The first mod on my new-ish M has been completed! DRLs have been added.
I am still mending and not in the best shape for this sort of work, but my mate Scooter was available and we took the car to his driveway (where I frequently do my mods so I have built-in assistance). Scooter did the cutting and fitment while my lovely assistant/fiance Fetucini did the wiring .... and I,of course, was buzzing about them both like a pesky house fly while giving constant(though not always welcome) direction.
The shape and curve of the 09 grille made for some challenges regarding placement. I had already determined that the Osram DRLs would be far too big and far too deep to fit anywhere on this car. I purchased Phillips Daylight-8 DRLs just like the ones I originally had on my 07 M before upgrading to Osram.
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The Phillips DRLs are much slimmer, but we all 3 had trouble finding the perfect place to mount them. That is, until an extra brain cell in my head came up with an absolutely brilliant idea. They are mounted along the bottom outer edge of the bumper, near the fog lamps. This required cutting of a small portion of the grille insert and a small area of the bumper behind the insert so the DRLs could be recessed and mount flush with the grille insert.
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DRL off:

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DRL ON:

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Mind you these were taken in near direct sunlight and not full-on at the same level as the bulbs so the DRLs look a bit dodgy. When looking at the DRLs from the height of another driver, they are amazingly bright and noticeable, but when pointing the camera lens at them full-on, the glare ruins the shot.
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Turns out, the slight curvature of the lower bumper actually improves visibility from on-coming drivers as opposed to straight forward facing DRLs. With the engine switched OFF, the black casing of the DRL blends into the black grille insert. When the engine is switched ON, they appear to be part of the bumper as if they were original factory design.

Nice one! At least your fetuchini was helping out. My lasagna would just sit on the couch and cry all day about it.

Lighting by Scootucini!

Great placement, clean look. Nice job!!
What's next?

Dude honestly how did you do it? I bought the same set when i saw you had it on your old M. But wasnt able to do anything with the black molding. If you could give me a short how-to i would appreciate it.

Thank you for the compliments! I actually called my guy at Infiniti to determine the price of a replacement grille insert just to be sure that if I ruined mine, I could live with the cost of replacing it! Turns out that a new insert is about $80. Since I already bought three sets of DRLs (the original daylight-8 for the 07 M that I gave away after upgrading to the Osram DRLs, and this new daylight-8), I reckoned another $80 was not going make me go bonkers - just unpleasant to be around for a day or so,LOL.

Tomorrow I will take some pics and post a sort-of DIY for this mod. I can only vouch for Phillips Daylight-8 and Phillips Daylight-4 DRLs. Any other brand (like Osram) might be too large and extend beyond the width of the bottom grille insert. If using a different brand, you must carefully measure the length of the DRL and the length of the bottom grill insert before you buy it. The front (widest edge) of the DRL must fit nicely between the fog lamp housing and the bumper edge that meets the grille insert.

Looking good Larz

Hey Larz, nicely done. Those look good!

As promised, I made a DIY for this mod in a separate post. You will find it here:

post6607133.html#p6607133

I really liked what Larz did so.....
Had to change a foglight bulb today, while doing that I figured might as well fix that big rock chip on the bumper so off it came. Fixed the chip and decided, why not? Added side firing led strips in the foglight area as well. Thanks Larz for your post, would not have even thought about it before!
DRL off:

DRL on:

Left:

Right:


Keep in mind that this is in direct sunlight so the phone had trouble adjusting. They are very visible during the day and 10 fold at night.

Larz, would you say these are as bright as the Benz DRL in the day as a point of reference?

The DRLs on MB's have changed from year to year. All of them are usually slightly larger LEDs than the Philips, so they are more noticeable, but they are no brighter than the Philips. The camera (at least my GoPro) does not accurately portray the brightness of the DRLs. When viewed by the eye, they are VERY bright and VERY noticeable, and you don't really notice the 8 individual LEDs on each side - they look more like a Xenon white light 'bar' until you actually stand in front of them at about 10ft.
When parking at a shop, if you are in the space facing the glass windows along the front of the shop, you will see what they actually look like from an on-coming driver's perspective and you will be very pleased.