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DRL Removal (The proper way)

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    DRL Removal (The proper way)

    I'm not responsible for you frying your wiring or anything of that sort, if this is illegal in your place of residence, do at your own risk.

    Well after much searching and finding nothing I tried to tackle the DRL removal. I heard you needed to add a relay, run wires, change relays etc etc. I tried this and fried my fusebox, which actually led me and a buddy to figure out what I hadn't found before.. The proper way to do it, and find out how BMW enables them.

    The relays use a switched ground to complete the coil circuit in the relays. If you took a test light, hooked it up to 12v and started poking around the headlight switch you'd find switched grounds. One in particular is used for completing the low beam and highbeam relay circuit. Shown below.



    If you follow that wire, it goes through the firewall and ends up in the fusebox connected to nothing, BMW actually put a male connector on the end of it because in non DRL cars it's plugged into the relay terminal 86. But in DRL cars it's sitting in the fusebox covered in heatshrink shown below (I had cut the shrink away at this point)

    To remove your fusebox: disconnect your battery and turn the key forward to remove and surface charge.

    Remove your fusebox cover

    Remove the 3 screws holding the 2 pieces together (1 on the inside by the fender, and 2 inside the box. You may need to remove a relay to get to one of the screws.) Don't remove the allen head bolt, that connects all the power to the fuses and is a pain in the ass to get the nut on the other side back together.

    Carefully seperate the 2 pieces and locate the wire.



    If you do look at your #86 terminal and follow the red wire, you'll see that it comes off and runs out of the fuse box and is attached to the hood latch with a ring terminal.



    What you want to do is take that terminal off, pull the wire back into the fuse box and connect the yellow and green wire, to the red wire that I just mentioned.



    To re assemble your fuse box, do the reverse of taking it apart.

    If all goes well your headlight switch should work like: position 1, all off. position 2, parking lights and interior lights. Position 3, headlights, parking lights and interior lights.

    Sam
    1985 325e 2.8 Turbo VEMS

    #2
    DRL == daytime running lights?

    Comment


      #3
      ^Yes.

      Sam, thank you very, very much for this!
      I've been looking at how to do this for almost a year now..

      Originally posted by Janderson
      you can have the keys to my hunk of 20+ year old West German steel when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.

      Comment


        #4
        I don't think any US or Euro E30s got DRLs.

        Get this though, Sam..Iam not even planning on having a headlight switch. Mine will be simpler: car running means lights on.

        Closing SOON!
        "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

        Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

        Thanks for 10 years of fun!

        Comment


          #5
          sweett, so it IS possible without rewiring... and so simple too!

          Comment


            #6
            interesting, I've always wanted my high beam headlamps to illuminate with my headlights on and not blinding people at the same time. this will help

            mtechII 5 lug S50

            Comment


              #7
              WOW thaaaaaank you! im giving you mad props for this! you found the true correct way of doing it. up to now, i had only found nasty complicated ways that involved reversing relay behaviours and other nonsense!

              :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp:

              im hoping my '90 car is exactly the same. however i dont remember seeing a red wire going to my hood hinge, and i took the hood hinges off this winter so i think i would remember...


              EDIT: i've just confirmed, my 1990 doesnt have the red wire coming out of the box. i only have a sealed rubber nipple from where it should be. any ideas? which relay does the red wire come from?

              EDIT2: removed my fuse box, i dont have a loose shrink wrapped yellow green wire either :(
              Last edited by guibo09; 04-11-2010, 01:29 PM.
              90 E30 325i

              Comment


                #8
                okay, let me re-iterate what you found.

                on non-DRL cars, the low beam relay terminal 86 is grounded through through the light switch in the dash, ie: green/yellow wire goes from terminal 86 through the firewall to terminal 11 of the light switch. this allows the light switch to control the lows.

                on DRL cars, the low beam relay terminal 86 is permanently grounded to the chassis, in sam's case, through the red wire. this leaves the green/yellow one loose in the box and the headlight switch has no control on the lows, it however still has control on the highs since these are spliced in upstream.

                hopefully, in my '90 car, the difference is that terminal 86 is grounded in a different way. i just have to follow it and reconnect it back where it should be, at the lightswitch instead.
                90 E30 325i

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by StereoInstaller1 View Post
                  I don't think any US or Euro E30s got DRLs.

                  Get this though, Sam..Iam not even planning on having a headlight switch. Mine will be simpler: car running means lights on.

                  Yeah, I'm not a fan of having my lights on in my car during the day. I think it's only Canadian cars that have DRL's so this is only meant for us Canadians. If you wanted to do it that way you could just do the reverse of this and the headlights would be on but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that lol.
                  1985 325e 2.8 Turbo VEMS

                  Comment


                    #10
                    rofl handt heard of drls on an e30 i myself wish i had them! :P

                    Comment


                      #11
                      well i wanted to check this out too, so I opened up the lower knee bolster today and was hunting around for that yellow/green wire.

                      1990 325i

                      What I found was that the y/g wire was only connected to the high beam switch, and nothing else. Apparently theres supposed to be a splice somewhere in that area that goes to the low beam relay (also a y/g wire).
                      Now I didnt get a chance to open the fusebox though but I wonder if I just disconnect the pin 85 (85 from schematics, dont know if 86 or 85 is the correct pin, but whatever connects to ground from the relay) and hook that straight up to pin 11 from the switch, it would bypass the DRL?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Open the fuse box, it's easy. Don't need to do anything under the dash.
                        1985 325e 2.8 Turbo VEMS

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by SamE30e View Post
                          Open the fuse box, it's easy. Don't need to do anything under the dash.
                          did you read my post above? 90's cars dont seem to be the same. no loose wire under the fuse box.
                          90 E30 325i

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by SamE30e View Post
                            Open the fuse box, it's easy. Don't need to do anything under the dash.
                            according to schematics, if the car did not have DRL's, the relay ground would have been connected to the light switch. I did not find that

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by iignite View Post
                              according to schematics, if the car did not have DRL's, the relay ground would have been connected to the light switch. I did not find that
                              Yep, and thats what I did. Just connect the relay ground to the light switch. If your car doesn't have the wire run from the switch, you can run it.
                              1985 325e 2.8 Turbo VEMS

                              Comment

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