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… to illuminate the high beams on reduced power when the engine’s running. The DRLs turn off when the park lights are on. Flashing high beams with DRLs on seems to work. I’ll confirm with a light meter when it’s dark.
PWM would be nicer but $20 already feels like too much to spend on a DRL module that looks like it came out of a gumball prize machine.
I kept wiring within the engine bay fuse box area. Main power from the lug labeled alternator beside the fuse box, ground at the ground point under the coolant reservoir, on trigger from the 20A fuel injector fuse - it’s the only one that isn’t powered when the engine isn’t running, off trigger taps the middle wire into the left corner light, high beam taps the green wire into the left headlight. There’s a park brake off trigger but I’m lazy to run a wire into the cabin.
Yes, I could have done this with a couple of relays.
The resistor shares a ground bolt under the coolant reservoir. The resistor gets very hot but the bracket remains touchable after idling for 15 minutes.
I chose high beams because that’s how others cars have it and I can’t tell from the wiring diagram whether I need to run a wire to the passenger side low beam since the low beams have separate fuses. Running a wire between low beam bulbs defeats the separate fuses, correct? The high beams share a fuse and use the same color wire.
I can’t see the high beam indicator glowing in daylight. I’ll check at night.
I've toyed with adding some form of DRL's but thought to use side marker type LED assemblies attached to the grill between the radiator opening and headlight assemblies. Electrically I'd wire them properly for the key-on ignition switch or source. I'd hate to have my headlights life shortened by them being illuminated so long.
I do notice when they're present on any vehicle they stand out which has to be safer than not having them.
If/when I find an LED set that doesn’t look like a Christmas ornament, it’ll be a simple matter to rewire the output from the high beam circuit. Maybe a low output bumper light bar
Our Suburban (sold) and minivan run high beams on reduced power as DRLs and none of the bulbs burned on my watch. I don’t think the lows burned either. Those have separate high beam bulbs though. The Subaru from which I took the resistor has a single high/low bulb. I get the concern which is partly why I don’t want to nullify the separate low beam fuses.
With separate highs, it’s easier to wire the high beams in series in DRL mode. Too complicated in this van using only simple relays.
Did you investigate enabling DRLs with the OEM control module? I'm not sure where the module was located on that vintage econoline but all the wiring should be there and you would just remove the jumper plug and attach the DRL module.
Update:
Apparently that unplugged box on the front of the rad support is the DRL module, a US vehicle that doesn't have DRLs will just have a deadend plug in the electrical connector that complete the circuits that would run through the module.
I’ll see if I can wire the aftermarket module I have into that connector.
I meant to ask about a connector with a jumper just ahead of the fuse box. The connector has a couple of heavy gauge green wires and a heavy gauge black wire, then three small gauge pink wires and a small gauge white wire. Oddly, it’s the jumper that’s attached to the fuse block bracket. The connector itself is otherwise loose. Maybe part of a towing package?
That is a picture I found online but it's the same vintage van as yours. I know my '06 E250 had DRLs but I never went looking for the module as there was never a problem with it, and the wiring in my '11 is totally different so I can't verify. That harness should be there on your truck but it may be tucked down out of the way, so look for it on the same area.
The description of the DRL module pins, is 5 inputs and no output. I don’t get how it works. Maybe pin 5 is an output. Not worth frying the BCM to find out.
Sadly, I couldn’t find a connector. Here’s a panorama of our van. The front harness starts at a connector behind the right headlight. It comes out of the bucket branching to the right headlight and right corner light -
Then it branches to the horn which I replaced with louder horns in Calif. I should put back the original horn since drivers don’t use horns in TN. Then there’s that module by the transmission cooler line -
Then towards the left. It looks like it tucks inward before the left headlight bucket but that’s the transmission cooler line -
Then to the left headlight and corner light. There are a couple of ground points but no other splits in the harness and no bulge the size of a connector -
I guess I’ll wrap and clamp the wiring from the DRL mod.
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