Installing Driving Lights

[peter_fazio]

  Hi,

 

  I will soon be installing a set of driving lights on the Aluminess front bumper on my 2013 NVP 3500.  My plan was to hook them up so that they turn on when I put on the high beam headlights.  From looking at the wiring diagrams, it appears to be more difficult than just tapping into the high beam relay to get a trigger for the driving light relay.  The headlight relays for this vehicle appear to be non-replaceable and mounted on a circuit board, which makes them basically inaccessible for accessory wiring.  So, I was wondering if anybody has hooked up auxilary lights to the NV factory lighting system and how they did it?  At last resort, I will just install an accessory switch and trigger the driving light relays that way. 

 

                                         thanks,

 

                                                Pete Fazio

[Chris_CommercialManager]

I'm not outside looking at one but is there not a wire running to the bulb that could draw power from only when the high beams are activated??

 

that would be the easiest

[andy_george]

That's what I had planned in my head..... Just tapping into the high beam wire, to use as a signal wire to switch a relay...

[ASD Dad]

That would be far the easiest.  Use the high beam wire to trip the relay for your driving lights.

 

Just curious - what lights did you go with?  I am looking at adding some lights to my NVP.

[peter_fazio]

   All,

 

  I think we need to be careful here tapping into the hot side of the hi beam circuit.  When looking at the wiring diagram, Nissan does things a bit funny, wherein they use the hot side of the hi beam and lo beams to "back feed" the DRL circuit.  I am certainly no electrical expert, but I think you might cause trouble when using the hi beam hot side as the trigger for the aux. relay.  By doing that you would effectively create a ground path through the aux. relay for the DRL circuit. 

 

  Andy_george, I read your tale of woe with a simple LED bulb change and what that did to your ECU.  Just saying, I think we need to be careful before tapping into anything electrical on this vehicle.  This kinda' mod used to be so easy in the old days!!!

 

                                                                Pete

[andy_george]

I agree, Peter, best to proceed with caution:(. If the DRLs do end up causing an issue, I wonder if the solution would be as easy as pulling the DRL fuse to break the circuit? I've considered doing that since I got the van, as I'm not a huge fan of them anyhow....

 

Thanks for the heads up!

[peter_fazio]

   Andy,

 

  Yes.  I too have been wondering about pulling the DRL fuse.  Maybe that might alleviate the issue.  As a test setup, one of my co-engineers here suggested that I build a small wiring "pigtail" that would be placed inline between the headlamp connector and the headlight wiring harness.  This way, if it does cause an issue, you can just remove the inline wire pigtail and leave the factory harness intact and if it does not cause an issue and it triggers the aux. lights correctly, then you could just leave it in place.   I may build one of these test setups and try some experiments.  I will post my results after I build the connector and do some testing.

 

                                                     Pete

[peter_fazio]

   All,

 

 I have been doing some further research about tieing into the hi beam circuit for aux. lights.  It appears that if you use the hi beam hot (+12v) from either right or left headlamp for your aux. lighting relay trigger , then that will cause a ground path when the main light switch is in the OFF position and the DRL's are lit.  This ground path will likely energize the hi beam lamp on the side that you tapped into and will also energize the relay for the aux. lighting.  NOT GOOD.  A simple work around came from a suggestion by Tatunka about disabling the DRL circuit.  He said that removing fuse F3 (DRL main fuse) in the IPDM fuse block (number 45 fuse in Headlamp circuit diagram in FSM exterior lighting) would disable the DRLs.  This is true, but as a side benefit, this also disables the power feed that would cause the added aux. relay trigger to energize the hi beam lamp and aux. lighting when the light switch is off.  So, with the F3 fuse pulled out, you have no DRL's and the lo/hi beam circuit work like a normal setup and as such you can tie in your aux. lighting relay trigger to the hi beam or lo beam hot (+12v)  for running driving lights or fog lights triggered off of your hi/lo beams.  

    This is all still speculation from pouring over the circuit diagrams ( except for the pulling of fuse F3, which Tatunka has tested) as I have yet to do the installation and fully test out the theory.

 

                                                             Pete Fazio

[andy_george]

Awesome.... Hope it works that well in practice. Sounds like you're a lot better at following wiring diagrams than I am....!

[jaredg]

I know this thread is old, but did anyone have any luck getting some driving lights to work with the high beams? If not, does anyone have the factory wiring diagrams to share?

 

Thanks.

 

Jared

[peter_fazio]

   Hi,

 

  Jared I just saw your post about my driving light setup.  Yes, I got the system to work.  I made a small wiring pigtail that goes between the right headlight bulb and it's harness.  I tap off of the hi beam +12v to trigger the driving light relay.  I let the lo beam +12v go through uninterrupted.  I take the headlight ground directly to frame ground via the pigtail, which separates the harness end from ground.  In doing it this way, there is no backfeed through ground which would normally illuminate the DRL's when the light switch is off.  The setup works great.  The driving lights go on with the hi beams, the lo beams work as normal, but you will not have any DRL functionality.  Also, by using the pigtail, I can unplug the pigtail from between the headlight and the harness and then plug the harness back onto the headlight and restore all the lighting to factory stock.

 

                                                                       Pete

[jaredg]

Thanks for the reply, Pete. That sounds pretty slick, but I'm trying to retain the DRLs because my wife likes them. Any chance you could share the factory wiring diagrams? 

[peter_fazio]

  Jaredg,

 

  Sorry for the late reply.  But, yes, I have the factory wiring diagram for the headlights on the NV.  I will attach the file for the exterior lighting.

 

                                   Pete

 

 

EXL.pdf

[jaredg]

Thanks, Pete!