[ghost chili]

I performed the C-light DRL mod on my 2017 Limited and while it looks nice, I find it to not be very bright. It's visible under an overcast day, but not much at all under the sun. I don't plan to open up the headlamp unit and install a brighter C-light bulb (if one exists).

That leaves me with going back to the high beams as DRL. I really don't care for the yellow halogen and would prefer LED, but my question with that is, will a LED bulb run at half brightness like a halogen bulb? I was under the impression that they will not and will run at full power - either on or off. However, my LED flashlight will dim when the batteries run low, giving me some hope that the automotive LED bulbs would as well.

Has anyone swapped out their halogen high beam bulbs with LED and still uses them as DRL? Thanks!

 

[ghost chili]

Rqjoe, is that DRL set up you mentioned in your avatar? Might you have a bigger photo of how it looks? Did you open your headlamp assembly and mount the LED strip inside?

Irickchad and EJ257, thanks for the info. Yeah, I figured they are an all or nothing light. I took a look at Daniel's website and he seems to be very knowledgeable about lighting. Suppose I'll drop him an email and see what he says.

I will be installing SubiSpeed's NBR Challenge style grille and wire them in with my high beams so I'll have a secondary set of high beams. I may decide to get the crappy LED bulbs from Amazon and use those as DRL.

 

[ghost chili]

That looks quite nice. Do they also blink with the turn signals?

 

[ghost chili]

Thought I'd report on what I had discovered in my conversation with Daniel Stern. Basically, he said there is no LED aftermarket bulb that will function in a dimmed manner when in DRL mode. It is either on or off. Furthermore, he strongly recommended against any aftermarket LED bulb system as he finds the manner in which the LED chips are emitting light is not designed for the reflector and will result in more glare for oncoming drivers, not to mention the beam pattern will be worse than with a halogen bulb. Long story short, if a light housing was designed for a halogen bulb, than stick with that.

He did confirm that a 9011 HIR (Halogen InfraRed) bulb will fit in the high beam socket and provide more light and still retain dimmed DRL function. I did buy a set of 9011 bulbs and modified the tabs according to his website instructions and side by side, the 9011 does provide a noticeably brighter hot spot without affecting the beam pattern at all.

Hope this helps anyone looking for DRL modifications. I decided to lean towards improved visibility and safety over aesthetics and removed my DRL harness for the C-lights and swap the stock 9005 bulbs for the 9011 HIR.