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Daytime Running Light Installation, Page Updated January 27, 2008

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Project Completed in November 2006

Here is where I describe how I gave my 7th gen Corolla high beam Daytime Running Lights. I wanted DRLs, because my parking lights were not bright enough, and you cannot even tell if my headlights are on during the day. This way, my car can safely be seen in any situation. Plus, it would give me even more light at night, sort of as an auxiliary low beam.

However, I am not using these DRLs or these head lights anymore. I am using my HID fog lights for DRLs now instead.

Part of the reason I chose these headlights was for the circular high beam. I figured that if I used them with the DRLs, my car would look like the 2000ish Lexus IS300.

I would do this with a dual-filament bulb. I visited the store to see what bulb would work, and the 9007 bulb was perfect. It had two filaments, and one was in the same exact place as the filament in my stock high beam, so I knew that the high beam's focus would not be altered. I bought the bulbs from GP Thunder again, because I liked the blue color. I got the standard wattage of 55/65 watts.

Here is a picture comparing the bulbs- the bulb I got from the store, the GP Thunder bulb, and the stock high beam bulb. I lined up all of the filaments for the picture. The glass of the new bulb fit through the high beam hole, but the rest did not, so I would have to cut off some of the plastic with my Dremel tool.

This picture shows the bulb before and after I cut off the extra stuff, including a metal lip that was in the way. You can see that the bulb is only supported by the three wires now, but the bulb has stayed in place no problem. You can see that the remaining plastic just above the red ring is what will rest against the headlight. The red ring does nothing.

Then I had to figure out how to wire it. I could have a switch, or I could have it be automatic. I read about how most people with DRLs hate how they cannot turn them off, so I figured that I would avoid this with a switch. But if I only used a switch, I was sure to forget to turn it off every time I left the car, and during the day, I would not notice if I left them on. So I did both. I wired it to a fuse under the hood that only had power when the key was turned all the way, and I installed a switch on the dash to turn it off.

This was all great, but first I had to figure out how to get the wires through the firewall to the switch. After looking around, I found a good way to do it.

This picture was taken standing over the engine and looking down into the driver's side wheel well. Nice leaf lol

That would get the wires underneath the mud flap, so I removed it and saw that the wires could easily go through the next hole into the car. The hole on the left is where the wires pass under the hood. The hole on the right goes into the car. I stuck a screwdriver (circled in red) into the hole (which I don't recommend doing with the battery connected) so that I could see where the wires would come out of the other side.

I went inside and removed the dash pieces in the way. That is the hood release hanging down like that.

There was the screwdriver (circled in red again). I had made it into the car!

Then I easily popped the driver's side vent panel out.

I removed the little panel that goes where the power mirror switch goes so I could install the switch there. Then I drilled a hole for the switch to fit through, and put the switch in place.

Then I ran the wires, starting at the switch and going under the hood.

I found the appropriate fuse (squared in red) and cut a path through the plastic to it. You can see the other wires running to the headlight. Maybe one day, I will tie the wires in place. I pulled out the fuse, slipped the wire (which is 14 gauge, by the way) in there, and pushed the fuse back.

Here is the switch. I installed it so I could put another one next to it, but I never did.

At this point, I finished preparing the light bulbs by soldering wires to them and putting Epoxy on the light bulb wires to hold the glass in place. These were two of my biggest mistakes. Never put Epoxy on headlight bulbs- it burns! Fortunately, I tested the bulbs out before I put them in the headlights, or all that smoke would have gone into the headlights and would have ruined them! After chipping the Epoxy off completely, I was ready to install the bulbs.

First, I had to make some way to hold the bulb in place. After removing the existing metal piece that held the old bulb in, I fashioned some ghetto paper clips around each screw that would tie in the light bulb. The paper clip around the opening was extra and was not used.

Then, I put the light bulb in place, with the DRL filament directly above the high beam filament (which went in the center of the light). This way, my high beam would focus the same way, and my DRL would focus underneath of the high beam at about the same level as the low beam. I twisted the paper clips around the bulb to hold it in place, and that is how it is held in place today. I was going to caulk the cracks, but I figured that it would burn or something, so I left it alone. Surprisingly, I have not had any moisture in the lights since!

Getting the bulbs in the right place was really hard, especially since there are two filaments that have to be adjusted in one bulb. I thought that I had it right, but after a test use, one of the DRLs melted the lens right in front of it. After getting over ruining my new headlights (actually, the spot is very hard to notice), I realized that the DRL filament was focusing on the lens at that point, causing all of the heat to focus there. Not good. After more adjustments, the DRL does not focus anywhere, so it has not melted anymore (to this day). The DRL was complete, and it worked great.

But getting the high beam to work was another story. I used the stock high beam ground to ground both the filaments in the bulb, and the stock high beam hot to power the high beam. But for some reason, when the DRLs were on, both of the filaments in the DRL bulb would turn on very dim.(?) Then I would turn on the low beam, and the DRL would work normally. Then I would turn on the high beam, and both filaments got super bright.(???) I could not figure out why, but I realized that the high beam switches polarity when the low beam turns on (that is why there is a click under the hood every time you Corolla people turn on the low beams). Therefore, the high beam ground would not be acceptable, so I grounded it straight to the battery. Then the DRL worked normally, but the high beam did not work at all. So I acquired and installed a heavy-duty relay from RadioShak and had the high beam switch polarity so that when the relay was on, power flowed to the high beam filament. Finally, everything worked.

Here is a picture of the chaos going on in the front of the car. You can see the blue relays to get my turn signal to work the way it does, and all of the headlight mess. I don't even know if I can explain it all. The relay at the left with the green wires is for the high beam. Of course, now I don't have this chaos, because I got rid of all the relays and I am not using the DRLs anymore. But, I do have HIDs now, so the ballasts are back there now.

Well, on a happier note, it all worked perfectly. I took some pics of the beam patterns to help explain everything.

Here is the DRL by itself on the garage: You can see how the focus of the DRLs is below the center of the circle of light.

Here is the DRL and the high beam. Notice how the high beam focus is not altered, and it is above the DRL beam. This is because the DRL filament is located directly above the high beam filament. Notice how the high beam lights up the dark spot that the DRL does not light up.

Here is a picture of the DRLs with the low beams. Notice how much bluer the GP Thunder bulbs are compared to the stock halogens. And yes, I can drive with those at night, sort of light auxiliary driving lights (which was the entire point of focusing the DRL underneath the high beam). You can see that the focus of the DRL is in the same plane as the projectors.

Here it is during the day.

Again, this mod is not on my car anymore, and I don't really recommend doing it.

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Table of Contents

My Corolla Today
Page 1: Current Exterior
Page 2: Current Interior
Page 3: Current Engine
Page 4: Current Audio

Corolla Time Lines
Page 5: Phase Time Line
Page 6: Detailed Time Line

Other Stuff
Page 7: Photoshop
Page 8: Look at this page before you buy replacement LED bulbs
Page 9: Details on my current and future mods
Page 10: For Sale!

DIYs and Project Write-ups
Page 11: Bumper light LED retrofit 1
Page 12: Third Brake light LED retrofit
Page 13: Diablo Mirror LED replacement
Page 14: Taillight LED Retrofit 1
Page 15: High Beam DRL Mod
Page 16: Bumper Light LED Retrofit 2, PLUS detailed description of how I do LED mods
Page 17: Painting preparation (details on my fenders, grille, trunk, and Bondo)
Page 18: Side marker LED retrofit and installation
Page 19: HID fog lights and headlights
Page 20: Interior painting, modifications, and exterior trim painting
Page 21: Installing Halo/LED/Projector headlights
Page 22: Mirror cover LED replacement
Page 23: Installing a new stereo and speakers
Page 24: Body kit installation, front end conversion, and other body work for round 2
Page 25: Retrofitting LEDs into my third mirrors and front turn signals
Page 26: Putting interior LEDs behind the dash and in all the buttons and all over the interior
Page 27: LED tail light retrofit 2 and baking your lights in the oven to remove the lens