Spac

Hello all,

I have an 03 Civic with a front end conversion to 05.

I decided that I missed having HID's as my old car had them, so off I go to do a retro with HID install.

Using a wire harness for the HID system is easy, but as I live in Canada and my car has DRL's (Daytime running lights) is there a way to wire this so that the drl's still work and I have no issues with the HID system? Or is there an easy way to modify the setup so that the DRL's work on say the marker lights or maybe an alternate light that I can add to the headlight housing?

Ultimately I would like to be able to use the Highbeams with the HID lows when needed.

Thanks for the input in advance.

Spac

Quick clarification:

It seems I have 2 choices;

I can keep the DRL's and use either the low or the high beam lights or I can loose the DRL's, giving me the ability to use the Low's and highs together if needed. (Have a headlight housing with high/low seperates)

Is there anyway I can still have both, IE DRL's and have the high/low option?

Thanks again.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well if you have the full 05 conversion, then the drl should be the hi beam halogen bulb right? doesnt the lo beam stay on when you use the hi beam at night? since its two separate bulbs? at least thats how it should be on an 05 headlight setup. how did you do the wiring conversion from the old style headlight?

Spac

The conversion was done by the previos owner. Looks like he cut the h4 plug off at the headlight and spliced in the low and high beam accordingly. As it is an o3 (Previously h4) the high beam works independantly from the low. Here lies my problem. I'm wondering/hoping that there is some way of getting to my goal...

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

ah okay. you simply need to make a new wire harness for the hids (which you need to do anyway, since hid uses more power to start). so make a new relay harness, connect its trigger wire to the oem harness so it only works as a lo beam, then use the real oem harness to power the hi beams. so basically you just need to make one harness. and i think this diagram will help you since you still have the old 01-03 wiring. if you need a good relay and holder, i can prolly dig up a new one for you in my box of crap lol. for the fuse, any auto store will have a holder. the relay is numbered on the back so you know where to run the wires. i would use 14 gauge wiring for the new hid harness and a 15 amp fuse. this diagram is exactly how you should wire it. note: LO wire is not used on the oem H4 connector. Also, you only wire this new harness to one side of the car, like the passenger side H4 plug by the battery. it only needs one trigger input. on the driver side, all you do is hook up the oem wires to the hi beam bulb.

Spac

O.k. Looking at the diagram, that pretty much what I had fugured out. BUT, what happens with the DRL's?
Will the lower voltage cause the relay to work/do the funky chicken, or not activate?

If it's not activate then we're in business.

As far as I understand, being this car uses ground switching, that red will always have some sort of power (Lower voltage(DRL), or for high or low)

By grounding to the chassis, the HID's wil always be on, unless the relay doesn't work with the lower voltage?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah i forgot about that. but after i think about it, you are using the stock honda harness to power the hi beams, so basically the drl should work like normal. do you remember on the old h4 setup if the hi beam filament came on for drl? or the lo beam filament. if its the hi beam, then everything will still work and now your drl will be the separate halogen hi beams at 1/2 power not the lo beams. but if the lo beam was drl before, then you will lose drl function (but hids and hi beams will still work normally). either way, there is no issue with the normal lo and hi beam functions. its just a matter of if you will have the hi beam drl or not. im pretty sure you will cause most cars use the hi beam filament as drl at half power.

NOTE: the +12v headlight wire is always hot in lo and hi beam modes. the switching is done by moving around which of the other wires is grounded. im not sure exactly how this drl worked on the old setup, hopefully not thru the lo beams. otherwise youre just gonna have to pull the drl fuses and call it a day. its not worth messing around with anything to try and get it working.

Spac

Alright, As soon as it warms a bit I'll have to give it a try. Here's how I see this playing out. It's going to work one of these ways:

Wire the relay in the the Positive power and the negative for the lows; HID should work fine with the lows, DRL's fine with the Highs, and the HIDS will go off if I use the high beams. All is good kinda.

Wire the relay with the positive and ground to the chassis. I can have the highs and lows on together if needed on the highway, I leave the DRL's alone and the relay does not "Click" on with the DRL's (Lower voltage) and all is golden.

Wire the relay with the positive and ground to the chassis. I can have the highs and lows on together if needed on the highway, but the DRL's lower voltage messes with the relay, things don't really work as planned and I'm forced to disable the DRL's to make all work as I want.

I'll play with this as soon as I can and post the findings. Maybe this can help someone else down the road...