DIY Wiring Harness for CCFL angel eyes kits

Ok - these are the DIY instructions on how to build a wiring harness using a relay (with key remote option) if youre CCFL Angel Eyes kit didn't come with a wiring harness (usually the ebay kits - they only come with 4 CCFLs and two inverter boxes and instructions saying to wire to the parking lights). Credit given to everyone who pioneered these mods in the first place.

You will need these things (prices for what I paid - your cost may vary - especially if you have to buy packs of things like fuses):

PARTS:
One (1) 40 Amp 12 Volt SPDT relay with socket ($7.04)
Five (5) Female spade connectors to go into the sockets ($0.81)
Two (2) T-taps ($1.26)
Four (4) pairs of male/female bullet splice connectors ($0.77)
One (1) butt connector ($0.12)
Two (2) watertight fuse holders ($4.31)
Two (2) 5 Amp fuses ($0.60)
Two (2) Ring connectors ($0.30)
Lots of Wire - I used 4 colors (black, red, blue and green) and used about $6 worth of wire. You can use either 16 or 18 guage, but make sure you get the right connectors for the guage. On the T-taps, you might have to fold the wire over to make it bulky enough to get a good crimp. About $7 dollars worth of wire

Roughly about $22.25 in parts (you'll actually pay a little more if you have to buy certain things in bulk - i.e. most the connectors). I think I spent a little over $27 today for parts I didn't have (I had some wire, butt connectors and the fuses - so the cost if you had to buy everything would be about $35).

Braided fabric high temperature wire wrapping/sleeving (I didn't have any, but it's useful to hold the wires together. I'm not sure on the cost - I found a place online that was $0.25/foot but you had to buy some pretty big quantities. You might be able to find them at computer shops too.

TOOLS:
Crimping tool/plier/snips
Electrical tape (optional if you want to clean up the wiring)

TIME: Approximately 1.5 hours if you work fairly carefully.

STEP ONE
Cut the wire into the following lengths:

One green wire of approximately 50 inches (for ECU trigger wire - it has to reach from the passenger side through the wire holder above the engine and to the ECU box).

One blue wire of approximately 6 feet (for the interior light tap - length depends on how far you have to run the wire).

One black wire of approximately 1 foot (for the ground)

One black wire and one red wire of approximately 3 feet (for the passenger side inverter box)

One black wire and one red wire of approximately 6 to 6.5 feet (for driver side inverter box)

STEP TWO

Crimp one of the ring connectors (for the positive battery terminal) on one end of one of the fuse holders and crimp one of the female spade connectors on the other end of the fuse holder.

STEP THREE

Crimp the ends of the two red wires together into one female spade connector.

Crimp the ends of the three black wires together into one female spade connector.

STEP FOUR

Crimp a ring connector on the end of the shortest (1 foot long) black wire - this is for the ground connection.


Pictures are in order from steps 2-4

STEP FIVE

Put together the remote wire - see my thread for that (I'm too lazy to duplicate it).

STEP SIX

Plug all the female connectors into the socket until the snap into place - you should hear a click if you have it facing the right way. The bottom of the realy should have numbers next to the pins (30, 85, 86, 87 and 87a). You should arrange it so that you can determine which pin goes into which hole on the relay socket IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PUT THE RIGHT SPADES IN THE RIGHT PLACE ON THE RELAY SOCKET.

Put the positive terminal fuse holder into socket 87.

Put the negative spades (black wires) into socket 86

Put the green trigger wire into socket 85

Put the remote trigger fuse holder into socket 87a

Put the positive spades (red wires) into socket 30.

I put a zip tie at the base of the relay socket around the wires to hold them together.

STEP SEVEN

Time to group the wires.

First - I taped up the shorter red/black wires together.

Second - I taped the longer red/black wires and the green trigger wire together for the first 2/3s of the length from the relay socket. You'll want to leave the green trigger wire loose after that so it can run to the ECU box. Tape the red/black wires together after that point so they can continue together to the driver side inverter.

[This where the braided wire wraps would be very useful - don't use the plastic stuff b/c it's too think to run along the car - especially through the wire holder above the engine].

STEP EIGHT

When you go to install the the wiring harness and connect it to the angel eyes - crimp on bullet connectors at the end fo the harness and on the inverter box too. I reversed the male/female for the pos/neg to make sure that I didn't hook the wires to the wrong wire on the inverter.

Also - I left the T-taps loose for the trigger connections until I was ready to tap them. Crimp the T's when you're ready to actually connect them. If you do that you'll have an easier time running the wire(especially with the interior trigger wire b/c you have to push it through the firewall).

STEP NINE

Snap in the relay when you get finished install the harness and hooking them up to the angel eyes. Once you do that - you're done.

Use these links for the DIYS:

Jake's DIY

ECU Trigger Wire

Removing headlights

Remote Kit install

Remote if you don't have footwell lighting

you have no idea how many people will love you for this

Just trying to help out.

Here's a picture of that "inferior" ebay kit I put in my car. The rings are very distinct in person (I taped the back), but the dang rings are so bright that they glow in pictures. I haven't figured out how to take a good picture of them yet.

I always wondered about those ebay Rings. thanks for the excellent write up. i will consider this mod for my M3.

Originally Posted by Moeser09

Just trying to help out.

Here's a picture of that "inferior" ebay kit I put in my car. The rings are very distinct in person (I taped the back), but the dang rings are so bright that they glow in pictures. I haven't figured out how to take a good picture of them yet.

to take picture, I suggest finding a real dark place and cover your flash. Doing that help me take the pictures without the "glow". I can't seem to size my pics right to post here but anyone interested in seeing what the "inferior" CCFL rings look like, just pm me and give me your email address. I spent $100...shipping included.

Originally Posted by BOSTONVietKid

I can't seem to size my pics right to post here but anyone interested in seeing what the "inferior" CCFL rings look like, just pm me and give me your email address.

I use this program - Irfanview. It's freeware.

All you have to do is run it - open the picture, resize to 800x600 and then save it. When you save it - it'll pop up another window - uncheck all of those boxes or it won't save the file as a smaller file. Shrinks my pictures from 1.5megs to about 30kb for posting.

I got my kit off ebay a while ago and paid a lot more than they're going for nowadays. For $130-140 ($100 for ebay angel eyes and $30-40 for the wiring harness parts), you will have CCFL angel eyes comparable to the $380 Phosphyres (w/ remote kit).

Incidentally, on the harness I made, I used 16 and 18 guage wiring, but you might get away with something smaller, the Wheelpower harness uses something like 20 guage or smaller wiring, it's very thin. I also used waterproof fuse holders which cost about 50 cents more a piece than the non waterproof ones on the Wheelpower harness. So, there is some flexibility in the design (I guess you can also use inline fuse holders if you wanted to). Hmm, now I'm tempted to redo my wiring harness

Oh yeah - another good link on the install.

I just bought a set of the CCFL angel eyes from autotecknic. What would be the difference in wiring it into the parking lights and this? Are there any safety issues involved with wiring it to the parking lights?

Originally Posted by Moeser09

I use this program - Irfanview. It's freeware.

All you have to do is run it - open the picture, resize to 800x600 and then save it. When you save it - it'll pop up another window - uncheck all of those boxes or it won't save the file as a smaller file. Shrinks my pictures from 1.5megs to about 30kb for posting.

I got my kit off ebay a while ago and paid a lot more than they're going for nowadays. For $130-140 ($100 for ebay angel eyes and $30-40 for the wiring harness parts), you will have CCFL angel eyes comparable to the $380 Phosphyres (w/ remote kit).

Incidentally, on the harness I made, I used 16 and 18 guage wiring, but you might get away with something smaller, the Wheelpower harness uses something like 20 guage or smaller wiring, it's very thin. I also used waterproof fuse holders which cost about 50 cents more a piece than the non waterproof ones on the Wheelpower harness. So, there is some flexibility in the design (I guess you can also use inline fuse holders if you wanted to). Hmm, now I'm tempted to redo my wiring harness

Oh yeah - another good link on the install.

unfortunately, I am on a Mac and the freeware won't work.

Mac . . .

What about***********:

Goldberg

or

izoom

Originally Posted by kpeng

I just bought a set of the CCFL angel eyes from autotecknic. What would be the difference in wiring it into the parking lights and this? Are there any safety issues involved with wiring it to the parking lights?

I have them wired to my parking light...super easy. I actually like them better with the parking lights because I really do not care to have them on all the time. No need to draw attention from the cops around here...already running without the front plate the best time to show off for my friends is to put the emergency parking on...the CCFL will blink and flash for a cool effect. As far as cold weather problem. I can tell you it is getting quite cold in Boston and I don't have any problems like I have been reading on this board with people and other DDEs. Mine already came with the aluminum backing glued on so that is nice. I do think the glue job is not very good because it was falling apart when I was installing the light.

p.s. I have had them for 2 months and I do drive the car daily...so far so fire

Originally Posted by Moeser09

Mac . . .

What about***********:

Goldberg

or

izoom

thanks....don't have much time but lets see if it works and how the quality looks online. I will post more when I have a chance to crop the better pictures.

Looks good BostonVK. I finally finished the other half of mine today. For those that do not know I had to wire them to my fogs. I am pumped. Can't wait to show them off. To bad I came across this DIY thread post hoc. Oh well. I will probably change up in the future because I have to turn my fogs on for my eyes to work.

i also got a set from autotecknic.com and they are great!

Very nice write up!!!

Here is a picture of mine installed. Link to DIY installation.

Originally Posted by xodus

Very nice write up!!!

Here is a picture of mine installed. Link to DIY installation.

Much easier install than doing the full blown harness.