2015 Sonata Limited W/ OEM HID has no auto leveling?

[Csmith]

I was looking at adding the OEM Korea spec daytime running lights to my US spec sonata. Naturally in order to do so I ordered a single spare oem headlamp in order to make sure this would be possible.

After opening the headlamp I noticed that what I thought as the auto leveling motor is actually the high beam solenoid. The actual vertical adjuster has no motor of any kind attached to it. The car uses a 35w D3S hid system. I've heard of 25w HID not having autoleveling because they are under the 2000lm threshold but never full brightness 35w hid.

1. How is this legal for Hyundai to do?
2. Is it possible to add autoleveling?

 

[-Virgil-]

Leveling (whether automatic or controlled by the driver from the cockpit) is not required in North America on any headlamps. That 2000lm threshold you mention is in UN Regulation 48, which requires that headlamps with low beams produced by LEDs (producing any amount of flux) or other kinds of light source(s) producing more than 2000 lumens must have automatic leveling unless the vehicle has self-leveling suspension. UN Reg 48 is applied throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world, but no such requirement exists in US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 or Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108.

Korea permits both UN and US-spec vehicle lighting, so it's possible the Korea-spec cars also don't have headlamp leveling. They could also have a mix of US and UN specs in the headlamp: might be UN-spec headlamps without leveling, might be US headlamps minus side marker lights and/or reflectors but with UN-spec DRLs, etc.

Depending on the architecture and configuration of the lamps, it might be anywhere between easy and impossible to add leveling motors. If you clear that hurdle, then you'd have to figure out what hardware (sensors, ECU, wiring harness, etc) you'd need to add. Or perhaps, depending on what kind of motors are used, the Hella aftermarket auto-leveling sensor and ECU could be used.

How are you hoping to add the DRLs to a set of headlamps not originally equipped? I hope you're not planning on breaking open the lamp...

 

[Csmith]

I am planning on opening up the lamps to do so but I'm not just going to do that and then slap them back together. I have numerous type of adhesive and butyl glue as well a clean room set up for this purpose.

I'm going to use a board of 5630 SMDs to backlight the panel that lights up on the Korea spec.
The particular led chips I am using are right at the brightness spec for legal daytime running lights as well.

 

[-Virgil-]

A clean room and butyl is a lot less slapdash than a garage workbench and bathtub caulk, but this is still really not a good idea. "The LED chips I am using are right at the brightness spec for legal daytime running lights" does not make sense; that's not how this kind of thing works. DRLs, like all other vehicle lights, are specified in terms of a beam pattern (intensity distribution throughout a specified range of vertical and horizontal angles) produced by the assembled lamp, not really in terms of what the light source puts out. You can't just hack LEDs into a lamp and declare that you've made a safe, effective, or legal DRL, because the overwhelming odds are that you haven't.

If the Korean-spec headlamps include integral DRLs, why not just install a set of those? (That said, it's not clear to me that they necessarily do -- it appears the '15 Sonata, in various versions around the world, has LED DRLs as the "eyebrows" of the fog lamp chambers in the front bumper fascia)

Please keep in mind that Rule 11 of this board prohibits advocating or discussing illegal or dangerous activity, and you are treading close to that line.

 

[Csmith]

I should clarify. In the Korea spec the oem drls function by using leds to backlight a panel. I have the bumper drls I just would like to put something in the headlamp as well.
The 5630 SMD boards are rated for 500lms which from what I understand is the correct brightness for legal daytime running lamps.

These are intended to be more of an accent light anyway. Not planning on using them for primary daytime running lights.
Would you see there to be any legality issues with this?

 

[-Virgil-]

I should clarify. In the Korea spec the oem drls function by using leds to backlight a panel. I have the bumper drls I just would like to put something in the headlamp as well.

Have you double-checked to make sure the K-spec lights you're looking at are actually DRLs and not front position ("parking") lights? Both white, but DRLs are high intensity, while position lights are low intensity.

The 5630 SMD boards are rated for 500lms which from what I understand is the correct brightness for legal daytime running lamps.

This is a complete misunderstanding. Vehicle lighting functions are not defined, measured, or tested in terms of lumens, but in terms of candela. Your 500 lumen figure refers to how much light the LED boards are claimed to produce. It says and implies nothing about the distribution of light or its intensity pattern within that distribution once these LED boards are hacked into the lamps.

These are intended to be more of an accent light anyway. Not planning on using them for primary daytime running lights.

It really doesn't matter what we might call them; all exterior lights on a vehicle, even the ones that aren't legally mandatory, are regulated as to their design, construction, and performance. It can't be guessed at or just declared. There are safety and legality effects of this kind of modification. You can interfere with the clarity of the nearby turn signal, for example, or cause other glare-related issues. And it's considerably more difficult than it might sound to seal out water and dirt once the headlamp's original seal has been broken.