darrinsmith

Hi Everyone. I finally got around to putting some DRL's on my 2003 Cayenne Turbo. After my wife had a bad t-bone in our 911 after a guy ran a red light driving into the sun, I'm sure that DRL's would have helped against the Porsche Silver "cloak of invisibility"!. Anyway I chose some cheap DRL's and a DRL controller from e-bay. I controller is really neat, in that it only requires wiring to the battery, and it detects the voltage increase when the car is running and turns the lights on. When you stop the car and the voltage drops down to resting, the module senses this and shuts the lights off after a 30 second delay, which is really nice. It also has the option to flash the lights if you connect the respective wires to the flasher circuit and to also dim the LED's when you switch the headlights on. I didn't connect either of these as I thought it would interfere with the cayenne's faulty bulb detection and also the DRL's I chose are not so bright that they need to be dimmed at night. Total cost of the project was about $25 for the DRL's and the same for the controller. Time to install about 45-60 minutes. Anyway on with the action.... Here's a picture of the Lights I chose, You should be able to use anything you like. These ones fit perfectly between the grille slots on the front of the car. Some people might like wider lights. First step is to remove the headlights, and the plastic trim panels around the edge of the engine bay. This will allow access to everything you need (Note my vehicle is RHD so you may need to work on the other side on LHD vehicles. Next remove each grille, on my car (a turbo) the grilles can just be pulled straight out. Lift the bottom of the frame a little and it'll just pop right out. Here's me figuring out where the lights will go. I then drilled some small holes, and use 8gx15mm flat head timber screws to hold the DRL's to the upper frame. With the light's I chose, they have a very large empty area, that is no problem to drill right through. When installed you can't see the screws at all. Next I passed up the wire from the DRL through the little hole that is inboard in the air duct. It's the perfect size for passing wire's through. Here's a picture of where the wire comes through. Make sure the wire is neat in the grille and that it's tucked up nicely. Next I mounted the DRL controller. This is a picture looking through the left hand headlight opening. I used a electrical tie to hold it onto the body. I left some excess wire under the headlight, so if I need to remove the grilles (for cleaning the intercoolers) I have enough wire to pull them out. Next I wires up the positive and negative. There is a little black terminal box next to the jump connections in the engine bay. There was actually a spare pole in the box that I was able to use a round-ended crimp terminal to attach to it, and then use a bolt to secure it. Conveniently next to the jump terminals, the power steering resovoir retaining bolt serves as a perfect earth. Make sure you solder all your connections, don't rely solely on crimping. Same goes for the connector to your DRL's as they'll be exposed to some water, even though they're behind the headlights. Next re-install the headlights, and plastic trims around the engine bay. Fire up the car and check out your good work! Happy and Safe driving!