[zzyzx]

I tested out the DRL mod, using a diode to keep the DRLs on at night with the headlights. I thought the DRLs were too bright which surprised me. I first tested during the day and they seemed more than fine but was surprised how much brighter the lights were in full dark.

Has anyone done this mod have feedback on whether it was too bright for other drivers? Maybe it's relative to the rather dim headlights, but I felt like the glare was enough to be unsafe. I suppose you could put a resistor in series and dim the DRLs that way, but not sure about having all those components bouncing around under the hood.

 

[SharkVolt]

While the DRLs may seem really bright compared to the OEM headlights, they actually do not seem to bother oncoming drivers, and after installing HID headlights in my Volt, I found the DRLs did not increase glare or appear brighter than the low beam setting of the headlights, but they did increase the lighting of street signs and pedestrians alongside the road, which I found very helpful. And, I have never, in over five years of driving, had a single other driver flash their lights at me, so IMHO, there should be no problem with them.

I had originally considered that I might have to add a resistor to dim them some, and even figured out roughly what size it should be. The DRLs draw about one amp, which means their resistance is roughly 12-14 ohms, so roughly a 5 ohm resister should drop the brightness down without stopping current flow, which usually happens at about half voltage on most LEDs. If you do this, I would advise using 25 watt wirewound resisters, and isolate them so they can't melt any wires if they get hot.

 

[Barry]

I thought the same thing at first. I have been running them for almost a year and have never had another driver flash their lights at me. I really don’t think it is a problem. The DRLs do not have a sharp cutoff like the headlights. They look much brighter than the headlights when viewed from close to the car and well above the headlight cutoff line. But that is not really a good viewing angle. If you turn your high-beams on and walk far enough away so you can view the car from within the main part of the headlight beam, you will see that the DRLs appear pretty dim compared to the high beams. They look like normal low beams or even relatively dim low beams.

Another way to judge these is if you can get them on during darkness with the headlights off (it is difficult to achieve this condition), you will see that alone, they make terrible headlights. You can't see much with them. Too dim for driving.

I assume that since they are designed to be on while driving, they conform to some official brightness standard. Also note the the European version Ampera has these lights on at night as a standard configuration.

Overall, I really like the mod. I think it helps fill out the headlight beam nicely and improve vision at night.

 

[zzyzx]

Thanks for the feedback. I was looking for someone to talk me into going ahead with the mod since I like the look much better. I agree with you SharkVolt on the HIDs vs. OEM lights. I'd feel better with brighter headlights installed so the contrast isn't as stark between the headlights and DRLs. I'll revisit this mod when I get around to upgrading to HIDs.

Barry - When I tested it at night I walked down the street several car lengths, but I was still standing up. That may be why the headlights seemed so much dimmer than the DRLs.