My state requires headlights to be on when wipers are on. Is there a known way to rig this on a 2006 F150 (with the auto headlight setup?). Link to a DIY somewhere? I'd expect to have to wire in a relay at the very least.

Thanks for any help, didn't turn up anything on a search, but that may be my poor search-fu.

 

What's wrong with flipping the lights on manually when you operate the wipers? Both functions are at the left side.

Problem I see is with using a relay to operate the lights when the wipers are on is if you turn on the lights (at night for example), and then turn on the wipers, that relay would send additional voltage to the lights...not sure how that would work out on the circuit. Might need a second relay to detect for this situation.

 

that would be do it yourself.. thats what i do myself.

 

Voltage is not sent it is drawn. While a secondary circuit would be open, there would be no additional draw by the headlights. The headlights draw the same amount of volts and amps regardless of how many sources are available. Both circuits would be capable of providing 12 volts.

In addition you would only need to trip the relay for the lights from the wiper circuit, not actually run the lights from the power on the wiper circuit.

Essentially there would be two switches for the relay for the headlights. One from the headlight switch on the dash, the other tripped when the wipers are turned on.

I would think you would need a wiring schematic to figure out how to do that as the wipers have a variety of modes available. My guess would be to split off right at the wiper relay and use that to trip the relay for the headlights. but again I am just guessing without the wiring schematic.

 

If we're getting technical here... voltage is neither sent nor drawn. It is applied. Current, i.e. amperage, is drawn.

Got that banged into my head in electronics school several years ago

 

Why go through the trouble of wiring 101, just flip the switch?

 

What's wrong is that we old guys don't always remember to do that, and then end up driving around in the rain with no lights on (similar to the reason Ford provided the auto headlight mode). My other cars have DRLs, which mitigate the rain problem somewhat.

Dirttracker18: Thanks for a to-the-point response.

 

Touche

The point being you do not have to worry about to much volts or amps getting to the headlights, so long as the source is the correct voltage.

 

It is a convenient feature. Wife's car has a timer, that when the wipers are turned on, the lights come on after 10 seconds.

 

You could also just instal an aftermarket DRL unit, that would solve the issue entirely.