Daytime Running Lights turning on and off

[CupraTOC]

So I have had the official kit (ZGB1P0052190) fitted for around a month now and all has been working fine until the weekend when I ran my battery flat because I left the ignition on most of the day and my speed trap detector was also plugged in and draining power along with my interior lights.

So I put my battery on charge in situ and whilst charging my running lights were switching on and off every 5 minutes. I'm thinking that these are activated when the control box detects a rise in voltage (normally when starting the engine) and the charging voltage was activating them ?

I took the battery off charge once at full capacity however, the running lights are still turning on and off by themselves. I started the car for a bit and then switched off the engine to try and reset them and this worked for 20 minutes but then they started again. I have now pulled the fuse out on the 12v feed for the running lights to stop them coming on.

Does anyone know what is going on?

This is what I have done to the car just before my battery went flat prior to this problem:

-Fit aftermarket double din stereo
-Tap into an empty slot in the cabin fuse box to run a fused 12v switched live to my amplified roof aerial (didn't need this before as I had OEM unit fitted)

 

[Speed-FReek]

How are they actually wired in? Do you have a wiring diagram for the kit?

 

[CupraTOC]

Wired up as per instructions supplied below.

 

[Speed-FReek]

Just so I've got it clear, are there only 3 wires to connect from the DRL control unit? Red, black and orange? Or are there any more?

If you've not already done so, the first thing I would do is to check that the terminal nuts where the DRL control unit wires connect to (image 9 and 9A) are fully tightened doen in case either have come loose and are creating a dodgy / intermittent connection.

If those seem to be fine then measure the voltage between the terminals in image 9 and image 9A with the ignition switched off. Then measure the voltage across those terminals again with the engine running to see if there is an obvious voltage difference in the two readings.

Another test I would do is to temporarily disconnect the orange wire from the sidelight connection to see if it resolves your issue. It is possible that a voltage is intermittently appearing and disappearing on that wire which would causing the DRLs to come on and off. When the sidelights come on, a voltage on that wire is going to cause the DRLs to switch off.

 

[CupraTOC]

Thanks for your post, just to be clear, the lights are turning on and off when the car is locked and the ignition or engine isn't on. All of that checks out but I think I may be on to something.

Bearing in mind this started after I gave the battery a good charge... I have just checked the resting voltage of the battery and it is reading 12.98-13v?? Surely as it is well above 12v it is confusing the running lights?

Do I need to wait until the voltage normalises before reconnecting them? Why is it reading 13v, is this because the battery hasn't settled since charge?

 

[Speed-FReek]

OK. After charging a battery, the voltage usually rises to around 13.2v before settling back down to around 12.7v. The settling down process usually takes a day or two so this could explain your problem. When did you actually take the battery off charge?

Having the DRL control module use battery voltage levels to switch the DRLs on and off is a shocking design for the exact reason that you have just discovered. It would have been a much more sensible design to have the control unit use an ignition switched supply point and switch the DRLs on and off with the ignition (as long as the side lights are not on).

If it was me I think I would try moving that red wire you connected to the fuse box (image 9) to an ignition switched supply line. While the DRL on/off detection will still be working on detected voltage levels, at least then the DRLs couldn't ever come on when the ignition is switched off.

 

[CupraTOC]

I took it off charge last night just before starting this thread and that's when the lights went haywire. So if I left them connected would they likely stay off once the battery voltage drops to normal levels?

 

[Speed-FReek]

So if I left them connected would they likely stay off once the battery voltage drops to normal levels?

If the DRL controller unit is working on voltage levels which all evidence we've seen suggests it is, then yes, because your battery voltage should eventually settle back down to ~12.7v.

 

[CupraTOC]

Cool, I'll post back in a couple of days.

 

[CupraTOC]

Just an update to close the thread. Since the battery voltage has settled, the lights have remained switched off without engine running.

 

[FR200]

Any pictures of this?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[CupraTOC]

Any pictures of this?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Item no. 322415077773 on eBay.

 

[FR200]

Item no. 322415077773 on eBay.

Thanks mate, what about these ones?

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[RD-Woo]

what about these ones?

Doesn't fit on FR/cupra front bumper,
only on normally (facelift model 2009-2012) front bumper.

here's a pic