I recently upgraded to 55w HID lows, and they are great in most weather, but definitely glare in heavy rain and fog. Here in canada, we get daytime running lights, which from BWM, basically mean the low beams and parking lights are wired such that they are on when ever the car is running. The headlight switch is purely decorative.
I've been wanting to diable my DRLs so that I can turn off my lows and run just my fogs in inclement weather.
Here is the cct diagram for canadian cars:
Note the Yellow wire running from the grn/blu junction from F2 to the headlight control on the LKM. US and other versions have this yellow wire connecting to the junction between the healight switch and the highbeam switch, and rather than the ylw/gry, all wires are yellow, so, find the wire, and reconnect. Now the fun part...
I'm not even going to get into the amount of wiring I pulled out, unwrapped and followed, but here's the short of it.
Behind the knee bolster under the steering wheel are a few big bundles of wire that lead up over the air duct behind the cluster and under the dash.
Unwrap the big thick one and find the only yellow wire. This is the yellow in the schematic, trust me.
Aside: you'll also notice the junction of the grn/blu wires in this photo. One of those head up under the dash and connects with that pesky yellow one.
Cut the yellow wire and terminate the side coming from above the dash (this will still be hot when the car is running - don't let it short anything out!)
Now, there are a series of wrapped bundles coming from the steering column, one is for the high beam switch and goes to this connector above the three black ones on the plastic bracket:
...and from farther back for reference:
Note the yellow wire third from the top on the left. The yellow connects to the yellow/grey from the headlight switch at the white plug in the picture. Connect the cut yellow from above to this yellow from the high beam: cut, strip and connect all three using an automotive crimp style bell connector, or however you like to connect your wiring...
You're done. Really. It's that simple.
Now you can run:
Parklights only (see below for more info on parking lights)
parking and fog lights
parking and low beams
parking, lows and fogs
parking lows and highs
parking and highs (flash only).
Parking lights:
I have discovered that the switch internals for Canada seem to be different than other places. According to the schematic, you should be able to cut the grn/blue wire at the diode, or just pull the diode and have the parking lights work like normal folks. The switch should power the parking light cct both in park position and in low beam position. It seems that it only does when in park position. With the diode pulled, the parking lights would come on int he park position, but when I turn the headlights on, the parking lights turn off.
I reconnected the diode and let it be. I can't think of a case I really need to have my parking lights off when I'm driving. If you do, you'll likely need a new switch from the US. The cct diagrams are quite different. The US has a triple pole double throw switch while the cdn is only a single pole double throw, and manages the low beam power through relays in the kick panel.
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