Fitting aftermarket DRLs to 2014 Mk3.5 (facelift) Focus

[nath_86]

Hi I hope someone on here may be able to help, I’ve been looking at adding aftermarket DRLs to my Focus and from searching the internet it seems the general answer for an ignition switched fuse to piggyback from is F42 in the engine bay fuse box.

The problem I have is that my car has no fuse there, and one of the connectors in the fuse box itself doesn’t exist either… 😕

I’ve attached a pic of the fuses my car does have there, would any of you know if any of them are ignition switched and safe to mess around with?

Thanks in advance!

Nathan

[DaveT70]

Are you facelift or pre-facelift?

On facelifts the Halogens H/Lights with DRLs are plug and play, just need to turn on DRLs with Forscan

[nath_86]

Facelift, also not fitting the OEM headlights with DRLs in them, just an aftermarket set that are part of a new pair of fog light surrounds, like these:

[DaveT70]

Well, the DRL circuit is there. Just need a wiring diagram

[nath_86]

Oh I see what you mean - they came supplied with a control box that has three wires coming from it for power/input. They’re red, black and pale blue/white (which I think is so it can dim/turn off the DRLs when lights are turned on) - oddly there’s an inline glass tube fuse on the black wire, but nothing on the red wire.

For ease (in theory!) I was going to use the same type of fuse piggyback as you get in a dashcam hardwire kit on the red, connect the black to ground somewhere and then the blue/white onto the positive for the sidelights.

Also both DRLs themselves have a red and black wire each, connected to another set of red and black output wires coming from the other side of the control box.

Would that wiring setup from the control box work with the OEM DRL circuit in the car?

[nath_86]

Right well I bit the bullet today and actually got these wired up - in the end using:

1. a fuse piggyback onto the “headlamp left and right” 5 amp fuse F39 at the top/back of the battery fuse box (I think this is power for the height adjustment motors, based on the Haynes manual wiring diagram?)

2. a fork terminal under a bolt behind the passenger headlamp for the ground

3. a crimp connector on the passenger sidelight power (yellow/blue, pin 12) by the headlamp connector so the control box can dim the DRLs once the lights come on

and it all actually works 😄

PS sorry for the rubbish photos, I’d put everything back together before thinking about taking pics 🤦🏻‍♂️

[TECHY7]

High nath_86,

I know it's an old post now but I have just seen your post on fitting the DRL's. to your Focus MK3.5.

Thanks for the write up, I have been looking to do a similar job to my Focus MK3.5 Titanium.

I have seen some on Aliexpress similar to the ones you have fitted, but I am concerned about how reliable they might be.

Where did you get yours from and how reliable have they been.

Regards,

TECHY7

[DaveT70]

14 hours ago, TECHY7 said:

High nath_86,

I know it's an old post now but I have just seen your post on fitting the DRL's. to your Focus MK3.5.

Thanks for the write up, I have been looking to do a similar job to my Focus MK3.5 Titanium.

I have seen some on Aliexpress similar to the ones you have fitted, but I am concerned about how reliable they might be.

Where did you get yours from and how reliable have they been.

Regards,

TECHY7

There should be plenty of 2nd hand Halogen headlights available now with LED DRLs.

Just need to confugure them on with FORScan, no wiring

[nath_86]

On 3/16/2023 at 5:16 PM, TECHY7 said:

High nath_86,

I know it's an old post now but I have just seen your post on fitting the DRL's. to your Focus MK3.5.

Thanks for the write up, I have been looking to do a similar job to my Focus MK3.5 Titanium.

I have seen some on Aliexpress similar to the ones you have fitted, but I am concerned about how reliable they might be.

Where did you get yours from and how reliable have they been.

Regards,

TECHY7

Hi sorry I’m a bit slow on replying, for some reason I didn’t get an email notification…

Mine were from eBay, and so far they’ve been absolutely fine, they’re still dimming when I turn lights on and generally doing everything they’re meant to, even after driving through quite a lot of standing water with all the rain we had a month or so ago (which I did worry might ruin them!)

I was sceptical when they arrived to be honest, as they’re very “Chinese import” and didn’t even come with actual instructions so I had to figure out the wiring as best as I could between myself and advice/other posts online. So based on that, whatever you’ve seen will probably be fine 🙂

[TECHY7]

On 4/2/2023 at 10:50 PM, nath_86 said:

Hi sorry I’m a bit slow on replying, for some reason I didn’t get an email notification…

Mine were from eBay, and so far they’ve been absolutely fine, they’re still dimming when I turn lights on and generally doing everything they’re meant to, even after driving through quite a lot of standing water with all the rain we had a month or so ago (which I did worry might ruin them!)

I was sceptical when they arrived to be honest, as they’re very “Chinese import” and didn’t even come with actual instructions so I had to figure out the wiring as best as I could between myself and advice/other posts online. So based on that, whatever you’ve seen will probably be fine 🙂

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for your reply.

I have now purchased a set of these DRL's from a company in China called Aliexpress ( I think most of these are DRL's are made in China anyway )

I have tried them on the bench and they are working fine. I must confess they look quite well made.

They have 5 leads going to the Control box, the red and black which are obviously the power leads, a white one to connect to the car's lighting circuit to dim the DRL's when the car's lights are turned on, and 2 yellow ones to connect to the car's indicators to change the white DRL's to orange to flash in sync with the indicators, I may not connect these 2 yellow leads as I do not know what the MOT rules maybe, incidentally I did not have the set that has the option to change the DRL's to blue when the car's lights are turned as  if they flicker at all they maybe classed as illegal.

My only concerns now are how well they fit in place of the original Fog light surrounds, and running the cables, whether it may mean having to remove the headlight units.

Anyway thanks again for the reply and your right-up.

Best regards,

Ken.

 

 

[TECHY7]

Hi Nathan,

As a follow up to my last post to you I may have been a little too quick in saying that my DRL's where working fine.

I have still not fitted them on the car yet but looking more closely at them working on the bench I find they are no where near as bright as what I was expecting and what I have had with other DRL's in the past.

On the back of the Control box there are given output voltages and current, and what I am finding is that the readings I am getting are far below those given.

Are you happy with the brightness of the ones you have, did you make any voltage or current checks.

Regards,

Ken