Wyevalley wrote:

My apologies for the delay in providing an update but – JOB DONE!

Following the advice of Nodge68 and Congoblue, I connected my relay (with inbuilt diode) across the Grey/Brown and Black Yellow wires with the bar on the diode connected to the Grey/Brown side.

Operating either the headlight flasher or switching to main beam operated the relay with no apparent ill effects and so I was ready to fit the lights.

As mentioned previously, I wanted a discrete installation and planned to mount the Osram SX180 lamps behind the uppermost grille but this proved impractical unless I cut the grille which I wasn’t prepared to do so decided on plan B which was to mount them behind the lower grille (the one in front of the intercooler). Not ideal as they would need to shine through the grille matrix but an acceptable compromise.

Firstly I needed a feed and didn’t want to take that directly off of the positive feed to the headlamp shutter so looked in the left hand wing mounted fuse box where there was a spare male Lucar connector which had permanent +12v on it so came off of that with an inline fuse.

Next job was to remove the entire front end as the grilles are an integral part of it. Not the easiest job but, with the help of a handy Youtube video which covered MOST of the bolts that needed removal, this was achieved.

Next – How to mount them. Initially the plan was to mount them to the front panel itself but this is all single skinned so a) It would be difficult to mount anything without bolt heads showing and b) it all felt a bit flimsy and I was keen to avoid vibration so looked for an alternative.

Behind the front panel there are two plastic/rubber ‘boxes’, one around the radiator aperture and one around the intercooler aperture so nothing to attached to there but, between the two is a metal box section which sits directly behind the ‘bumper’ (where the number plate is fitted). The bottom face of this box section is approx. 50mm above the top of the intercooler plastic ‘box’.

I drilled holes up through the top section of the plastic box and into the underside of the metal box section and tapped the holes in the metal box section M8 and, using longish stainless bolts and spacers between the top of the intercooler ‘box’ and the metal box section, was able to firmly mount the light brackets but not distort the plastic box.

The only problem was that I couldn’t mount the lights far enough back to clear the back of the lower grille and so had to make up new extended brackets for the lights which moved them further back.

So far, so good.

The only (final) problem was that I couldn’t get to the lights with the front panel on to adjust them so had to do this after dark with the front panel off.

I’m very pleased with the result, just annoyed that I didn’t think to take photographs as I progressed but hopefully have attached a few of the fuse box feed and the finished result.

Many thanks to those who offered advice. I wouldn’t have considered tackling the job without it.

Xenon bulbs use a shutter to open up the whole lamp for main, or mask off a chunk for dips. The shutter is often used to control the height of the lamp for active control too (it is in the wife's Audi, which also has crap Xenon mains), but you'd need to check on your lights to see what wires feed the shutters and how. If the shutters are simply energised for mains, then take a feed for your relay coil off the shutter feed. The higher current (a small bar will have small current consumption), from the fuse box via the relay to supply the bar.

At some point I'm going to install a 24" CREE emitter bar behind the upper grill in mine, but having halogen lights, the mains aren't that bad, which is why I've been in no hurry to do the job. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.