Fogs as DRL (HID headlights - no DRL)

Hi everyone,

I'm new-ish to this forum. I used to lurk years ago when I had a heavily modified forged Mazdaspeed Protege but now I'm in a Mazda5 mini-mini van with little ones skampering around the house. I'd like to ask if anyone has attempted or can share insight on how to rewire the DRL signal to go to the fog lights instead of the headlights.

In my MSP I ran the fogs independantly off the ignition wire in the steering column so it was powered only when the car was "ON" and then I simply snipped the DRL cable. I'd like to run a little less of a hack and slash mod if possible.

Has anyone done something like this? I tried searching and didn't find any results at least for this vehicle. (A-T only, but mine is Manual)

Thanks for your help!
 
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Here is something I came with awhile ago. It still need some more testing. The problem is I was expecting the DRL to be running at around 50-60% duty cycle but it seems to be higher.

4vmf10.jpg
 
Here is something I came with awhile ago. It still need some more testing. The problem is I was expecting the DRL to be running at around 50-60% duty cycle but it seems to be higher.

This makes some sense to me, but my electrical experience only goes as far as leads, grounds, relays and fuses.

From my research I can see the DRL system is different between >07, 08-10 and 11+ models is that correct? I have a '09 and wondering how the wiring is different and/or if there is an opportunity for an easier solution.

I haven't ripped things out under the dash yet (just got the car last weekend) so I'm not even sure where the DRL module is or what wire colors to look at.

Any and all insight is hugely appreciated
 
There is no need to modify the factory harness. It can be done by just using the original H7 and H11 connector from the factory harness and build your own harness to go between the bulbs. It is like doing a HID conversion and putting in a relay harness accept you will have the circuit and relays controlling the H7 and H11 bulbs. Here is a connection diagram that I made when I was more motivated and spare time. Only one of the original factory H7 and H11 connection is need for the circuit to control the lights, I included the HID because I have already done the conversion.

29olelf.jpg
 
I too was going to do such a conversion when I installed my hid kit and dealt with flickering during drl operation.

Bascially I was just going to run extension harnesses from the h11 fog sockets to my hid headlights and then harnesses from my h7 sockets to my yellow halogen fogs.

I leave my headlight switch to auto all the time anyway so daytime my fogs would be on, then when it's dark enough the headlights would turn on. Never got around to it but might still do it if I take my bumper off to install my front lip

For now I just grounded to the chassis the ground wire off the hids to stop the flickering, sure my hids are on all the time but it doesn't bother me so much
 
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I too was going to do such a conversion when I installed my hid kit and dealt with flickering during drl operation.

Bascially I was just going to run extension harnesses from the h11 fog sockets to my hid headlights and then harnesses from my h7 sockets to my yellow halogen fogs.

I leave my headlight switch to auto all the time anyway so daytime my fogs would be on, then when it's dark enough the headlights would turn on. Never got around to it but might still do it if I take my bumper off to install my front lip

For now I just grounded to the chassis the ground wire off the hids to stop the flickering, sure my hids are on all the time but it doesn't bother me so much

So you were basically just going to swap the headlight wiring with the fog light wiring?

Did you get a chance to try this? It sounds super simple and might achieve the right results. I also keep my lights to "Auto" so I'm trying to maintain that functionality. I need to take a longer look at what's going on, but it sounds like you might be on to something :)
 
If you have a separate low beam, high beam, fog, and DTRL relay it shouldn't be that hard.

find out which pin on the DTRL relay socket is the trigger, then run that to the trigger of the fog lights relay.

DTRL relay may have to be installed for other functionality, so you may have to snip the trigger pin of the relay and reinstall it.

just keep spare relays in the glove box, if you need to switch back.
 
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