To view more pics of the finished mod, here is my original post:
first-mod-completed-t593726.html


*** DISCLAIMER ***
I used Phillips Daylight-8 DRLs for this mod. You can also use Phillips Daylight-4 DRLs for this mod, the difference being that the Daylight-4 model will not be as long as the Daylight-8 and therefore will not fill the entire lower section of the grille insert. If you are using any other brand (and, really, why not use the best?) ... you may not get the same results. Also ... My M is a non-sport model so my bumper is a slightly different design than the M35-S. However, if the grille insert area is the same size, then Daylight-8's should fit nicely. If the grille insert area is smaller, try the Daylight-4 kit.
Please don't try this at home unless you ask your parents first - batteries not included.

When I went to the driveway to take some pics today, Fetucini told me she already took pics at various points of the mod with my GoPro. I looked through them and used a few to make this DIY.
You will see little black shavings and one or two nicks in the white area of the bumper. That was caused by the dremel that was used to cut the bumper area behind the black insert to allow space for the DRL. If you get these shavings on your paint do NOT worry. They wipe right off with a microfiber towel and some cleaner as you can see in the finished pic.
It's also worth mentioning that during this process, your front end will look horribly damaged and you may wonder if you have ruined your car. Trust me, you haven't. As messy, damaged, and dodgy as the car looks, it WILL go back together and look brilliant when you've finished.

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Part ONE: Lower bumper insert removal
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As you can see, the lower bumper sort of intersects the black grille insert so that the black insert has an upper and lower section at one end, then becomes one piece as it reaches the fog lamp area. You will only need to unclip the lower half of the insert for this mod. It is clipped to the bumper rather tightly so you will need to use some brute force to yank it away from the bumper. The insert is more like rubber than hard plastic and is very flexible so do NOT worry about snapping it into pieces. I happen to have some plastic trim removal tools that can be wedged in between trim pieces and the the part they clip onto. If you don't, get some (LOL) or use a flat headed screw driver but make sure you heavily tape the bumper area where you will place the head of the screwdriver to avoid scratching the painted area around the insert.
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When you get the insert to pry away from the bumper, get your fingers or a pry tool behind it and yank very abruptly to dislodge it. After it is free from the clamps, it will bend easily almost like rubber. You will need to cut the bottom of the insert to accommodate the height of DRL. Simple measurements are all that is needed.
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The chrome bezel does not need to be removed, but turns out that when we bent the insert piece away from the bumper, it partially popped the bezel loose and it could be removed just by pulling it off with fingers.

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Part TWO: Cutting the bumper

Notice the mess around the area where the DRL is placed. The bumper is a solid piece behind the insert. You will need to actually cut part of it out to allow depth for the DRL to fit back far enough not to stick out beyond the trim piece after re-installing it. Place the DRL onto the bumper so you can see how much of the inner bumper needs to be cut out. It will require drilling holes to allow you to get a very sharp knife, a small hacksaw, or other cutting device in position to make the necessary cuts. Remember, this area of the bumper will not show once the insert is re-installed, so do NOT worry if your cutting job is sloppy like mine. There is absolutely NOTHING behind this part of the bumper so do not worry that will cut a cooling line, the radiator, etc. We cut from the fog lamp all the way over to the opposite end, being careful NOT to cut the outer fascia of the bumper where the insert meets it. Luckily, the DRL is the perfect size to fill this area completely. Remember, any hot shavings that stick to the bumper will wipe right off after they cool, leaving no marks.

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Part THREE: installing the DRL

I did not use the mounting hardware or frames supplied with the DRL kit. Instead I used professional grade 3M tape. You can get this at Home Depot in the paint department. It is marked clearly on the package as "20lb" tape. It is wider than the usual tape, has a more secure grip, and is water and temp proof. All of my DRLs were attached this way and they NEVER came loose due to temps or weather.

Before you actually mount the DRLs, do plenty of testing to ensure the grille insert will fit back into place with the DRL on the bumper. The DRL should line up with the re-installed insert piece and match the angle of the insert piece as well. Be careful NOT to cut too much off the bottom of the insert. You want it to re-install so that it drags over the the top of the DRL with no air space. Mine fit snug enough that even if I couldn't get the insert to clip at the top, it's snug enough against the DRL that it will not pop back out. In fact it is so snug that the DRL would probably not fall out even without the 3m tape.
After test fitting many times for placement of the DRL, make some marks along the bumper so you can line up the DRL at the proper angle and depth when you mount it. To mount it, have your assistant hold the insert piece bent away from the bumper. Apply 3M tape to the bottom of the DRL and position it according to the marks you made. Press it into place and push down to allow the tape to grab the bumper and mount securely. Then slide the insert back over the DRL and line up the clip at the top so it pops back into the bumper.
Re-installing the chrome bezel was tricky because it has multiple clips and guides that each has to fit properly to get it to click into place. Just be patient and feel free to curse during your many attempts to re-install it.
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Hope this helps. We (Scooter really) made a couple of scratches on the fascia of the bumper which I will touch up. They are visible when viewed from an inch or so, but are not noticeable from any kind of distance. Just go slowly and be careful with your tools and if that means the better part of your afternoon to complete this, so be it.

what type of cutting tool did you use? I'm going to try to get everything to complete this weekend.

Thanks Larz. Added to FAQ.

calidoso wrote:what type of cutting tool did you use? I'm going to try to get everything to complete this weekend.

We used a 1/2 inch drill bit to make holes along the area of the bumper we needed, then a dremel to finish cutting the portion of bumper away so the DRLs could be mounted inward enough to be flush with the black grille inserts after they were re-clipped into place. In hindsight, I reckon drilling holes and then using a very sharp knife or small hacksaw to do the cutting - that would probably do a much neater job than the dremel did. Just remember no matter how sloppy or jagged the bumper cutting is, the black insert will hide it so you will be the only one who knows you hacked up the bumper, LOL.

Perfect DIY, i just completed mine. Read through the whole thing and then I thought to myself "Now i got the installation good, how do i connect it all together." Lol . I just searched the thread and saw that you posted how you connected it together.

All in all i think it came out pretty good.

This is them at night. Will post some in the daytime tomorrow.

Sorry for phone pic.

Let's see what your cutting looks like up close in the day.

After removing the few pics I posted, I deleted the rest from the SD card. However, I can tell you that you would have thought that someone spread peanut butter along the inner bumper and then released a half dozen starving rats. I saw the cuts as Scooter was making them and I was trying to decide if our friendship was worth the price of a whole new bumper, LOL. Seriously though, it looked completely crap ... jagged edges, pieces of melted plastic from the dremel everywhere (but they wiped right off with a microfiber towel and water). I don't think I've ever seen a cutting job that poor. However, no matter how dodgy the cut out area looks, it gets fully covered when you mash the black grille insert back into it's top clip. Just remember that you only want to cut the lower section of the exposed bumper and make sure you do NOT cut off the upper area where the grille insert needs to clip back into place.
If I had to do it over again, I decided on a few changes:

1) Scooter has been sacked from my car-mod team, but we will continue to use his driveway and drink his excellent iced tea.
2) Find a very sharp knife about 6 inches long instead of the long bread-type knife we used.
4) Forget the dremel - just drill a hole to get the knife in place and cut straight across.
3) Consider taking the bumper off, laying it flat, and using a jig saw to make the cuts smooth and straight.

Could we (I) see more picks like the second one...close all around in the day. I'm more interested in the rat chewing visuals lol. I'm very anal on things like that and I know as far down as that may be from my eye, and as much as it might blend with the lights, my eye will always go to the imperfections. I want to see what the worst case scenario may be to know if I want to take a chance (not that I can do any better).
My other issue is too many different color white lights on the front. You'd think 5k is simply 5K, but the morimoto, is different from the parking light, which is different from the osram, and they're all 5K smh. I wonder if this will be different from them as well.
And just to make sure, your only against using the dremel to cut the bumper behind the insert, not against using it to cut the insert right?

defenitely couldve done a cleaner job but im pretty satisfied with it.





maybe i will buy another set of inserts to get them cut better. I was about to start raining so i had to rush the job a bit.

Great pics, thanks. Is there any specific reason why the of the light isn't sitting flush with the insert? It seems to sit flush towards the center of the bumper and then comes out towards the fogs.

They could be put flush with the fog l
Iight but then they would point outward. I wanted them to point foward.

I was pondering doing that same angle myself. It's just a matter of preference. Either way, you will be seen by oncoming traffic so all is good. I think your mod looks great. The thing about the grille insert is that since it's rubber-like and not hard plastic, it's hard to get a clean, smooth cut. We used a dremel and it heated the surface as it cut. (maybe we didn't use the proper attachment, or it has to be done slowly, etc.) I reckon that if we removed the grille insert completely, set it on a flat surface and used a jig saw or maybe a very sharp knife, my cuts would look better.
However, yours looks great! Those tiny imperfections are not visible unless you're on your knees with a camera. Viewing from normal situations they aren't noticeable at all. Well done, mate!

TDot wrote:Great pics, thanks. Is there any specific reason why the of the light isn't sitting flush with the insert? It seems to sit flush towards the center of the bumper and then comes out towards the fogs.

We had to cut the actual bumper area behind the grille insert all the way to the fog lamp, cutting VERY close in order to get the DRL to slide in far enough to be flush. The we used the dremel to eek out a little more along the edge of the fog lamp. Actually, my DRLs sit ever-so slightly forward of the grille insert, while stillk 'appearing' to be flush with it. Even if it sits slightly forward of the grille insert, it still looks brilliant and factory installed.

Where did you all put your control boxes in the engine bay? Also, where did you feed the wires (what I'm trying to say I guess is what did you do with extra wire?

I will edit this and post detailed pics tomorrow. It's great you asked this because the first place I mounted the module, I noticed the DRLs started lighting intermittently. I called Phillips to get a new unit and they suggested I may have mounted thew unit in an area that was getting too hot. I moved it and Ka-Ching. No more troubles even on a 20-hour trip to the north in dead summer.

OOPS! I was supposed to do this earlier today, I sincerely apologise.
It turned out to be a day of impromptu beach rugby followed by a massive cook-out at Chez Larz.
I just now ran out and snapped a few pics in the dark, LOL. I will definitely do some tomorrow in the morning to give you a clear idea of how I ran the wires, etc.
You can see the placement of the module just behind the power steering reservoir against the metal wheel well. There seems to be adequate air movement around that area to keep the module from over heating and it is hidden from view with the engine cover in place. I ran the battery wires from that module UNDER the battery compartment and up to the terminals so they are not exposed.
The wires from the actual DRLs leading to the module were run from the bumper up behind the grille, and under the washer tank to keep them hidden. I used plastic ties to attach the wires at various points to keep them neat and tidy. Do NOT tighten the ties too much or you will smash the wires - just tight enough to hold them and keep them from moving about too much.
I snipped the extra wire provided to allow you to have the DRLs dim when the headlamps switch ON. I decided that was totally not needed. PS: Mind the beach sand that finds its way all over everything under the hood. Life on the beach is a beeeech, LOL
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Larz wrote:I will edit this and post detailed pics tomorrow. It's great you asked this because the first place I mounted the module, I noticed the DRLs started lighting intermittently. I called Phillips to get a new unit and they suggested I may have mounted thew unit in an area that was getting too hot. I moved it and Ka-Ching. No more troubles even on a 20-hour trip to the north in dead summer.

Thanks!

Finally got mine installed! All of you that already have these know that the color is not this ~4200 K shown in this picture.. closer to 5000-5500 K.

That looks brilliant! That is the same location I used for my 07. Well done, mate!