NEW! Elite Series JL Wrangler & JT Gladiator LED Headlights from Diode Dynamics

[rconkin]

Pretty sure the fuse tap is for "Off-road Mode" which turns on a massive amount of bright light you wouldn't use in normal day to day use. At least, that's what mine does.

That works on mine without it hooked up.

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[THE SANDALORIAN]

That works on mine without it hooked up.

How do you turn it on without an aux switch or the included toggle switch?

 

[JRobes]

How do you turn it on without an aux switch or the included toggle switch?

 

[JeepOfTheseus]

How do you turn it on without an aux switch or the included toggle switch?

The off-road mode wire lead can either be tied directly to an aux switch wire (be it factory or aftermarket), or you can use their switch (and presumably get power directly from the battery). There is a separate fuse tap wire that seems to impact how the light/DRL behaves in ACC mode (specifically: whenever the fuse you tap into gets power). What I noticed is the DRL wouldn't come on until the engine was on before I properly wired up the fuse tap.

 

[THE SANDALORIAN]

The off-road mode wire lead can either be tied directly to an aux switch wire (be it factory or aftermarket), or you can use their switch (and presumably get power directly from the battery). There is a separate fuse tap wire that seems to impact how the light/DRL behaves in ACC mode (specifically: whenever the fuse you tap into gets power). What I noticed is the DRL wouldn't come on until the engine was on before I properly wired up the fuse tap.

These were the steps I followed. Without a switch, I guess you could tap them directly into power, but wouldn't they stay on permanently?

Step 14 - Wire Offroad Lighting Feature (Elite Max Model Only)
If you purchased the Elite Max model, wire up the offroad lighting feature using the instructions below:

Method One - Factory-Installed Switch Bank
If you plan to control the offroad lights with a factory-installed switch bank, crimp the butt connector (E) on the auxiliary tap harness, to a switch bank wire lead found near the battery. Any wire can be used – refer to your owner’s manual to determine which wire color corresponds with which switch.

Method Two – Install Toggle Switch
If you plan to control the offroad lights through the included toggle switch, connect the bare wire lead (I) on the toggle switch adapter wire to the butt connector (E) on the auxiliary tap harness using a crimping tool.

Connect the spade terminals on the switch wire to the toggle switch. The black wire should connect to the gold terminal and the blue wire should connect to the middle terminal. Then, attach the split ring terminal (J) to a factory grounding point.

Connect the fused split ring terminal (K) on the switch wire to the positive battery terminal.

Determine a suitable location to mount the switch in the cabin of the vehicle. Route the switch wiring to that location. This may require going through the vehicle firewall. We recommend following the path of the factory wiring harness, and unplugging the switch while routing the wires.

Drill a ¾” hole and mount the switch. Reconnect wires to the switch, with the red wire in the center position.

 

[JeepOfTheseus]

These were the steps I followed. Without a switch, I guess you could tap them directly into power, but wouldn't they stay on permanently?

Method One - Factory-Installed Switch Bank
If you plan to control the offroad lights with a factory-installed switch bank, crimp the butt connector (E) on the auxiliary tap harness, to a switch bank wire lead found near the battery. Any wire can be used – refer to your owner’s manual to determine which wire color corresponds with which switch.

Method Two – Install Toggle Switch
If you plan to control the offroad lights through the included toggle switch, connect the bare wire lead (I) on the toggle switch adapter wire to the butt connector (E) on the auxiliary tap harness using a crimping tool.

Connect the spade terminals on the switch wire to the toggle switch. The black wire should connect to the gold terminal and the blue wire should connect to the middle terminal. Then, attach the split ring terminal (J) to a factory grounding point.

Connect the fused split ring terminal (K) on the switch wire to the positive battery terminal.

There has to be a switch, yes. I think my wording was a bit confusing: I just meant if you use their switch, you have to tap into power.

But this is all separate from the other fuse tap they have you use - which (as best as I can tell) lets the DRL activate when you turn on the Jeep, but before you crank the engine.

 

[THE SANDALORIAN]

There has to be a switch, yes. I think my wording was a bit confusing: I just meant if you use their switch, you have to tap into power.

But this is all separate from the other fuse tap they have you use - which (as best as I can tell) lets the DRL activate when you turn on the Jeep, but before you crank the engine.

Forgot their was both the fuse tap AND the toggle switch they included.

 

[rconkin]

I was talking about the fuse one. I wired both to my Voswitch so off road comes on with it. With that switch off so no power going to the fuse wire absolutely everything works DRL, welcome sequence, show mode. I can change the DRL to yellow, turn bars on and off. I can’t see that the tap a fuse wire does anything. Others have no DRL with it not hooked up. I used Jscan to switch to LED. Tthe whole thing doesn’t make sense.

 

[Beemer533]

Pretty sure the fuse tap is for "Off-road Mode" which turns on a massive amount of bright light you wouldn't use in normal day to day use. At least, that's what mine does.

That's actually a different connection. We are referring to the fuse tap labeled "D" which should be for the DRL.

For the offroad lights you are talking about that is the blue wire labeled "E".

I have that connected to my spod as well and that works to control the offroad lights.

 

[Beemer533]

Guess I missed the other responses, seems to have been covered already..

 

[rconkin]

The off-road mode wire lead can either be tied directly to an aux switch wire (be it factory or aftermarket), or you can use their switch (and presumably get power directly from the battery). There is a separate fuse tap wire that seems to impact how the light/DRL behaves in ACC mode (specifically: whenever the fuse you tap into gets power). What I noticed is the DRL wouldn't come on until the engine was on before I properly wired up the fuse tap.

Finally, that’s it. My DRL doesn’t come on until engine running. My Voswitch is wired to fuse the tapa fuse is supposed to go to so it won’t power on until at least switch to ACC. Once on ACC I can turn DRL on and off with Voswitch otherwise DRL not on until running. Thank you very much for sharing that. Now I can quit wondering what that wire does.

 

[Diode Dynamics]

Jeep JL (Left) Jeep JT (Right)

Awesome shot side-by-side shot of our Elite Series Headlights and Stage Series Lighting products!

 

[Diode Dynamics]

Shoutout to Quadratec for the quality review of our NEW Elite Series Headlights!

 

[JRobes]

I finally caved and ordered my Elite (non-max) headlights through @Northridge4x4, product arrived very quick, and as always they're a pleasure to work with.

Good Stuff:
Lights look great, cables all seem very high quality, and they arrived undamaged.

Bad Stuff:
I believe I got some old stock from Diode's original manufacturing run, and they may have had some bugs they were still working out.
Issue 1; the driver side headlight was aimed WAY too high out of the box, and even at the lowest turned setting it was still aiming upward slightly.
Issue 2; the lights worked fine while going through the programming functions with the engine off, but as soon as I turned the engine on the lights would immediately flicker off, then flicker briefly on several seconds later, then off. Not happy as I had already re-assembled the grill back on and I knew these issues were going to delay a working jeep by several days.
Issue 3 (minor): on my 2020 with 3.6L, the passenger side light is VERY tight against the airbox as others have mentioned, I'm just going to run it and if it causes issues get them warranty swapped.
Issue 4: It is very difficult to aim the lights once installed; the passenger side would likely require the removal of the airbox, and the driver side has factory pipes directly behind where the tool needs to be inserted to aim the lights, so you basically have to fully remove the light (and thus the grill) to properly get to the adjustment screw.

I started by emailing Diode Dynamics; the first CS rep didn't seem to know anything about the badly aimed headlight, and email responses from him died off for the next day... more not happy. I then called Diode the next day, and their rep Cameron had heard of the aiming issue, as well as the flickering (they added anti-flicker devices in later runs), and got me a replacement set delivered 2 business days later. Very happy with his responses and quick actions.

Got the replacement ones installed this morning and the aiming issue and flickering issues are both resolved. Below is a pic of the old (left) vs new (right) harness that has the anti-flicker device spliced into the harness. Yes, this means if you got an old harness and you had the unfortunate luck of completing your cable routing and cable tying everything neatly in place before you realized you were going to have these issues, you need to tear out the old fender harnesses and replace them with the new ones that come with newer versions of the lights.

That all being said, I have 100% faith that @Diode Dynamics is going to stand by these, and am still pleased I went with them. Make sure to check that your harness has the antiflicker before installing them.

 

[JRobes]

A side note; is anyone having issues programming the lights to the various settings? I'm able to get into program mode doing the headlight dial dance, and change through the options using the highbeams, but when I turn the headlight dial to off, the settings don't seem to save? I emailed @Diode Dynamics on this, but guessing I won't hear back til monday.

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