Great, thanks for that, I will definitely fix it then.
It's expected based on the way that it's wired, but it's NOT suggested. In the 04/05 the 9005 serves as the high beam in addition to the low beam, not instead of. I highly recommend you get it corrected before using your high beams regularly (not because it will cause any damage, but because it's a little unsafe and not the intended design of the OEM).
Great, thanks for that, I will definitely fix it then.
Hey guys, just a quick half-baked update, my electrical engineer father and I have spent the last two evenings looking at this.
A lot of it was spent pouring over wiring diagrams found in the Haynes manual and the service manual PDF I found. One of the things that seems to be troubling us, is that they did an after-thought install of a daytime running lights system that's required by law here in Canukistan. The Haynes book also shows the American circuits which after review my dad says would be easier to deal with.
For American's, it may be as simple as running a diode from the white to yellow wire in the harness that comes with the Depo's, I'll confirm this and post a diagram/picture. It did actually work for us perfectly, but then we ran into this daytime running light issues which as I said we will attempt to address next time.
PS: "the controls being on the negative sides of these circuits are ASININE arghhh" LoL poor guy.. and he wasn't happy about how they shortcut so much to save wiring/relay costs in car manufacturing, which creates more complex systems in the process.
Yeah I never understood why they used a common positive and a switched ground... sort of illogical from the perspective of somebody who doesn't know much about this stuff. I forgot you have the running light issue to deal with. I'm gonna try to find FreeLunch's posts on his DIY--again, it was for TSX HID's, but his was an Si-R in Canada and I seem to remember him mentioning what he did for the "DTR's".
Good news and bad news- the good news is I found his thread. The bad news is he never got it to work:
"Honestly the wiring was tricky as hell. I used the harness supplied by Wayne from SSR, but his harness is designed for US cars. It just didnt play nice with my daytime running lights. It caused the dashboard DRLs indicator to stay on and it sent power to the HIDs and made them turn on as my DRLs. So i was driving around with HIDs on all the time.
Normally, the car uses the hi-beam lights at a reduced wattage as dimmer day time running lights.
In the end, my dad, who is a trained electrician, modified the harness. He wired the hibeams to the car's original hi-beam circuit, and cut the hibeam circuit from the HID harness. He then wired the low beam part of the harness to the cars low beam circuit.
Now it behaves like stock. DRLs = hibeams. Turn on the lights to low beam, HIDs on, hibeam turns off. Unfortunately the low beam no longer stays on with my hi-beams, which was the original design of the car. So no flashing hi-beams for me at night, as it'd cycle my HIDs too quickly and damage them"
See the whole thread here: http://www.ephatch.com/forum/showthr...trofit-TSX-HID
Last edited by Draw7Seven; 11-01-2012 at 10:34 AM.
I have these same Depos sitting in the garage waiting to be installed in my '03. Curious about the diode method. Are there any pictures or info for this? Would rather not add a bunch of additional wiring and such in the bay. Already not super thrilled about the included wiring harness. Any additional info would be awesome. Thanks.
I am also very interested in the diode method. I'm not really good at understanding wiring, but I am under the assumption that a diode works as a one-way valve for the current or the ground in this case. Does anyone else have an idea of how this could be incorporated to keep the low beams on when the highs are switched on an 02/03?
Thanks for any additional information.
Patrick
I have been studying the wiring diagram for the US version of the car. As far as I can tell, it would be possible to wire a diode in the under hood relay box or right at the headlight assemblies. The diode would have to be jumpered between the red/blu and red/white wires on the left headlight, and the red/blue and red/white wires on the right headlight. I'm just confused which way the diode would have to be facing between the wires. But I believe this would work great without adding additional wiring to the engine bay!
This might help, Ocelaris ran the diode between the grounds.
Read this thread for more info.
That is exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks for the diagrams.
I tried wiring the diodes in, but found that they got very VERY hot, actually re-melted the solder that was used splice them in. I used 1N4001 diodes. Any suggestions? It did work though. The low beams stayed on while the high beams were triggered.
I was also entertaining the idea of grounding the yellow wire of the depo harness (low beam ground) to the chassis to see if that would keep the low beams on. I don't think it would "overdrive" the stock wiring as long as you are running standard 55w and 60w bulbs. If anybody has any additional information about this please share.
UPDATE: I tried doing this when I got home, worked like a charm. No smoke coming from the engine bay, or melting diodes. : ) One word of caution for those who do it this way. Each headlight is on a 15amp circuit. Essentially, you are combining the high and low beam on this circuit. 55w+60w=115w, 115w/12volts=9.58amps. Well within the means of the stock wiring. Some people do like to run 100w bulbs in the highs which puts it dangerously close to 15amps on the circuit. Nearly to 13amps. Factor in slight voltage fluctuations of a car's circuitry and that could mean a blowing a fuse.
I don't really know if it would be a good idea to wire it this way if you were planning on converting to HIDs. Normal HID kits are actually less wattage at 35w, but keep in mind that there is a spike in power draw when HIDs are first turned on, I'm not sure how well the stock wiring would deal with that spike. Down the road I do plan to go this route, so I will likely let you guys know what I come up with. Hopefully this information is helpful.
Last edited by patrickvertigo; 06-10-2013 at 05:33 PM.
Did you guys had any problems with the diodes overheating?
Quick question, where can I buy these relays for the 03 si in states, or what type of diode did you use to make this work? Been searching with no luck. Also no need for DRL.
I found there isn't a need for a relay if you just ground the yellow wire on the Depo wiring harness. This will keep both the high and low beams on when switching to high beams. It's been a few years since I did this. No problems whatsoever. The diode idea was good, but they burned up nearly instantaneously. Got very very hot.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks