Disabling Daytime Running Lights (DRL)

[JRL1164]

I removed the return spring in the switch and now the switch stays in the off position. I never have my DRL's on now and it was an easy 10 minute fix. No need for rewiring anything just remove the spring in the switch and you are good to go..

Yep, just did this with my truck and works like I wanted it. I did find out if you have it off when you start the truck and return it to auto it will stay off until you turn it off. Then when you restart it they come back on. If they off when you start it and say you want to turn them back to auto say if its raining, then you would go from off to auto and back to off and auto and it turns it back on.

 

The off position by removing the spring doesn't make it a true off unless its in. But you just have to remember that its wired/programmed to be a toggle switch not and actual on and off. But it worked best for me, cause I didn't want to rewire or cut any wires. Plus I can return it to stock when/if I choose to do so.

[Matt DiMarco]

On a bright and sunny day, it looks dumb to have your low beams on, also, the bulbs will burn out a lot faster. However, LED's or Ambers (orange parking lights) can add a nice touch in the daylight.

Say I wanted the ambers for DRLs insted of the low beams, could I just cross the power wire from each? So the ambers come on instead (when I shift out of park). so then one click right on the light knob would actually turn on the low beams (i dont care because i have no use for this setting). and then obviously 2 clicks right would be low beams and ambers together, as usual.. and the auto night lights would work the same and not be affected.

Edited September 10, 2015 by mattblackout

[Matt DiMarco]

I just switched the locations of low beam supply (pin B) with the park lamp supply (pin E) in the connector. No cutting or splicing wires. No relays. No modification. Can easily go back to stock. Now only the orange parking lights come on during the day when in gear, and it looks sweet. The low beams will come on when I turn the light switch, or when the auto nightlights are tiggered by darkness. This is only confirmed for Silverado because I think the Sierra uses the LEDs for DRL not low beams.

Edited September 13, 2015 by mattblackout

[tootall87]

I just switched the locations of low beam supply (pin B) with the park lamp supply (pin E) in the connector. No cutting or splicing wires. No relays. No modification. Can easily go back to stock. Now only the orange parking lights come on during the day when in gear, and it looks sweet. The low beams will come on when I turn the light switch, or when the auto nightlights are tiggered by darkness. This is only confirmed for Silverado because I think the Sierra uses the LEDs for DRL not low beams.

 

Have a diagram or picture by chance? I'd do this in a heart beat if it's simple.

[Matt DiMarco]

stand by

Edited September 13, 2015 by mattblackout

[Matt DiMarco]

 

Have a diagram or picture by chance? I'd do this in a heart beat if it's simple.

Just unplug the right or left harness and use a test light to see what pin is hot when low beam is on. and then what pin is hot with parking lamp on. diagrams were posted a few pages back so you can see which pins are which (ABCDEFGH) D,G and H are blanks. if you dont have a test light, im pretty confident that B is low beam and E is parking lamp. If you cant find the diagrams... when looking straight in the connector there is an upper and lower row or pins, 4 slots per row. upper right corner is A moving left to D. lower right corner is E moving left to H Edited September 13, 2015 by mattblackout

[flyin99]

Just unplug the right or left harness and use a test light to see what pin is hot when low beam is on. and then what pin is hot with parking lamp on. diagrams were posted a few pages back so you can see which pins are which (ABCDEFGH) D,G and H are blanks. if you dont have a test light, im pretty confident that B is low beam and E is parking lamp. If you cant find the diagrams... when looking straight in the connector there is an upper and lower row or pins, 4 slots per row. upper right corner is A moving left to D. lower right corner is E moving left to H

So you're just swapping B with E in the plug and vice versa, E to B? I must try Thanks!

[Matt DiMarco]

So you're just swapping B with E in the plug and vice versa, E to B? I must try Thanks!

Correct... its very simple, just need some very fine point tools to get the pins out of the connector. Start by removing the 2 grey peices. there is one on the front and back of connector.

[silverado2015]

is there a way to disable it with an mdi gm tool? i doubt a tech 2 will do it

[RobZ71LM7]

I'm doing the relay method. One problem I would see with a pin swap is if you manually put your lights in "P", your parking lights would turn off but low beams still be on. I like to be able to turn off my low beams but keep parking lights on at times. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Matt DiMarco]

I'm doing the relay method. One problem I would see with a pin swap is if you manually put your lights in "P", your parking lights would turn off but low beams still be on. I like to be able to turn off my low beams but keep parking lights on at times. Maybe I'm missing something.

You may have missed something. I thought of the pin swap method specifically so i could run the orange parking lights only. If you watch Baking83's video a few pages back he says "the only downfall about the relay method is that you CAN NOT run parking lights only" because the relay is wired so that the the low beam only gets power when you send power to the parking lights. Therefor, no low beam DRL. Which works perfect if you prefer no lights on at all during the daytime. The pin swap method will trigger *parking lights only* when you shift into drive and your light switch is left on "auto".

[RobZ71LM7]

You may have missed something. I thought of the pin swap method specifically so i could run the orange parking lights only. If you watch Baking83's video a few pages back he says "the only downfall about the relay method is that you CAN NOT run parking lights only" because the relay is wired so that the the low beam only gets power when you send power to the parking lights. Therefor, no low beam DRL. Which works perfect if you prefer no lights on at all during the daytime. The pin swap method will trigger *parking lights only* when you shift into drive and your light switch is left on "auto".

 

He's doing the relay method differently than I am. All you have to do with the relay method is splice/tap the wire for the parking lamps (allowing it to still power the parking lamps) using it to energize the relay. So in P the parking lamps should still work, they are energizing a relay to the low beams, but energizing the relay does nothing to turn on the low beams unless power for the low beams is already there. Now this wouldn't work if you took power from the battery for the low beams, but I'm using the OEM low beam power which is only hot in DRL mode (now interrupted by the relay), auto when dark, and when the headlamps are manually switched to on. The relay now uses the parking light signal to allow this circuit to complete so both conditions have to be met for the low beams to lights up: power from the truck on the low beam circuit, and power to the parking lamps. In "P" only condition 2 is met so only the parking lights are on.

[Matt DiMarco]

 

He's doing the relay method differently than I am. All you have to do with the relay method is splice/tap the wire for the parking lamps (allowing it to still power the parking lamps) using it to energize the relay. So in P the parking lamps should still work, they are energizing a relay to the low beams, but energizing the relay does nothing to turn on the low beams unless power for the low beams is already there. Now this wouldn't work if you took power from the battery for the low beams, but I'm using the OEM low beam power which is only hot in DRL mode (now interrupted by the relay), auto when dark, and when the headlamps are manually switched to on. The relay now uses the parking light signal to allow this circuit to complete so both conditions have to be met for the low beams to lights up: power from the truck on the low beam circuit, and power to the parking lamps. In "P" only condition 2 is met so only the parking lights are on.

When you say "in P" i assume you mean the light switch is on parking light (one click to the right). In this setting, while driving, both conditions are being met (power from parking lamps and power from oem low beam wire) so how would you drive with only parking lamp?

Lets step back and talk about the stock oem functionality. Because i think we have different situations. In USA silverados, when you shift into drive the low beams come on right. so here is my questions, can you be driving along (in daylight) and turn your low beams off with your light switch? and can you choose to run parking lights only while driving? because In Canada we dont have that option. We can not turn our low beams off unless we are in park. The light switch will not turn off low beams while in gear. so there is no way for us to run prkining lights only unless we do the pin swap.

[XMR15]

Thought I would share what I did. I know it isnt what others are trying to achieve, however some people may be interested. I have a GMC with the LED daytime running lights. I wanted to be able to run just the LED strip with my fog lights. However on Canadian trucks it would turn on the automatic headlights. So to get rid of the automatic headlights, I removed the upper dash piece where you see the sensor. I unglugged the harness from the sensor bulb and added a resistor. This in turn disabled my automatic headlights allowing me to run the LED strip and fog lights whenever I want-Even at night if i disire.

I have no desire to disable the daytime running lights since I have the LED strip. Just wanted to get rid of the automatic headlights.

[Chevor]

I drive with all lights on all the time so others can see me sooner!

Edited September 14, 2015 by Chevor