DRL's - hopefully the definitive guide

[WTF]

Can I have my DRLs on at night? No.

.

Questions have been asked . . . .

How do you get the Running led lights to work at night? think it looks S**t hot

Anyone know how to get the leds on with the main headlights. They go off when I switch the main lights on and I've seen a lot of cars with them both on.

Hi there,

What's the deal with the day lights can we have them on with the main beam aswell? They look great on the audis at night!!

And questions have been answered. . . a few times

So.

To clarify, you can have the function of your sidelights changed by accessing the ECU with a Lexia tool so they run with your DRL's. You can not have the DRL function changed so they run alongside the mainlights + side.

BEFORE:
0 - DRL
1 - Sidelights - normal rear light function
2 - Main headlight + Sidelights - normal rear light function

AFTER (using lexia)
0 - DRL + Sidelights - normal rear light function
1 - Sidelights - normal rear light function
2 - Main Headlight + Sidelights - normal rear light function






But other cars have their's on at night with their headlights?
Our DRL's are too bright to run legally at night. There a more cars on the market now with Day Light Running Lights and similar that run at night with headlights, but all of these run at a lower intensity than ours and are road legal.

UK regulations briefly required vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1987 to be equipped with a dim-dip device or daytime running lamps, except such vehicles as comply fully with ECE Regulation 48 regarding installation of lighting equipment. A dim-dip device operates the low beam headlamps (called "dipped beam" in the UK) at between 10 percent and 20 percent of normal low-beam intensity. UK DRLs must emit at least 200 candela straight ahead, and no more than 800 candela in any direction. These regulatory provisions were based on ILPE research and recommendations
Source thread here

Just to clear up what Audi does with it's DRL system. Yes it uses the same strip of LED's for DRL and side lights.

The way the lights are powered is the 'trick'.

The DS3 uses a 'simple' straight 12v from the battery when required to be on. (simple terms I accept it probably is controlled by some module or other)

The AUDI's uses an Electronic Module to control the LED's and a system called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to send the voltage to the LED's, so what this allows you to do is when you want DRL function at the LED, the module with send 100% PWM voltage to the LED's, and when you switch the side lights on (or any forward facing light) the modules knows the different requirement and will send a 50% PWM voltage to the LED's and you get a dimmer LED (also an ECE requirement for side lights).

Audi use the same technology for tail/brake lights, 50% tail / 100% brake, you welcome to follow an A5 around and night and you should see the RED LEDs go brighter when he presses the brake lights, but don't get to close

Hope this clears a few questions on why AUDI and Range Rover 'get away' with it.

Steve

Source thread here


How this affects your warranty

There have now been a few threads now about modifying the DS3 vehicle setting via the PSA group Lexia Tool. Because of the nature of this issue I decided that we needed clarification of what this means to owners.

After speaking with the UK Warranty Manager for PSA this is what he advised;

“Changing the function would have no impact on the Warranty but modifying the harness would mean that Citroen cannot be responsible for the consequences of the modification or problems with the modification. (sic)”

What this means is that if Functions are changed by a dealer when the warranty is supported still by Citroen UK, but any repercussion causes by these actions will be the responsibility of the owner. For example any person wishing to have the LED running lights to remain on all the time and fall foul of the Police.

When asked about owners making changes themselves via the Lexia tool this was the response given;

“The basic principle would be that they would have be responsible for the impact of the changes that are made e.g., deactivating the automatic handbrake (sic).”

What this means to owners is that if you use a Lexia Tool to change settings with your car then the full responsibility of those actions fall onto the owner who made the changes. Citroen UK will not honour any warranty claim to them.

So in conclusion if you use a Lexia tool to make changes to your DS3 then don’t expect Citroen UK to honour any warranty given on that car, in much the same way as engine chipping or other modifications that alter the vehicle.

If your dealer makes the changes then there appears to have no impact, as long as the owner understands that Citroen can not be held to account for any consequences that these actions cause. So if you ask your dealer to alter the setting on your LED’s to remain on then your warranty is not affected but if you are stopped and charged by the Police then you can not hold your dealer responsible.

I hope that this will help to clear up what is already a grey area.

Source thread here


How?

* Most CUK garages will make this change for you, and most will charge.
* By using a Lexia 3 Tool, this may void your warranty as per above.



Need to know more?
Try our library of threads:

• Running LED lights
• LED Daytime lights
• How-to-turn the Day Running Lights on
• drls
• LEDs with main headlights
• LED day lights when using full beam
• Day Lights
• LED light on all the time. Anyone found out how yet
• Day Running Lights
• Howto LEDs lit in the day and LED Hedlight in the night
• Led lights
• Lexia 3?

Search 'Lexia' 'DRL lights' 'LED Lights' 'Day time lights' etc etc


For all new people who are wondering about lights, I hope this clarifies things for you, or one of the above threads does. If you need to know more, please feel free to ask here, but please don't post a new thread for a topic that has been widely covered. It's not that we are reluctant to help, but this has been covered a lot and the majority of information is here on the site.



With thanks to Zack, Bigfeet and Woolsy

DS3club.co.uk accepts no responsibilty for any changes to the warranty of your vehicle should you chose to decide you alter your car from factory standard. Nor is this thread an encouragement to make changes to your vehicle. Owners do so at their own risk taking also into account legality

[Bigfeet]

Nice piece Joni, good work but you forgot to mention the frogs....

[jazd71]

Damn fine explanation, clear and simple! Perhaps any new members could have some links to this and other FAQ sent to them when they join.

[Frankj]

Nice and clear guy's, I would love to have mine on with rear/side lights, but my Dealer won't do it at any price (Grenson Motors) can anyone give me the name of someone who will in the Midlands or North West.

Cheers ~~~FJ

[Rickzayne]

Frankj try BCC on blackburn road they did mine.

[Frankj]

Hi Rick

Thanks for the responce, but BCC have declined the job, quote: "it can't be done".

[ZACK]

Thanks for the responce, but BCC have declined the job, quote: "it can't be done".

LOL

Well They Did Ricks ?

[Dangerousfish]

Hi Rick

Thanks for the responce, but BCC have declined the job, quote: "it can't be done".

I queried this with them also. They will do it at a cost. Try asking the right person

[billy smith]

now wondering what the implications will be if i ran these round the windows following the shape of the car spose id av to av a switch on the dash so i could switch them on or off or mebbe just hard wire them to the lights.

i put this in forra laugh

[Frankj]

Give me a clue, who is the "right person" to ask ?

I queried this with them also. They will do it at a cost. Try asking the right person

[Bigfeet]

Give me a clue, who is the "right person" to ask ?

In regards to this I would suggest that you re-read the section above written by myself. Most dealers know that setting the car to run with the side lights on as well as the DRL is a 'grey area' and therefore many will not want to get involved. You need to know how the warranty system works and how it effects dealers to really understand this, but I'm not going into that today.

The only suggestion is IF you must do this is to ring around dealers to find one who is prepared to go against Citroen UK internal policy regarding the use of DRL's.

Another suggestion is to try a Peugeot Agent as they use the same system as Citroen.

[Faxo]

Perrys Citroen Huddersfield will do it

[Chris_Blue]

Anyone got an idea whether the fitting of DRLs on all cars will be retrospective?

They sell those naff kits for DRLs everywhere and people are putting them ALL sorts or rubbish motors

I even saw a German MINI (clears throat loudly) with a cheap set on the other day and had a right larf

And out of all the DRLs u gotta say
DS3s ARE THE BEST
CBLUE

[Bigfeet]

It my understanding that by August this year all new vehicles in the UK must have DRL's as per European Union rulings.

[Frankj]

Mine is now running with DRL's and sidelights thanks to Perrys (Thank you Faxo), what can I do next ?, I am thinking of "chipping", what is the current thinking on this I run a DSport 110 Diesel ?.

Cheers ~~~ FJ