Hey Everyone,

I need to find an easily accessible accesory power point in the engine bay somewhere. Just thought I would ask here to see if anyone can guide me before I go fumbling around under the hood.

Thanks so much!

 

You could easily get a Power Point from auto part store and hook it directly to battery? seems like the easiest place unless you need to leave this plugged in and will draw power when vehicle is off. Might I inquire the use for it might help me give more ideas.

 

What I am trying to do is jury rig daytime running lights to pass inspection as my Ex is a Florida rig and did not come with DRLs. I just want to splice into the factory wire harness and route power there for passing inspection. Then I will remove it afterwards.

I know there is a moral debate about this but I will be changing out the headlights for new ones (current ones are oxidized beyond help).

I guess the better way to have worded my question would have been - does anyone know where an easy ignition point is under the hood. Basically I need power once the key is in position 2.

Cheers,

 

Does it have the night time running lights that come on by sensor? If so I would just cover the sensor so it thinks its night full time....I know mine is that way, just trying to locate the dang sensor eye......

 

It does, but the problem is that the inspection people here are wise to that trick now. A few friends of mine years back got their vehicles through inspections by covering the sensor up so the vehicle always thought it was dark out. They apparently now will go into the truck and make sure the headlight switch is in the off position. Hence why I need to wire mine up.

On my Ex, the sensor is in the center of the dash, right by the windshield. It's shaped like a bullet about 1/2" in diameter, black in color.

 

Hmmm, would it not be faster to jump a wire at the headlight switch so when in the off position the switch would still be in the night time sensor position? Kinda trick the switch, and then after inspection you can pull the wire.
You could use the pass thru wires found on the drivers side at the fire wall to hook up for acc power from the fuse box. There is a customer use fuse in there already, just don't remember the #.

 

Hi wallz, good suggestion. I have done that trick with many BMWs, didn't think of that with the Ex. How do you pull the headlight switch? Is it a matter of pulling the dash off to access it?

Cheers,

 

I can sometimes pry at it from the front and comes out, or you can open the door and there is a small access on the side. It looks like a vented pc, and it just pulls out. Once that pc is out you can reach in and push the light switch out.

 

You can reach up behind the switch and push it out also..

 

Great - thanks so much guys. I'll give that a spin tomorrow and see if I can get pseudo DRLs working in the truck.