DIY: FEELER: 89-90 Sedan ONLY high beam DRL.

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Is anybody else interested in this? I've been wanting to do it on my 90 since I've had it, and I just figured it out. It's actually very simple, with just a relay, which can be found at the junk yard, a 12V diode, and a few minutes of wiring.


You can get the relay from a 96-99 Cavalier (I know the bodies went 95-99, but 95 has different wiring) on the inside of the front bumper, there are 2-5 standard relays depending on the model, with plugs and wiring. One with the 30, 85, 86, 87, 87a.

The way I've done this, it works just like any modern day high beam DRL system. The high beams come on at ~ half power with the ignition turned on, and are disabled when the parking lights are engaged. It only requires splicing into one of the high beam plugs, so you don't have to run wires all over the engine bay. If you do this to the left light, the right one automatically follows suite.




If anybody is interested, I'll write up a DIY and get a wiring diagram.



Here's the way it works basically, the headlights, when turned on, have power to the low and high beam all the time, when the high beams are engaged, they are given a ground. So when the lights are off, there is no power or ground to the high beams, if you give power to the power wire, the ground wire half ass grounds, and you get about half power to the lights. Since the left and right are set together before the fuse at the relay, they both work together. With one of these relays, you can give constant power to the source (in this case it would be the positive wire from the car for the high beams) or you can give power when the relay is activated. The relay is activated simply by a positive and negative, the positive is given to the relay from a power source off the ignition (I used the ignition power wire from the power window relay) and when grounded through a power source (in this case, the positive wire from the parking lights) it will ground out when there is no power given to the parking lights. Then when the parking lights are activated, there is now power to that wire, and the ground is cut off, thus deactivating the relay, and taking away the power to the high beams. The reason the diode is needed, is because when the ignition is off, and the lights are on, the power is now reversed, there is power given to the relay through the parking lights, and it is grounded through the ignition positive. The diode only lets power go one way, so the system can't work in reverse.



If any of you are still with us, congratulations, you have a basic understanding of how relays work now.



If you've just read through all this, and had a brain hemorrhage, that's alright, you don't really need to know how this all works, that was my job, all you have to do is connect the wires were I tell you to.




Here's the relay wiring diagram, I'll get pictures of the wiring in the car, so you know what wires to put where. This is all I have for now, when I get a hold of a digicam, I'll get some pics.

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I suppose this is an actual DIY now, I've been running with it for a few days now without a problem. Feel free to move this to the DIY area, and remove the "Feeler" from the title. I'll add some pics when I get a chance, and maybe set this up a little better. For now it's just what to put where, I'll probably do a step by step in the future.

[mxsloan]

I'd love to give it a try when you post the DIY with more pictures

[Tippey]

Are the high beams running at full brighness or half brightness?

[FenrirTypeII]

Do you know if there is any difference between the 1stgen Legend and 2nd Gen wire layout? You should make a photo DIY of the actual wires and how to set this up. I'm interested in doing this hands down.

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Here's a pic of what it looks like when they're on. I also found something else out, this will not work with HIDs, the high beams ground through the low beam bulb, and if you have HIDs hooked up, they will flicker when you first turn the car on, and the high beams won't work.

[AcuraLegend55k1990]

Thanks guys gonna try this one out soon wish me much luck