Daylight running LEDs (DRL) and indicator signals on Chrysler

This is a short post on fitting daylight running LEDs to my Chrysler Grand Voyager 2.8CRD. This should work with most editions of the GV, I'd expect right up to the newer facelift editions, so right through to 2007/2008 I believe.

So the first step is ordering the right DRLs, I went for ones that have DRL and indicator function built in, as some information suggests when indicators are on the DRL should switch off to avoid confusion to oncoming drivers, I also like this 'look' where the DRL goes off, the indicator flashes and when indicators are cancelled then the DRL will come back on. This needs units with a little electronics but you can buy these for around £10 easily in the UK. I went for the longer 60cm lights, and went with the light 'bar' type where the LEDs are inside a plastic diffuser to give a more even illumination.
The next job was how to connect into the indicators, I took the headlight unit out (3 flathead screws at the top of the headlight assembly), undid one bolt that holds the plastic facia of the bumper around them for easier access and the headlight comes out. Checking the connector I identified the wire and spliced a wire into it using push/crimp connectors.
That connection goes to the orange wire on the DRL for that side, you then run two other wires, one is ground to either the nearest grounding point, or a post on the battery terminal. The other needs to feed back to an ignition switched live, I went for in the fusebox a small piggy-back fuse splitter and connected this to the cigarette lighter/acc socket fuse. This allows the DRLs to be on whenever the ignition switch is on (Remember the DRLs are very low current draw).

Fitting them, I had the option of above or below the existing lamp, both are relatively easy, but to squash the led bar in nicely I went for underneath, which gives good results, the light actually shines a little through the existing lens so it partially lights the main light up in duller weather.

Results were good.
Here you can see the position of the LED tubes underneath the lens.

It took a little pushing/pulling to get in the right place, I'm not 100% happy as they're not even over the whole headlight lens but I'm going to fix that by moving them around and possibly using dots of superglue to hold them against the headlight.

These are pretty bright when on and give off a nice glow:

And when the indicator is on the white DRLs go out and replaced by a flashing (in time with your indicator flash) orange bar:

(Catching the flash was difficult, here you can see the 'off' part of the sequence, hence it's not as bright as it actually looks!)

All in all for £10 and an hours work it went really well!