Palm: Thanks for the compliment.

SmittyRN: Yeah, I was brought up old school. My dad used to repair circuit boards for his job, and kinda drilled it in me that everything needs to be soldered. Personally I still like soldering better than crimping as I've seen more trouble with loose connections with crimps than soldering, but that's just me.

 

My dad was the same way, I can remember getting him an extension cord for the soldering iron while working on a car. But after he spent some time with a buddy of his who was a top-notch mechanic, he bought a very nice crimp set and started preaching to me about crimping (he was good at preaching). I always thought a crimp job was a cheap fix compared to a nice solder union covered in shrink wrap, but I've come to accept quality connectors and a good crimper as a quality repair. I don't think you can go wrong with a quality solder job, though, as long as you tin the wire properly and make sure you have good solder flow over the wires. If you are not an experienced solderer, I'd stick to quality crimp hardware.

As far as your instructions... top notch! I printed them out and followed them today, and it works as advertised! I took my 12v constant from the 12v outlet by the cigarette lighter, that little wire doesn't need a lot of juice. I would have hooked up the green or violet for the wiper switch, but I have no idea what wire I need to tap in to. Anyone have a wiring diagram for a 2008?

Thanks for posting your instructions, it was just the right time since I just got the kit. I would recommend it to anyone who wants auto-lights, $35 is a good price. It took me about 2 hours to do, but I was going slow, thinking things through and making sure I was doing it right. I could do another one in about 45 mins now.

 

To hook the headlight on with wiper function you need to tap the violet wire from the DEI unit to the brown/white wire at the wiper motor.

****This may not be correct, as I got the information after doing some digging on the internet. I haven't checked this personally, however I quick test with a Volt meter will show you what you need.

I didn't do this as stated simply b/c I don't want my headlights switching on everytime I use my wipers, I tend to spray my windshield often to get all the bugs off, and don't need to be flashing my headlights everytime I do...

 

Hmmmm good point.... probably better off getting my DRL's activated.... I'd like to do that anyway.

 

Very Nice Write Up.

Ironically, After My 3rd Degree Burn From A Soldering Iron at Age 9.. I Have Been Hesitant With My Soldering Iron.
Although, As You Can Tell by My Previous Write Up I Too Fell Victim to Feeling Soldering as the "Right" Way. I Am Still Young and Determining "My Way" Between Soldering and Crimping - I Have Always Felt Crimping Was The Last Choice Scenario.

To Add to Smitty's Point.. When I Repair Newer Furnaces or A/C's, I've Learned Nothing Is Soldered For One Reason, Vibration. With Exception to Circuit Boards.

 

I did this install today on my "08 it was perfect I will say that the new DEI units come with DRL as a standard feature that you have to disable manually by cuttng red wire inside the unit. Not sure if the older units had this feature I didn't opt for the drl's so I disabled it but the instructions were perfect it would have taken much longer with out the heads up
Thanks
Mike

 

hmmmm... You're right, I forgot to add that in there... I'm glad everything worked out for you though!!!

And actually with this unit, The DRL option would not work correctly. b/c of the way we have to set it up, the parking lights and the head lights are both going to come on whenever the DEI unit is energized, not just the headlights like DRL's are supposed to be.

 

Well I broke down and bought the 545t, after getting it installed, I'm relatively happy. First the bad point, you can't toggle the fog lights when the unit turns the lights on. If you turn on the headlights with the normal switch, then switch on your fogs, you're good. If not, you don't get to turn them on without defeating the 545t first, then manually turning on the lights and enabling the fogs.

Brights, and delayed off when you get out, work fine.They turn on far faster than the mentioned 5 seconds, but it works great. About 25 seconds of bright light turn them off. I parked under a bright white light at McD's for about 40 seconds, light almost directly on the sensor, and it didn't turn off, very nice.

I may just be stupid, but I had issues following this threads instructions and the ones on 12volt.com so here are some pics with notes about my install. Might clear up some of you trying to do the same.

I didn't solder anything, I don't think it's a good idea due to vibrations, the 12volt site said the same about it. For the resistors, I twist the ends together the whole length at about 60 degrees. Then I heat shink it and electrical taped it. I shoved one end down (into) the brown wire and tightly wrapped it with kevlar string so it won't stretch apart, then shrink and tape it.

Here's my pics.

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/6ECEB52B102A4F6BBF2D15E2537AC4DA.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/E7E51F4D5DD34B0188A76BC975938C2A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/E5CD8BA05D1244019F43F3ED2D228E98.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/D0E1934DEF6C4927AE74885130EA4C4A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/497A862AA9AB496F9E7573269252E77B.jpg[/IMG]

 

Here's the rest of the photos.

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/6A139D2D46BE4387B6349D448BA00A10.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/F7A809DC26D943ECBD7CAE1B2FC3960A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/BF56A5A9A1C140A5B127F6A887DA19D4.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/244AF7B8F4DD4FC4ABE702C28C34BD3A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/16094/EB6F7FA216244CBD8CA7372B90E7F137.jpg[/IMG]

 

Very interesting to read this and see you guys views on soldering. I always believed that soldering was superior to crimping based on car audio articles I have read in the past but after reading this I think a lot more research on the subject is warranted. I never particularly liked soldering (I have had someone startle me while soldering connections in a past vehicle, dropped the iron and caught it on the hot side before it hit the carpet, not a good time) so it's interesting to see a backed up argument for crimping. I am curious does this DEI unit come with a light sensor? How does it know when to turn on the headlights? I might have to give this a try on my Dakota when I get it back from insurance.