires you probably want to hook into are the same between the xenon headlights and the halogen ones.

If you are looking for your Hella DRLs to be on the same time your OEM DRLs are on, then wire #5 (upper right wire) on either driver/passenger side is your man. Use the pics i posted above as your guide when you are trying to tap into the right wire.

Thank you Squidlyboy! This is very useful info. I'll play with this but if I hit a dead-end, I'll plan on meeting up with you.

[squidlyboy]

Scratch what i said earlier about hooking up your DRLs to the OEM DRL wire... i don't think thats going to work

Finally found some info your DRLs... not much, but enough that now your post (along with this description) finally makes more sense to me

Daytime running lights switch on automatically with the ignition by an integrated relay. When the driver switches the headlight light on, the daytime running light switches off automatically.

First off, can you confirm that these are the same lights you have?

If so, based on the above description, and what you are currently seeing with your DRLs, it appears that the relay is necessary in order to turn the DRLs on/off. This may be why the DRLs are always on. Without the relay being the "on/off" switch that cuts off power to the DRLs based on ignition/ACC, there is no "off" switch. Just a guess here...

And looking at the picture of your instructions again, and reading the description, it makes sense. The icon above the wire labeled 58 is _definitely_ going to your low-beams. This is similar to my instructions that show the Low-Beam icon going to 6 (orange wire). This is that 3rd wire (trip wire as you call it). When your low-beams go on, the DRLs go off. It doesn't just dim, it just turns completely off. If you don't want that effect, i'd suggest you don't hook up this wire.

As a matter of fact, looking again at the instructions of my DRLs, i believe that our DRLs work in similar fashion... meaning that the thing you call a "relay" is probably the same thing as my "Control box". My Philips control box basically is a smart controller that detects small voltage differences that occur when you turn on your car and turn off your car, and will turn on your DRLs accordingly. Without this "relay" of yours, i'm guessing your DRLs are not going to work properly. This is what allows my DRLs to stay on for a few seconds after the ignition turns off, allowing for an courtesy exit light.

The only odd thing i still don't understand about your lights is why the instruction picture doesn't show the relay in place?? ... almost as if its optional? But the weird thing is that without it, your DRLs never turn off :-(