I'll give it a test tonight - going to measure the battery voltage at a set time tonight and again in the morning, I'll also try and note any drain from the 30-second Welcome Home - or perhaps should be called, "welcome home and plug your car into the Ctek charger"! haha.. I'll perform the same test again tomorrow after I install the diode.

The smaller bulb is called "position indicator / lamp" and is very low wattage, maybe 5 W max, the Fog Light bulb are 35W each - so a total of 80W for 30 seconds (potentially 1 minute if you take a short drive from departure then returning home) since both light up- may cause enough of a drain to the battery for some folks who don't drive a lot, what really hurts the battery is when you start the car~ as that takes a lot of power / amps to get things running. So I'll be interested to see the outcome. Seems like the diode should do the trick., I'm also going to test the wires after the welcome home switch goes off and see if truly any current is being drawn...

 

Just a quick update / feedback on the Diode/DRL mod. I got a new Bosch battery before I did this mod., and let me say this is probably one of the cheapest and coolest mod's I've done! I read all 200+ posts and decided it was a mute point to test battery voltage, etc. The only thing I noticed is that both of the wires being connected together with the diode showed constant power, so I assume the actual switch just grounds out the fog light causing it to light up? My initial concern was that the diode would get really hot (as it did in my test with constant 12v going through it), but I tested it in the car and it did not....no issues whatsoever with battery drain.. thank guys - good stuff!

 

I just came back from 7 days of vacation and my car started right up. The switch was in the home position. I have not done the diode mod, only the drl hack. I think that if there is a drain on the battery, it has to be very minimal.

 

Give it a month.

 

That's where the battery tender comes in! Seems based on recent feedback (esp using the easier diode method) that there doesn't seem to be accelerated battery drain due to this mod...

 

It's not a slow drain it's instant. As mentioned above, the car will leave fogs on the "on" even though the car is completly off, it doesn't do this every time, I had my DRL hack working for 4 months until one day the ECU left them on, and you'll have a dead battery. Mine's a daily driver, I went from 100% charge to completely dead within 2 days.

 

Has anyone else experienced the lights remaining on AFTER the 30 second "Welcome Home" time period expires?

Do you lock your car using the key remote or leave it unlocked in your garage. (Maybe this makes a difference?)

 

I leave my car unlocked when it is in my garage. I don't know what would cause the ECU to leave the fogs on. Maybe the door wasn't closed all the way?

 

Update, just came back from a 7 day vacation and the car started right up. The switch was in the home position. I am using the diode mod, no issues!

 

I'm not using the diode however I haven't seen my battery go down at all. When the batter did lose charge I checked into it and I was able to determine it was a USB cigarette lighter plug that I use to charge my phone or iPod. When it's plugged in, it has a light that stays on...so that would drain the battery over several days of non operation. It's the only thing that stays on in my car.

I have left it for 4 to 5 days now and no issues. I think the mod is good!!

 

Can you please advise which if the pins is the "Parking light" terminal? "A?" I want to try this with using my "parking lights" rather than Fog light.

Thoughts?

 

On the same connector, here's the pinout descriptions

Pin Description

Top Row
A1 Low Beam
A2 Automatic Light
A3 Side Marker Light
A4 Term.15
A5 Fog Light

Bottom Row
A6 Term 31
A7 Rear Fog Light
A8 <no connection>
A9 <no connection>
A10 Term.58 D


For fog lights, connect A2 Automatic Light to A5 Fog Light with the diode. For side markers use A3 Side Marker LIght to A2 Automatic Light

Good Luck!

 

So this mod with a diode can basically give us a low beam only DRL also? I think I will try that. I am also going to install a switch in line with the diode so that if I ever want no lights on I have that option available to me. Thanks for this info. I wired my truck in a similar way.

 

Don't you just set your switch to the off position for all off?

 

I wish I'm in Canada with the daytime running lights and every light is on all the time and I have zero control so it makes you wonder why I even have a light switch. From the time the ignitions on the full parking lights as well as the headlights are in, totally stupid.