Added Running Lights To Mazda5 Sport

Over the weekend I finally added running lights to my 2012 Mazda5 Sport. This is an addition that I've been thinking about for a while. Below you'll find a link to the website and product I chose to use. It's a 3-watt white LED driving light with projector housing. Very small, quite bright, and very reasonable price from vleds.com. I installed them in the lower fascia where the foglights (foglight covers on Sport models) would normally be.

I used a fuse tap to get power for the circuit from the main fuse panel and I ran the ground to the chassis ground near the drivers side strut tower. Ideally, the lights should be on when the ignition is on. Trouble is that there was no fused circuit that I could tap into that was only on when the ignition is on. Test light confirmed they were all getting power no matter whether ignition was on or off. To get the lights to be usable, if not ideal, I tapped into the parking light circuit for power. Parking lights must be on for the LEDs to be on, but for now it's better than nothing. I love they way they look and they really do provide lots of good light at night. See the pics below.

http://www.vleds.com/multi-fit-led/drl-fog-led/6k-white-diy-3w-led-drl-fog-driving-aux-light.html

Adding Running Lights To Mazda5 Sport







More Running Light Pics

Do you have a pic of what the beam pattern looks like on a white wall?

Not to be a negative nancy, but they look pretty glaring to oncoming drivers (much more glare than your headlights):


I'm pretty sure I wouldn't appreciate that coming at me on a 2 lane road, or in my rear view mirror.

sac02, here's the photo you asked for: beam pattern on a white wall. Please note, my driveway slopes a bit upward to my garage, so the beam pattern appears higher than it would if driving straight down the road.

The night photos I posted with the lights on are not all that great, taken with a cell phone camera. That being said, I didn't install these lights for the other drivers on the road, I installed them for me.

MarkVII88 said:

View attachment 206744
That being said, I didn't install these lights for the other drivers on the road, I installed them for me.

Click to expand...

Something you may want to check out. It may not be legal in your state to drive with parking lights w/o having the driving lights on at the same time. It is not legal in my state (CA).

Also, you may be making it hard on other drivers, with glare, it's hard to see where you are going. However, my guess is that you are only putting out 150-300 lumens per bulb so it's probably not that bright - compared to HIDs at 3000 lumens. I don't know how many lumens DRLs put out.

MarkVII88 said:

View attachment 206744

sac02, here's the photo you asked for: beam pattern on a white wall. Please note, my driveway slopes a bit upward to my garage, so the beam pattern appears higher than it would if driving straight down the road.

The night photos I posted with the lights on are not all that great, taken with a cell phone camera. That being said, I didn't install these lights for the other drivers on the road, I installed them for me.

Click to expand...

The "beam pattern" is simply a cone of light spraying as much light up as they do down - there is literally no cutoff. You are throwing a significant amount of lights upwards and certainly glaring other drivers. You need to remove these lights, they are illegal, annoying, and unsafe. Your viewpoint that you installed these lights for you, and you do not care about other drivers, is selfish and immature to say the least.