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Installing DRLs in a Hijet for free.

Discussion in 'Daihatsu Hi jet' started by robbieg, Apr 27, 2011.

  1. robbieg

    robbieg New Member

    Up until now I haven't had Daytime Running Lights on my Daihatsu Hijet. If your vehicle was manufactured before January 1st 1990 you don't need them.... It's a 1990 Hijet, so I figured it fell under that category. If I had the original import paperwork I wouldn't have to guess.

    But... I finally proactively broke down and installed DRLs. And, like most everyone on Earth, I'm cheap... and wanted to do it for free... so I did!

    The Hijet (and all minitrucks) are painfully simple. It really reminds me of working on my classic VW Beetle. Two relays and simple to understand!

    Waiver: I am not responsible for anything that breaks your vehicle, or you. Also, I was thinking about naming this post "how not to install DRLs in a Hijet. I had no manual and made some stupid decisions. That being said... it was easy and works.

    Ok! The Hijet has two lights in the corner housing: One for signaling, one for being a side marker. I made the side marker light come on when the ignition is on. I used the ACC circuit to do this. To make things painfully easy, I used the wire that goes to the cigarette lighter, and spliced from that.

    Corner lighting:
    sideMarkerCompressed.jpg

    First thing to do... take out the ACC fuse. There is a cover on the fusebox that pops off... squeeze the sides to pop it off (you don't need to undo the screw). The lower right fuse is the one you want to remove.

    FusesCompressed.jpg

    Now, behind the lighter you'll see two wires. Use a multimeter to see which one is 'hot'.

    Good. put that to the side for a moment. Remove the amber housing to get to the wires behind it. You also need to remove the vent that is inside the cab behind the headlight to run the wires. Do that now.

    Remove the side marker.

    The vent to remove, note the wire going in behind it.

    BehindLightCompressed.jpg
    BehindLightRemovedCompressed.jpg
    The vent removed, you can now see the back of the headlight.

    Now, figure out which wire is the hot wire to the marker light, and which is the ground. The easiest way to do this is to turn on the side markers, and shove the lead of your multimeter into the backs of the harness clips. My control (hot) wire was green with a red stripe, and the black was ground.

    WiresCompressed.jpg
    WiresCloseup2Compressed.jpg
    Now, run a wire from the hot wire on the cigarette lighter to the control wire of the corner marker. I used the existing clips and hacked my wire on there, leaving the original wire.

    Make sure everything is wired in tight, put your fuse back in and turn your key!

    Now, something happy happened. Since I left the original wire, when I hacked in my new hot wire from the cigarette lighter... both the corner markers come on! Huzzah! That means you only need to do this process to one of your corner markers.

    Done!

    Funny notes: you can really see the poor job that was done as an aftermarket paint job.... oh well.

    Serious note: now that I know this, a better way to do this would be to find the wire that runs to the corner marker by the fusebox. I don't have a wiring diagram, and this was easy.

    Rob

    Originally posted on http://www.righthanddrive.ca
     
    Acerguy likes this.
  2. fupabox

    fupabox Well-Known Member

    Absolutely correct ..it is an easy job that should take no more than 15-20 mins..the other nice thing about using marker lights as DRLs is that ALL lights now come on with IG. power...not a bad thing to be extra visible....one note ...my 1992 hijet has the same front marker/turn signals as yours...if you swap the position of the turn signals with the markers..the wider bulge in the corner light becomes your DRL..and much easier to see from the front...

    good write-up...thanks for sharing
     
  3. starpuss

    starpuss Member

    thats the same way i did mine. works Real nice. (but i put mine on a switch&relay so i can turn them off when i need to... )
     
  4. SilverCreek

    SilverCreek New Member

    Thank you robbieg I followed your instructions and it worked perfectly. Now lets hope i pass my etest tomorrow, and then I can start saving some money in fuel instead of driving my f250 all over the place
     
  5. erixun

    erixun Member

    Very nice post. Thanks. I thought about doing this to my carry as well, but it might void my super secret invisible ninja club membership. :D. I think what I am going to try and do is wire a "lights left on idiot buzzer" to mine, so I wont forget to shut my lights off, only because I use mine for hunting and sometimes like to be dark when getting close to my day light spot....
     
  6. Stuff99

    Stuff99 Moderator Staff Member

    lol mine have been working intermittent lately. sometimes they come on and some times they dont. oh well.
     
  7. starpuss

    starpuss Member

    that is why i put a switch on mine. (hunting) and for when i play car hide and seek
     
  8. robbieg

    robbieg New Member

    Awesome! I'm glad that my instructions were clear enough to follow!
    Good luck on the e-test, and welcome to the minitruck club!
     
  9. MiniBrutes

    MiniBrutes Member

    Depending on which wire you splice into, the circuit can back feed to the ignition system. What this means is that if you have the headlight switch on ans shut off the key, the truck will stay running!

    We have seen many come through the shop wired right to the ignition. Lol.
     
  10. starpuss

    starpuss Member

    YUP! i did that on my old quad when i set up some HID lights on it lol!!
     
  11. slayer30

    slayer30 New Member

    will just marker lights pass a drl in BC

    Will just marker light pass a drl in Bitish Columbia?
     

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