Daytime Running Lamps at Night?

Wick3d M3 · August 23, 2006

Hey all, Did some searching here but was not able to find what I was looking for. A friend of mine has a 2000 GMC Sierra, he recently got amber DRL's and they sure do look badass.

Anyways, He wanted them to also come on at night so he could cruise around with DRL's and parking lights in the later afternoon. However at that time there is not enough light to activate the photosensor.

We had the idea of getting some sort of small LED or light to put near the photosensor on the dash so that it would activate the DRL's during nightime as well. We bought some really bright LED's with adhesive tape and a focused beam and placed them to shine on the photosensor. Apparently this wasnt enough light and it didnt activate it. But when we used a flashlight it came on no problem in about ~10 seconds.

My question is... Is there a way to wire up the photo sensor so that the DRL's are always on, or eliminate the sensor all together and hook them up to a switch? Maybe even possibly installing an ultra sensitive photosensor that would enable the DRL's to always be on. Any of these solutions would be great if someone could provide some information or a link to a write-up, etc, if someone has achieved this before.

Thank you in advance if you are able to provide a solution or help out in anyway, if you need additional info. let me know.

opsbear7 · August 23, 2006

You need to find a way to bypass the photosensor....Sounds to me like your buddy does not mind playing around with his light switches so it would not bother him to not have the "auto" feature that the light sensor offers...therefore, couldnt you just remove the light sensor all togeather?

Wick3d M3 · August 23, 2006

You need to find a way to bypass the photosensor....Sounds to me like your buddy does not mind playing around with his light switches so it would not bother him to not have the "auto" feature that the light sensor offers...therefore, couldnt you just remove the light sensor all togeather?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How many wires go into the sensor? If it was just two I suppose we could take the sensor out and solder those two wires together but neither of us know how its wired up, thats why I was wondering if someone had a wiring diagram of how it was all wired up.

opsbear7 · August 24, 2006

That is a good question haha...I have no idea. If I am you i would call the dealer get a price check on how much that sensor costs. If it is below $30 just pop it off and see the wires and if you break it get the new one.