I am considering replacing my highbeam bulbs with a whiter, brighter set of HRI bulbs. It is suggested that I disconnect the DRL's because with these bulbs they may produce too much glare. Has anyone gone with brighter brights? Did you disconnect your DRL's? How difficult is it to do?

 

Any one?

 

Sorry, I have no experience that I can pass on, but my gut feeling is that it is very difficult to override the DRL. Remember that in DRL mode, the high beams are on at reduced power - something like 20% normal power - so even moderately brighter bulbs aren't likely to be blinding.

 

Trying this thread again in hopes that someone has done this or has thought about it.

 

Try this thread... https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1963

 

here everyone:
First you need to identify the DRL unit under the drivers dash.
If you or anyone has a Helms manual, you can see a picture of it-I would post it but I am leaving tomorrow for a cross country road trip and I dont have the time.
The DRL unit has a 6 wire harness to it, consisting of 2 black (thats ground) purple, yellow, green, and the wire of object-white.
The unit has 2 sources of power, 2 fused sources and thats why if you remove the fuse for DRL, you get the message in the information cluster. you cannot pull both fuses because the other fuse is common with other necessary items.
The white wire sends out 2V direct to the highbeam lamps.
It does not impact on any other circuit.
to verify that you have the correct harness, all you have to do is dissconnect it from the DRL unit, and of course the DRL lights will not function.
Thats the first step to assure yourself you have the correct harness.
The second step is to reconnect the DRL and backprobe the white wire with a voltmeter, and it should read 2V.
Now you are 100% certain you have the correct harness-no other device on the car throws out 2V as a power supply.

How you cut the white wire is up to you.
you can slice open the protective cover on the harness and cut the wire further down giving you the ability to patch the wire at a later date, or you can manipulate the wire harness and 'pull' the wire from the connector with the pin by releasing the metal pin from the plastic lock within the connector.
The advantage of doing it that way is that you never permanantly altered the wiring of the car and you can reinsert the pin into the harness rendering the car back to factory original condition.
Just make sure to insulate the pin rather than leaving it bare and hanging.

Of course you should do all this without the car on in accessory or running mode, and you should identify the white wire for 2V only with the car in running mode while in park without the parking brake engaged.
After you are done, presto, no DRL, no nag screen, and no load or conflict with any other device in the car.

The reason I chose to disable this way instead of any other wire is because essentially every component on the lighting circuit is still functioning, and because the control units controlling the lighting and other body components are all interrelated, this was the surest way to keep all systems thinking they were operating within normal specs.
The system does not monitor if the 2V is present at the highbeams, only if the DRL unit is functioning.

 

Hi there,

I'm sorry to dig up a really old thread, but I wanted to do so to let others know that I tried cutting the White 2V wire coming out of the DRL module and while the DRLs were disabled, I got the dreaded "Check DRL" message on both the gauge cluster and NAV screen.

This was a on a 03/95 build of the RL, so about halfway through 2005 production.

(I don't want to get into an argument with others about DRLs, I just want people to know this modification didn't work on my car).

There must be a relay or something that will get rid of these. I'll have to buy a factory service manual and look at the wiring diagrams.

Chris

 

Yeah, there's no need for kvetching over the propriety of DRL mods. The thread is over a technical issue.

Actually, two:
--if and how to disable the DRL feature;
--question whether HIR replacement bulbs will burn too bright.

I can asnwer the second, and there's a thread on replacing those bulbs in this forum. The HIR's do burn a little brighter that stock bulbs when in DRL mode (and magnitudes brighter in high beam mode), but it's not a glare issue at all. It's still pretty dim.