JDM LED Day Running Lights

[red kiosk]

I followed "benhui86"s lead and purchased a set of the JDM side window visors, but couldn't stop myself from also purchasing the JDM LED Day Running Lights at the same time. I received everything yesterday, directly from Japan, and am very, very pleased with the quality, but somewhat overwhelmed with all the pieces that are in the box containing the LED Day Lights. Installing the light assys. themselves will be pretty easy… remove grille and unbolt and remove the existing "headlamp extension panels" and replace them with the new LED light assys. It's all the wiring harnesses and remote switches that have my eyes a poppin'. The well-detailed instructions are printed only in Japanese, so I'm looking for someone to translate it for me. The drawing are pretty self-explanatory, but there's lots of little "warning" symbols next to some of the unreadable Japanese text and it would be nice to know what those are for.

The lights are actually "switched" with a "lighted" rocker switch, tapped off the ignition, so there is the option to leave them "off" if you don't want to use them, but otherwise they will normally come on every time you start the car. I'll need to make a few installation changes, for it's designed for a right-hand drive vehicle, but I actually think it will be easier since all the power connections will be on the driver side of the car.

The lights themselves are well-constructed and are a "sealed" unit with three LED bulbs in each. The bulbs seem to be amber and are embeded in a very thick, optical grade bulb-like lens. Each day-light assy. plugs into an "epoxy-coated" black box harness thingy, which then plugs into another long harness. Any help in what those black boxes are would be greatly appreciated (ballast? transformer?). One end of the long harness connects to a positive battery connection in the fuse box and the other end connects with the "fused" rocker switch that is tapped off an ignition wire under the dash. There's also a few grounding leads coming off the harnesses. The instructions want you to drill a hole in the dash for the small, round rocker switch, but if I decide to use the switch, I'll probably mount it in the switch "blank" located between the lift gate switch and the fuel door switch. I think I'll do any tapping of the ignition within the fuse box in the engine bay and not under the dash. I plan to do a "powered" pre-install hook-up outside the car to make sure everything works as it's intended to.

Here's a bunch of photos so far…

http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1
http://www.nissanmurano.org/photopos...papass=&sort=1

I'll post some photos of the installation process and finished look, but it won't be for a few weeks. Business is picking up and I need to make hay when I can. Take care!

Jim

[njjoe]

Jim-

I saw your pics in the gallery before I read this post and have to admit that I had no clue what these lights were for. They obviously were not headlamps and did not look like under-chassis lights. They looked like a custom piece yet I could not figure out where they would fit. It was not until I saw the images in the instruction sheet did I realize they were mounted at the base of the grille.

Does it appear like you will have three "spots" of light or does the entire bar illuminate?

My guess is that the black boxes may be step-down transformers. Or maybe circuitry to have the lights move in sequence like the car on Knight Rider.

-njjoe

[TopazM3]

Never been a fan of DRLs, but they look nice, kinda like the stuff Audi is bringing out. Show us some pics when you're done.

[red kiosk]

Originally posted by njjoe
Jim-

Does it appear like you will have three "spots" of light or does the entire bar illuminate?

My guess is that the black boxes may be step-down transformers. Or maybe circuitry to have the lights move in sequence like the car on Knight Rider.

-njjoe

njjoe,

From the pictures on the Nissan Japan web site and the way the "bulbs" are positioned in angled steps within the housing, I'm pretty sure there will be three "spots" of light.

As for the black boxes, I never thought about the sequence thing, I was more worried that they might give the lights a "strobe" effect. I'm hoping they're only step-down transformers. Having a black car and now with those streamline side window visors, that's all I need are sequence flashing lights. If that's the case, I'll be sure to have them turn on when someone is speaking to me through the speakers with the Bluetooth phone connection. Take care!

Jim

[KJSmitty]

Originally posted by red kiosk


njjoe,

From the pictures on the Nissan Japan web site and the way the "bulbs" are positioned in angled steps within the housing, I'm pretty sure there will be three "spots" of light.

As for the black boxes, I never thought about the sequence thing, I was more worried that they might give the lights a "strobe" effect. I'm hoping they're only step-down transformers. Take care!
Jim

Very likely just a relay and circuit protection etc.. You mentioned a battery power lead, an ignition lead and then grounds. Just use your battery for a test.
--Place the "battery" power lead to your battery + and the grounds to the -. Touch the other "ignition" lead to your battery +. Lights should come on etc..

Do they also plug into any existing light/vehicle harnesses??


How much were they - I find them unique and appealing

Cool

Cheers

[benhui86]

lol omg i want them too!!! $600 for DRL is pretty good!! looks very complicated to install...

[BEACHN]

Jim,
If you could take pictures (preferably cell phone quality size) of the kanji characters you want translated and I can mail it to my wifes cell back in Japan and ask her to translate it. Being that a) the characters have multiple meanings b) they don't have an exact proper translation c) my wife isn't an electrician or technician and d) her English isn't 100% so I can't guarentee she'll know it exactly, but we can try if you'd like.

Beach

[red kiosk]

BEACHN,

Thanks for the offer. There's a Japanese owned Japanese auto repair shop just down the road, so I though I'd give him a try first. If that doesn't work out, I'll take you up on your offer. You're not kidding in that there can be multiple meaning for the symbols. I was trying to figure out what those black boxes are and tried using my Apple keyboard/Japanese palette conversion and an online translation site. After I came up with something like "diaper", I decided to seek qualified help. Thanks again for the offer and take care!

Jim

[red kiosk]

Well, that Japanese auto repair shop turned out to be a hidden gem! The elderly Japanese gentleman who owns the shop, spent his lunch hour with me, translating and explaining everything in the instructions. He kinda' reminded me of Pat Morita in the movie Karate Kid. He asked me if I understood English, and when I said of course, he said, "Then there is no need to write the translation down, I will tell you what it says and you will remember." Most of the "warnings" in the instructions, that I was worried about, were just "common sense" things. In the end, we both thought the drawing did an excellent job of showing what needed to be done. I offered him money for his time, but he just smiled and said "Next time, buy the car in Japan". Well, maybe next weekend I'll install the lights and Hella horns. Take care!

Jim

[BEACHN]

That's awesome, that's why I miss living in Japan. Japanese people, specially the older generation are really friendly and willing to help other people. They also got a funny sense of humor. Glad he could help you out. I wish my 1st Gen had some JDM upgrades I could do to it, but I don't recall any differences between ours and theirs. Have fun wiring it all up, give ya something to do this weekend.

[benhui86]

Originally posted by BEACHN
That's awesome, that's why I miss living in Japan. Japanese people, specially the older generation are really friendly and willing to help other people. They also got a funny sense of humor. Glad he could help you out. I wish my 1st Gen had some JDM upgrades I could do to it, but I don't recall any differences between ours and theirs. Have fun wiring it all up, give ya something to do this weekend.

actually the 1st gen has even more JDM goodies available for it than 2nd gen

the nismo body kit is available through the seller we purchased the visors and the LED driving lights from.... just tell him what you want and he'll order it for you and ship to you.... man i want a nismo kit.... but 2nd gen doesnt have one yet and the JDM 2nd gen bumper is slightly different so might have to buy whole bumper to fit the body kit....

www.jzsinternational.com

[BEACHN]

benhui86
Man I'm in heaven after seeing that site. I had a Nissan Cima back in Japan and over here it's the Infinity Q45, but I've never seen a Q45 over here at all. I've seen pictures of them on the internet and the US ones look nowheres as good as the Japanese Cima's. I would have loved if I could have gotten either my Cima over to here or an American Q45 and bought parts off this site to make it like the real Cima it should be. My wifes dad has a Toyota Celsior, didn't realize they had a Lexus LS430 version for over here. They only just recently started making Lexus for Japan. Now you got me all wild up

However I'm not seeing the NISMO body kit you're talking about, nor the lights you had purchased from them. He's got eight items to choose from for the Murano. I wish my wife was as into cars as I am so I could have her search out some things for me there and probably get them for me cheaper.....but she's not. If I didn't fly back to Japan two months ago, I wouldn;t even have a roof rack for my MO right now.

[benhui86]

Originally posted by BEACHN
benhui86
Man I'm in heaven after seeing that site. I had a Nissan Cima back in Japan and over here it's the Infinity Q45, but I've never seen a Q45 over here at all. I've seen pictures of them on the internet and the US ones look nowheres as good as the Japanese Cima's. I would have loved if I could have gotten either my Cima over to here or an American Q45 and bought parts off this site to make it like the real Cima it should be. My wifes dad has a Toyota Celsior, didn't realize they had a Lexus LS430 version for over here. They only just recently started making Lexus for Japan. Now you got me all wild up

However I'm not seeing the NISMO body kit you're talking about, nor the lights you had purchased from them. He's got eight items to choose from for the Murano. I wish my wife was as into cars as I am so I could have her search out some things for me there and probably get them for me cheaper.....but she's not. If I didn't fly back to Japan two months ago, I wouldn;t even have a roof rack for my MO right now.

this guy will custom order any parts for you as long as its still offered by the manufacturer or theres someone easy to find that will sell them in Japan.... so whats on his site is not important....

[red kiosk]

It's a great site and Mr. Tabata is a great person to work with. I just sent him a link to the Nissan Japan web site for the Day Running Lights and he gave me a quote that included shipping and any custom charges. Total time from payment to opening the box at home was 7 days. Take care!

Jim

[benhui86]

Yes, actually his last name is Masahiro so it'd be Mr. Masahiro because asian names have surname in front haha. Anyways his service is really great for me too. I found his business when I was looking for visors on ebay and I saw that he had the JDM ones for the 1st gen so i got really excited and asked if he had information on the visors for the 2nd gen and he said he would keep me inform and right the day that the information officially came out he sent me an email with pictures he had spent time cutting and pasting and resaving onto his computer... a few days later he sent me a quote with everything included.... His service is very very fast.... I will definitely order more JDM parts from him when I need some....