Driving Lamps

Venno · Motorer

Driving Lamps

TOWNEMINI · Towne MINI - Official

Although I would love to post the installation instructions with part numbers, somthing I really cant do. But ask your local dealer to print out the instructions
01 29 0 144 141 they will show you the way the OEM driving lamps are installed and the part numbers for the OEM harness, I feel the OEM harness should with maybe a little modification perform the job your driving lamps require.

Jack07734 · Motorer

The directions are here

http://www.motoringfile.com/howto/Driving_Lights_902.pdf

I just love the internet.

Cheers,
Jack

Venno · Motorer

Awsome! Great, I'll post pictures once i get them installed.

Jack07734 · Motorer

Some things to be aware of.

Most new cars do not use traditional relays for controlling devices. The relays have been replaced with solid state devices. These devices demand the utmost respect. Because of this I tend to be quite conservative on integrating an aftermarket option with an existing system. I prefer to have the item being installed to be as independent as possible.

In the case of adding driving lamps to a MINI I have no idea what the comfortable current limit is for the control module. The choices are use the internal system or make the new lighting system totally independent.

I really like the way the factory system works.

It will shut off when the car is off. It resets to off when the car is started, and it only works when the high beams are on.

What I did in an install was to control the lights with the internal system by using the power line to OEM lamps to run a relay.

The relay then controlled the new lamps.

This allowed the new set of driving lights to have all of the original features and kept the system independent of the rest of the car.

Good luck on your project. Let me know if you need more details on how I did this.

This is a picture of the finished install.

P028.sized.jpg

Cheers,
Jack

-- Edited by Jack07734 at 08:05, 2007-04-03

TOWNEMINI · Towne MINI - Official

Great idea with the extra relay before the new circuit Jack, it didnt cross my mind because each lamp is only drawing 2.5 amps at 12volts, but I cant agree enough with you.

Jack07734 · Motorer

My problem was that I did't know the controler's rating It may be only rated for 6 or 7 amps. As you can see in the above picture I installed 4 55w lamps and I didn't want to tempt fate.

Cheers,
Jack

-- Edited by Jack07734 at 08:32, 2007-04-03

TOWNEMINI · Towne MINI - Official

Unfortunately 90% of pictures from this site do not come up at work, whose car did you install them on, I dont remember any of your cars having four driving lamps? And with 4 driving lamps a separate relay is a must I agree.

Jack07734 · Motorer

Mark,
The car belongs to Amy one of our SOMC motoring friends.
The install was done at the first Pulley Party.

Regardless of the number or type of lamps I would still segerate aftermarket bits from the factory system.

Cheers,
Jack

Venno · Motorer

Hmm yeah i think that i'll make it independent, i think that may be easier, i'm just not sure where to tap into to complete the circuit that connects the relay to the toggle switch in the car....actually I think I'll send you a PM Jack... Thanks

Jack07734 · Motorer

Amy's car allready had the factory system installed. It was a simple matter of using what was there.

If you want to do the same then you will have to get the wires, control module and the swicth for the factory system.

Also you will need some kind of mounting for the lights.

Cheers,
Jack

Pamlico · Motorer

Jack07734 wrote:
Also you will need some kind of mounting for the lights.

These should fit the bill.

Venno · Motorer

Awsome you all rock...that mounting bracket is what i was looking for, I had designed the carbon fiber lamp case to fit on that style of bracket.....So Im thinking that i could just put a connection to my battery, connect that to like a 1 amp fuse (or what ever the electro magnet part of the relay needs in terms of current + a safety factor) then connect that to the relay which would be connected to a switch inside my car, and have the second part of the relay circuit connect to a circuit which directly hookes up to the battery to power the ballast for the lamp through a 3 amp fuse? (so total i would have 2 relays, one for the right and 1 for the left lamps)