So...I've had angel eyes on my car for over a year now. It had bothered me that I never set them up for DRL originally so I sought a solution to my woes and was able to find one.
Originally, I had my AE's powered off of my parking lights. This is a common thing that many people do and I personally didn't think it was cool. At first I was happy to have AE's but after awhile I wanted them as DRL's/DDE's. This is what they looked like before with the setup I had.
I feel that the amber side markers make the setup look cheap and my parking lights in my tail lights were on as well with this setup.
I found out that Umnitza sold a harness that could be setup in DRL and a few other things as well. This is what the harness looks like. I have a suspicion that this harness was designed with the E46 in mind though.
The harness is fairly simple but it's nice because it has an inline fuse and a majority of the wiring is inside heat resistant wrapping which not only makes it look good but keeps things organized.
Step 1:
First thing I did was disconnect the ground from the battery. This is for safety reasons even though this install should not require it. I felt that since I'm going to be grounding wires and tapping into the accessory wire in the ECU compartment it definitely wouldn't hurt to be on the side of caution. I removed the ground using a 10mm socket wrench and then I let the car sit for about 10 minutes to let any extra power disperse.
Step 2:
While letting the car discharge after removing the ground, I proceeded to remove the cabin filter/air box on the passenger side of the car. Removing the box will give you access to the cover of the ECU, which you will need to remove for the next step.
Step 3:
I removed the 4 hex head bolts holding the cover of the ECU on allowing me access the wiring inside.
The wire you will need to tap into is the accessory wire which is half red and half white with yellow hashes on it. I used the supplied T-tap that came with the harness to install the trigger wire. I clamped the T-tap securely down on the accessory wire a set of pliers. Not too much force was required for this but just make sure the wire is sitting in the correct position before you clamp the T-tap into position.
It will look like this once completed.
After installing the T-tap, plug the red wire into the T-tap and you're done with the scary stuff.
Step 4:
The next step of the installation is to find a 12 volt power source and a solid ground. The obvious choice for the power is the jump start terminal and in my installs case I used a bolt on top of the strut tower as the ground.
Remove the jump start terminal bolt using a 3/4" socket wrench. Slide the plastic cap out of the way to allow room to place power cable for the harness under the jump start cable. Place bolt back into hole and tighten in place.
My next step was to find the closest ground. In this case the ground for the jump start terminal is on the opposite side of the engine bay (bad design) so I settled with the strut tower as a ground. I removed the closest bolt and placed the ground in position. I made sure to tighten the bolt on the strut tower as it was when I removed it.
Step 5:
After finding power and a good ground I plugged the harness into the angel eyes and re-secured the ground on the battery in the trunk.
To test the Angel Eyes put key in ignition and turn the key to POS2. If you set everything up correctly the AE's will light up and stay on. If they work then you are done with the install. Now it's time to focus on cleaning up the wiring harness and making sure it's not too visible.
Step 6:
I hid the fuse box and second trigger wire underneath the drivers side air filter box. This compartments houses the brake booster and other cool stuff as well. I made sure to wrap the bare metal end of the second and unused trigger wire with electrical tape as to make sure there would be no problems with short circuiting. I wrapped all bare wire in electrical tape and tried to hide/route the harness so it looked like it belonged to the factory wiring harness.
Install time took roughly 30 minutes with basic hand tools. Cleaning everything up and putting everything back together took an additional 20 minutes. Overall, a very easy install that adds a lot of style.
Originally, I had my AE's powered off of my parking lights. This is a common thing that many people do and I personally didn't think it was cool. At first I was happy to have AE's but after awhile I wanted them as DRL's/DDE's. This is what they looked like before with the setup I had.
I feel that the amber side markers make the setup look cheap and my parking lights in my tail lights were on as well with this setup.
I found out that Umnitza sold a harness that could be setup in DRL and a few other things as well. This is what the harness looks like. I have a suspicion that this harness was designed with the E46 in mind though.
The harness is fairly simple but it's nice because it has an inline fuse and a majority of the wiring is inside heat resistant wrapping which not only makes it look good but keeps things organized.
Step 1:
First thing I did was disconnect the ground from the battery. This is for safety reasons even though this install should not require it. I felt that since I'm going to be grounding wires and tapping into the accessory wire in the ECU compartment it definitely wouldn't hurt to be on the side of caution. I removed the ground using a 10mm socket wrench and then I let the car sit for about 10 minutes to let any extra power disperse.
Step 2:
While letting the car discharge after removing the ground, I proceeded to remove the cabin filter/air box on the passenger side of the car. Removing the box will give you access to the cover of the ECU, which you will need to remove for the next step.
Step 3:
I removed the 4 hex head bolts holding the cover of the ECU on allowing me access the wiring inside.
The wire you will need to tap into is the accessory wire which is half red and half white with yellow hashes on it. I used the supplied T-tap that came with the harness to install the trigger wire. I clamped the T-tap securely down on the accessory wire a set of pliers. Not too much force was required for this but just make sure the wire is sitting in the correct position before you clamp the T-tap into position.
It will look like this once completed.
After installing the T-tap, plug the red wire into the T-tap and you're done with the scary stuff.
Step 4:
The next step of the installation is to find a 12 volt power source and a solid ground. The obvious choice for the power is the jump start terminal and in my installs case I used a bolt on top of the strut tower as the ground.
Remove the jump start terminal bolt using a 3/4" socket wrench. Slide the plastic cap out of the way to allow room to place power cable for the harness under the jump start cable. Place bolt back into hole and tighten in place.
My next step was to find the closest ground. In this case the ground for the jump start terminal is on the opposite side of the engine bay (bad design) so I settled with the strut tower as a ground. I removed the closest bolt and placed the ground in position. I made sure to tighten the bolt on the strut tower as it was when I removed it.
Step 5:
After finding power and a good ground I plugged the harness into the angel eyes and re-secured the ground on the battery in the trunk.
To test the Angel Eyes put key in ignition and turn the key to POS2. If you set everything up correctly the AE's will light up and stay on. If they work then you are done with the install. Now it's time to focus on cleaning up the wiring harness and making sure it's not too visible.
Step 6:
I hid the fuse box and second trigger wire underneath the drivers side air filter box. This compartments houses the brake booster and other cool stuff as well. I made sure to wrap the bare metal end of the second and unused trigger wire with electrical tape as to make sure there would be no problems with short circuiting. I wrapped all bare wire in electrical tape and tried to hide/route the harness so it looked like it belonged to the factory wiring harness.
Install time took roughly 30 minutes with basic hand tools. Cleaning everything up and putting everything back together took an additional 20 minutes. Overall, a very easy install that adds a lot of style.