Daytime running lights (COB LED Halo's) for the TF

A slightly more detailed version of my recent post on fitting daytime running lights (DRL's) on a TF, I used 80mm COB LED halo rings, four are needed, two on each side. These are widely available from E-bay vendors, but please check that they are all a match before attempting to fit to your car. They are available in various shades, such as red and yellow or green and blue tints, but I still think the white is best.
Easily tested by putting on to a 12v DC source, a car battery will do!
Here are the Halos I fitted, reasonable at about £16 for the four.


Other items that you will need, is some sort of controller to dim the Halo's when you turn your normal car lights on - this is to prevent the bright LED Halo's from dazzling other people at night. Various ones are available, but I liked the look of this controller, as it dims the Halo's and also flashes the respective side when indicating. It also comes with a nice sleeved harness and separate connecting leads which can be pre-fitted to your headlights. A nice bit of kit! Here is a current E-bay link for the controller.. Multifunctional LED daytime running light harness controller DC 12V Auto DRL Completed


I also used some Sikoflex 252 sealer to attach the Halo's to my headlights chrome bezel rings


And some 9mm Butyl rubber sealant to re-attach the headlight lens once the Halo's have been fitted.


First off, it remove the front bumper (or nose-cone) by undoing the two T50 bolts next to the front foglights - or blanks if you don't have them installed on your pride and joy. Then you need to undo the four screws (two each side) that fix the sides of the front bumper to each front wing. These are accessed by undoing the two small self tapping screws that fix the inner arch liner to the front bumper and reaching up inside to unscrew them. Then underneath there is a double collet fastener under the bumper in the centre that fixes the rear bottom of the bumper to a small bracket. Finally remover the five screws that hold the top of the bumper in place under the bonnet - these are in a line from left to right close to the bonnet catch. Now the bumper can be lifted out carefully - remembering to unplug the fog lights if you have them. Search the T-bar for a detailed how-to on this if you require pictures.

Now its time to unplug the headlight units by unclipping the multi-plug on each one and then unscrewing the four fixing screws on each unit.
If you wish, you may want to disconnect the battery, but if you are competent enough, its not really required at this stage.

Remove the bulbs, the sidelight access cover and the rubber bulb covers. There is also a small screw that goes through a lug at the top of each light. This needs to be removed too.

Now its time for probably the scariest part of the job - removing the headlight lens. The lens is stuck on with a butyl rubber sealer, which over time has hardened to a semi solid state. To make it workable again, the lights need to be warmed up in an oven.
Cook at 130 deg Celsius for about 7 minutes, this will give the rubber seal enough time to soften, and you can prize the lens off carefully with a screwdriver or similar implement. Handle carefully, as the headlight is hot! Also try not to prise away too much, as the headlight case will be softened too, and it will deform by hard levering...if this happens, try to push it back into shape before the headlight cools and stiffens again.
Once the lenses are off, clean any remaining sealant away from the lens and case. You can now remove the chrome bezel mounting plate that is in the middle of the light unit. Four small Torx screws hold this in place. Once off, you should have something like this....


To get the Halo's to fit onto the chrome bezels rings, first you need to cut away some of the ring at the bottom. This cut-away is to allow the solder tabs at the back of the ring to sit nice inside the chrome bezel without any interference, and also to stop them shorting on the chrome finish. I did this with a Dremel and a small grinding attachment, carefully grinding the plastic out of the way to allow a small channel to fit the Halo wiring and solder lugs in. I also carved out a small hole under the bezel to allow the wiring to come through from the rear. Then unsolder the wires from the Halo and feed them through the small hole and re-solder back on to the Halos.


I now glued the Halo rings on to the bezels with the Sikoflex, using small dabs of the sealant around the ring then pushing theHalo onto the chrome bezel and allowing to set. Once set, I dressed up any excess sealant that was visible where it shouldn't be.


It may be a good idea to just power up the LED rings now and check that they still work ok!

Now I drilled a 10mm hole in the rear of each headlight case to allow the wiring connector to enter the headlight. Thread the connector cable through and then solder on to the DTL's and insulate the joint. I used heatshrink tubing here, as its heatproof.
Now seal the cable where it goes through the hole with some more Sikoflex and allow to dry.

Once set, its time to refit the front lenses.
Run a bead of the Butyl rubber sealer around the rim of the headlight in the channel for the sealant and cut flush so its a continuous run without any gaps. Now put the light in the oven again to soften the butyl a little more. I baked it at 50 degrees Celsius for 5 mins...not to hot or it may toast the Halo's!
Now the lens can be pushed back on and seated in place. Refit the bulbs and covers.
If needed, now is a good time to polish the headlight lenses if its looking a bit past it's best, if not, they can be fitted back onto the TF and the bumper replaced.

Celebrate your hard work with a well earned beer, or a half full tumbler of the finest Bourbon.....and take time to study the wiring diagram for the DRL controller.

The controller needs to be fitted inside the bonnet space at a convenient location. I found the gap between the underbonnet fuse box and the wheel arch to be a perfect place to fit this. Handy for all the wiring and easy to get at.


I used a small self tapping screw to fit the controller in place.
Next I removed the slam panel which sits above the radiator to feed the long half of the wiring loom to the offside headlight. This cable passed through the small gaps in the bodywork, behind the radiator, and I clipped the loom to the existing radiator fan wiring.
The short half of the wiring loom goes to the nearside headlight.
Now the battery has to be disconnected, if not already done!

Here is the wiring diagram on the back of the controller...

The wires are as thus...
Red = Positive battery
Black = Negative battery
Yellow = Indicator signal for each side
Blue = On signal...I connected this to my radio 12v switched supply
White = Light dim signal
Green = Strobe (not used)

Connect the offside headlight by exposing the conductors about 3 or 4 inches back from the connecting plug. You need to cut the green and white wire that goes to pin 5 of the connector and re-join it with the yellow conductor from the off-side wiring loom. I soldered the three wires together and used heat shrink sleeving, the a wrap of black electrical tape to tidy the loom up again. Here is the connection on the MG-R wiring diagram...

Now do the same for the near- side indicator connection, again its pin 5 on the connecting plug, but this time its the green and red wire.
While the near side headlight wiring is still exposed, its a good time to connect the Halo dimming connection too. This dims the lights down when the lights are turned on. As the side lights are on when main or dipped beam is on, this is the best source to connect the light dimming wire to. This is the white wire on the main loom. Join it to the red and black wire that goes to pin 4 of the nearside headlight connector.
Shown below on the wiring schematics...


The green wire is not used, so cut off the exposed conductor, tape up and tuck away somewhere.


Now this leaves the blue wire which I connected to the switched 12v supply to my radio.
I fed the wire through the spare grommet in the bulkhead that is in front of the glovebox. Shown below on the right...

The glovebox was removed for easy access - its just a couple of screws and the grommet was pierced and the wire fed into the area behind the glovebox. Unfotunately this wire is not long enough to reach the radio wiring, so I joined it by soldering a length of similar sized cable. Now connect to the light green and white wire that goes to pin 7 of the radio connector. Here is the official wiring diagram...

Refit the radio and glovebox.
All that needs to be connected now is the battery terminals.
The wires already come with useful big forked terminals crimped on, so it was just a matter of using a couple of extra 6mm bolts to fix the red and black wires to the +ve and -ve terminal connectors on the battery.

And finally, I used a cable tie to secure the fuse to the handle of the battery itself.


That's about it, now all you need to do is turn on the ignition to see if the Halos come on, turn the lights on to check that they dim ok, then test each indicator to make sure that they flash with the indicator lamp.

Here is a picture of the finished headlights with the Halo's off...


And on....


Sundance.

Sundance , 5 stars for this excellent how to .

John

Hi Sundance - I noticed the red bolts under the bonnet - what are they - the originals rust and the replacements sold on ebay sometimes are the wrong size and those red ones are smart! Have you thought of fitting the progressive indicator LEDs front and rear - like Audi's have - also on ebay from China at pence...

pgew wrote: Hi Sundance - I noticed the red bolts under the bonnet - what are they - the originals rust and the replacements sold on ebay sometimes are the wrong size and those red ones are smart! Have you thought of fitting the progressive indicator LEDs front and rear - like Audi's have - also on ebay from China at pence...

The red bolts are actually red anodised cup washers. Again sourced from e-bay, I used them in conjunction with stainless countersunk bolts and self-tappers to replace the rusting standard screws that were originally fitted. Five, six and eight millimetre ones are needed for the under bonnet hardware. I will check out the progressive indicator LED's, but I do have 3 lens rear lights fitted, so not sure if they will be suitable.

Sundance

Thank you for that. Adam Elphick and I bought the gizmos for the fronts but haven't got round to fitting them yet (including cooking the lenses), and not sure re MOT, unless they are supplementary to the OEs I guess.