Hello all:

As you may have read, I've been doing a lot of custom fiddling lately, which has resulted in a foray into other customization possibilities for rr.net members. A couple of members are asking if I can also do other headlight customization (color-matching the headlight surround plastic, etc), and - in those conversations - the subject of LED DRL's arose.

AwfAxis has a thread that has done a lot of the legwork in terms of sourcing an ACCESSORY ON circuit with a large enough gauge wire to comfortably tap to directly power the LED arrays in the '10+ headlight, and he and a couple of other posters have done so successfully.

The problem (if it is viewed as that) is that it requires diodes to limit current bleed to the rest of that parking light circuit (front and rear sidemarkers as well), so AwfAxis' solution requires diodes, to limit current supply solely to the headlight circuit. Unfortunately, that circuit includes the front sidemarker bulbs as well as the LED arrays (within the headlight, the single power wire splits, and supplies 2 LED arrays, as well as the sidemarker bulb). I did a very basic schematic to represent this:

OEM Wiring Diagram

If I take on the headlight customization project for a couple of posters, my suggested wiring alteration within the headlight looks like this:

Simple Headlight Wiring Modification

Because there are two LEDs in each headlight, and they're running in parallel, my modification involves a splice which would interrupt the power wires to each LED array, and route that wire outside of the headlight, to allow the owner to cut that wire and directly power only the LEDs from the IGNITION/ACCESSORY ON wire mentioned in AwfAxis' thread.

What's nice about this is that the owner of the lights could elect to leave OEM functionality merely by not cutting that green wire - or return to OEM functionality by reconnecting it. The best way to handle this wire is to route it through one of three existing headlight vent holes (the holes with the rubber tubes attached), that way, no modification of the headlight casing is needed.

Simple!

I may as well put up a schematic that RRSupercharged888 sent me regarding how to remove your headlights from your RRS:

RRS Headlight Removal (piece of cake!)

So, for those of you toying with the idea of customizing your headlights beyond a clear or smoked reflector mod that I put up a thead about, you now have more options!

*disclaimer* not responsible for any consequences as a result of modifications to any RRS component. That is all.

- M

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated  I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy!