[Doozer]

I finally managed to set aside some time today and the get the lower DRL lights installed. Miles better! I took a ton of pictures, but I know there are some decent write-ups already, so I'm not sure I need to repeat anything.

However, I haven't seen much info about the 2016+ swaps, and there are definitely some issues that weren't on the earlier models - especially with that PITA chrome strip across the entire front. Let me know if you want me to do another write up, or feel free to ask questions here.

Needless to say, I'm super happy with it, and something any DIY'er can tackle.

Before:

After:

PS - pardon how dirty the car is, we've had a lot of rain and even a bit of snow lately. Yes in June.

 

[Kylebennett7127]

Looks great!

 

[SaveTheManuals]

These should have been on every ATS, makes no sense for Cadillac who is trying to establish their brand trademark look to not have their signature lights on every model. Something else that made no sense was not having them on the luxury trim models...the LED DRL's make the car look AND feel more luxurious, how can this not be included? haha

Anyway nice work, looks great. I think DIY's are always welcome, so I would do it because it would certiainly help some folks out still.

 

[Doozer]

These should have been on every ATS, makes no sense for Cadillac who is trying to establish their brand trademark look to not have their signature lights on every model. Something else that made no sense was not having them on the luxury trim models...the LED DRL's make the car look AND feel more luxurious, how can this not be included? haha

Anyway nice work, looks great. I think DIY's are always welcome, so I would do it because it would certiainly help some folks out still.

Thanks, and I agree the lights should've been there from the beginning. It was so frustrating looking at the car without them, especially considering the ATS is already weak on forward light projection. I can do a write-up, and I was thinking that I'll probably upload the pics to the server too. One thing I DID notice from the other write-ups is that they all used external hosting, and most of the threads were now missing the pics.

 

[CadillacGM]

Nice work, looks completely OEM.

 

[Ragtop 99]

These should have been on every ATS, makes no sense for Cadillac who is trying to establish their brand trademark look to not have their signature lights on every model. Something else that made no sense was not having them on the luxury trim models...the LED DRL's make the car look AND feel more luxurious, how can this not be included? haha

I agree. There were big debates on this forum about it. Some us believed for corporate branding and to help the ATS compete against the Germans, all ATS cars should have had them. Probably help sell a few more more of them. Some of the performance & premium owners whined that they paid all the extra money and wanted their cars to stand-out. If those owners wanted to advertise that they spent more on their car than others, Cadillac could have given them a little badge or a bumper sticker that said "I bought all the options."

 

[Sergio526]

I agree. There were big debates on this forum about it. Some us believed for corporate branding and to help the ATS compete against the Germans, all ATS cars should have had them. Probably help sell a few more more of them. Some of the performance & premium owners whined that they paid all the extra money and wanted their cars to stand-out. If those owners wanted to advertise that they spent more on their car than others, Cadillac could have given them a little badge or a bumper sticker that said "I bought all the options."

What's really weird is the Chinese market ATS. They have the same base-level looking headlights that we do, but their upper-level lights are HID with the LED vertical strip, but no cornering or auto leveling. Their headlight ECU can connect to and properly control either headlight unit. If you bought an ATS there with base headlights, you can connect the higher end ones to the same harness and they just work! From what I've seen, the lower DRL connectors are also there on the base model, you just need to buy them and connect them and they work. It almost feels like they went out of their way to make it as difficult as possible to retrofit the lights in the rest of the world.

 

[Doozer]

From what I've seen, the lower DRL connectors are also there on the base model, you just need to buy them and connect them and they work. It almost feels like they went out of their way to make it as difficult as possible to retrofit the lights in the rest of the world.

Can't speak the Chinese market ATS that you mentioned, but man that would be nice to have here. Would've saved a lot of time to have those connectors already in place!

 

[Doozer]

I agree. There were big debates on this forum about it. Some us believed for corporate branding and to help the ATS compete against the Germans, all ATS cars should have had them. Probably help sell a few more more of them. Some of the performance & premium owners whined that they paid all the extra money and wanted their cars to stand-out. If those owners wanted to advertise that they spent more on their car than others, Cadillac could have given them a little badge or a bumper sticker that said "I bought all the options."

I believe this too ... a lot of owners of many "luxury" brands are big into identifying themselves as big-spenders, whatever. But isn't it just the ATS that loses the LED blades? I mean, that argument completely collapses when the CTS & XTS have the light blades on every model.

 

[Wojciech]

What about the head lights? HID or LED ?

 

[Doozer]

What about the head lights? HID or LED ?

LED. I did that a couple weeks earlier as I was scoping out how much room there was in the fender to work on the lower lights.

Only problem with the LEDs was that they're too big for the factory dust cap. And the factory cap is hard plastic, so I had to cut an opening for the LED fans to stick out, then re-seal it with liquid electrical tape. Worked fine, just an extra step that I wasn't planning on.

 

[Nsohail]

How did you wire the DRL's?

 

[Doozer]

I used t-taps and ran them off the yellow wire that powers the headlights. There are 3 wires coming off the DRLs, a ground and then a low-power & full-power wire. I ignored the low-power, taped it off, and just used the full-power wire + ground so whenever the headlights are on, the DRLs are on full power. And since my car is Canadian and the headlights are on whenever the car is on, it works well.

You can see on the pic below, I added t-taps coming off the power and ground from the headlight, which are normally covered behind the dust cap, but were exposed when I added the LEDs. They run down to the new connectors I added that only have 2 wires, which plug into the back of the light. That big grey square in the middle of the pic with the blue circle on the back is the backside of the DRL.

You'll have to excuse the extra wire slack; I wasn't sure how much wire I'd need and better to have a little extra than not enough!

 

[Schenze]

Did you end up cutting into the black mesh under the headlights to get them to fit? Or did you find a part that lets you mount them.

 

[Doozer]

Cut. There was already the proper sized hole in the bumper so don't need to worry about that part. I figured if I didn't like the way it looked, I could order the proper parts from a Premium model.

 

[Nsohail]

How are the LED headlights holding up? What brand are they? I am in the process of installing the Bumper with lower DRL's on my Base model which has Halogen lights.

 

[tanayast]

Great work so far! I did the same to my 2013 last year and I initially cut the lower grilles like you did to accomodate the DRL (the 2013 was different style) but eventually I got the grilles from the premium trim. I spliced the DRL's exactly the same as you did.

As of headlights, how did you like the LED's?
I upgraded mine to 35W HID from Morimoto and it has been excellent!

 

[tanayast]

Here is mine "After":

ATS by tanayast, on Flickr

 

[Doozer]

So far the headlights and lower lights have all been holding up great. I was a little worried as we've had a few pretty significant rainstorms here lately, and I was waiting for lights to short out and go out, but everything has been tight and dry it seems.

And Tanayast, I was reading your threads a lot as I was preparing for the DRL install, I must've read every thread in this forum that mentioned lights. Looks great! I'm still contemplating ordering the the actual replacement grills, but I also bought some generic grill mesh that I might try out too. Those spots are just such a pain to get to that I'm probably going to leave them for awhile. Especially considering I've only got another month or two before the weather suspends car mods for 6 months.

Finally, as for the brightness/useability of the LED headlights, I actually don't have a lot to report yet! Our summer days are still pretty long and I haven't driven a lot in the dark since I've put them in. But they're starting to shorten so I imagine over the next month or two I should know more. But anything has to be better than the factory halogen lights. Yikes.

 

[Doozer]

Oh, and almost forgot - the exact headlights I got were these:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0799F41PQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And note that I did have to cut the dust cap for them to fit, so be prepared to do that, and have something on hand (liquid electrical tape or something else) to reseal the opening.