How to turn off DRL

[kool-aide]

Well the section says electronics, so i figure I would post here.

I have read several threads and a few web sites discussing how you turn off your day time running lights.

I thought I would share what I did for those that don't like soldering electronic boards. This would also give you an easier undo. This does not involve opening the DRL box at all.

The things I needed to get the job done

wire - I used 18 ga, but 16 ga may work, 14a may be ok specially if using solid wire. all you need is a couple of inches, solid wire would be best.

d-sub pin connectors. for any one not familiar i'm talking about the old serial and video type computer or electronics connectors. you can find them at radio shack, and you are looking for the female in this case. you want the build your own style not the pre made. this gives you the little female parts in a strip not already in the d-sub connector.

heat shrink tube, because electrical tape sucks, . Seriously in this case you want the tubing.

a lighter, to melt the heat shrink tube. I really hot blow dryer works too, but the lighter is way easier.

if you're using solid wire you won't need to solder. if you used strand like i did then you should tin the wire, add a little coat of solder over the wire you cut back. you don't have to but when you need to jam one end into pin a the wire will crinkle and get all bent up. this is where the 16 ga maybe even 14 ga wire comes in. 18 ga wire is too big for the little female d-sub connector. i think it is really meant to hold 14 ga, but with strand wire you can strip back a little and cut half off, . this makes it easy to slide in.

all i did was gain access to the DRL module behind the radio, like every one says. You pull the face bezel off, undo the radio bolts, pull the antena off the radio, and push every thing aside and down. This gave me enough room to work. I didn't disconnect the radio or the ASR and Fog lights. Feel free to disconnect the radio and your ASR and fog light switches.

lift up on the DRL module. every one was right, there is plenty of wire slack to work with here. like other posts say you want the blue connector.

unplug it by pulling the orange safety tab out. Pull the black wire hold down clip off too. pulling this gives you better access to slip your short wire in.

strip back close to a 1/4 inch of wire on both ends. one side will be for the d-cub female connector the other to jam in pin A.

if you have strand wire twist one side and tin it with a little solder. the other side cut half the strand out leaving a thinner piece and twist. the female connect is made to crimp, but you can solder this too. The shrink tube is to fit over the d-sub connector side so nothing falls out. And it gives a snug fit in the DRL connector not to mention a sturdy wire to push in to make pin B.

the popular DLR posts say to short pins A and B, B being the disconnect pin and A being a ground wire. so instead of soldering the PCB. We will use a jumper wire, . The one we made with the d-sub female connect and short wire.

here is why you tin the wire if you're using strand. you want a solid piece of wire for slot A or pin A. it is a snug fit and when you put the wire hold down clip back in it is extremely tight. This should give you a reasonable connection between your short wire and pin As connector. if you look into the blue connector you can see a small gap on one side of the pin A connection, good place to jam your wire in as far as it can go.

the other side of your short wire goes in pin out B. The d-sub female connector is a perfect fit for the slot and for the male pin on the other end. Just jam that sucker in pin slot B until you can clearly see the connector on the other end. at this point you will know why the shrink tube is needed instead of tape. It is the perfect size and makes a sturdy wire for jamming in the hole.

now you have jumped pin out A and pin out B with out Fing up your PCB. the reason I don't want to solder my PCB like other posts is heat. If you don't know what you are doing and don't have a nice variable temp solder iron. you could burn up the board. too much heat will travel through the runs on the board and to other parts. chances are you won't get enough heat to burn any of the ICs up, but is can happen and i have done this. it sucks, cuz then you have to find the dead part and replace it.

at this point you put the black hold down wire clip, notice the pin A side will be real tight and hard to push in because of the extra wire. Don't worry it will clip in on one side easy and the other will eventually clip.

plug the connector in and put every thing together, done, and no Fing with the PCB, .

I checked in day light no lights. I turned on the light switch, I have lights. The real test will be at night. I'm hoping this kills the auto head lights too.

good luck to any one that tries this out.

kool-aide

[kool-aide]

perfect, no DRL, no auto head lights, and every thing still works. I hope this helps some one out there.

and for an undo all you have to do is yank one little jumper wire to go back.

[swisscheese]

Its even easier: cut the pink one or wire in a switch

takes care of both, drl and autolight

[kool-aide]

I saw that some where, and thought that was pretty easy too.

I figured this way you didn't have to cut or fool with any of the OEM wiring.