I got pulled over by the police tonight because I forgot to turn on my headlights at night (previous vehicle had daytime running lights). So my question: is there a way to activate daytime running lights on the RL? Is there a chime or other obvious indicator that you've left the lights on when exiting the vehicle? Thanks.

PS--Police officer was very nice and gently reminded me of the need to turn on the lights. Geez!

 

Yeah, turn the switch to 'AUTO'. That will automatically turn the lights on and off depending on the light level.

 

Thanks very much, gbriank--much appreciated!!

 

Are you in Canada? In the states, the RL does have DRL's. (And lots of people try to find ways to turn them OFF! )
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amazingly, you can disable the DRL's on the canadian model, but not on the american model.

 

Dang, I was hoping to find a way to turn the DRLs off.

Those Canadians have it pretty good with their RL.....ventilated seats....turning off DRL....they just have to pay those inflated costs to get that.

 

Pull the fuse. If I remember correctly, the DRLs are on their own fuse. Sadly (if i'm guessing), you'll get some corny message on the console requesting somesort of service.... :-)

 

nope, you will get service message that you cant disable.

 

go figure....

 

I can't understand why anyone would want to disable their DRLs... a very good safety feature!

BTW, has anyone in Canada got any info on October incentives for '06 RLs?

 

Because there are SOME conditions where you need to drive without lights on, so that means when you turn off your headlights, you dont want any lights on.
Besides... its not mandatory to have DRL's on in the USA, therefore I want to have the choice if my lights are on or off.
Freedom, its more than just a word.

 

[QUOTE=Deak69]I can't understand why anyone would want to disable their DRLs... a very good safety feature!QUOTE]

Too much nannyism for me but I'm not going to bother to shut them off. I just don't like them. I doubt it adds much safety.

 

Interesting as I can't think of a situation or condition where you need to drive without lights--unless you're involved in some branches of law enforcement I suppose.

To answer Mike's question, I'm in the states.

 

ever try to go to a location where people congragate for moonlit nights?
ever try to sneak up on your loved one with a surprise at night... and your damn DRL's give you away?
ever think that?
thats just a few that dont involve law enforcement, or breaking the law.
not everything has a sinister motive.

 

Just push the emergency brake down 1 click.

Other than that I always want to have the extra safety of DRL's. Just watch cars in the shadows of a twisty raod and you will see a huge difference in DRL and non-DRL cars. Anything that gives an edge in visibility is a good deal to me.

 

oh, and then guess what... if you drive a couple of minutes, the ABS system will throw a code, and thats assuming that one click does not actually engage the brake pad to touch the rotor.
The point is, just about every other car will allow you to somehow disable the DRL without a nag screen or some other mickey mouse hack.
And lastly, from viewing the schematics, you CAN disable the DRL on the canadian version without any problems with nag screens- which Canada has DRL laws, and yet on the American model, you cant and we dont have a national DRL law here.
go figure!

 

If 1 click drags the pads you are going to have a very real problem on very cold days. In other words there better be a a lot more "slop" in the cable than one click will take up.

We drove up on a field of deer and I disabled the DRL with 1 click. Not sure how long that took but didn't see any codes other than the brake indicator. Again, don't know why anybody would want to turn the DRL's off for any period of time. Why defeat a safety feature?

 

I'm of course not answering for everybody, but a lot of people don't like DRL's because they feel they look cheesy. After all, lots of entry-level cars come with them, and many view them as a feature for people who need all the help they can get ... kinda "lowest common denominator" safety feature. Just telling you what I've heard and read in forums.

As for the safety angle, there probably is some degree of that with DRL's, but I did see a study awhile back that said their effectiveness has diminished dramatically as they have become more commonplace. Seems people learn not to see those as effectively as they otherwise fail to see 4,000lb chunks of metal, glass and plastic hurtling at them, and the incidence of accidents of cars with DRL's has almost come to equal that of non-DRL cars.
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sotiri - there is a drl relay located under the driver's side dashboard, perhaps disconnecting that would work ?.

 

Nope, tried that, you get nag message.

 

Wow that's creepy. The other interesting thing I noticed is the drl module on canadian cars is located in the hood.

 

right, there is a difference between the canadian and US models on the DRL and seats and headlights with washers.
On the USA model there is a sneak circuit, it monitors all aspects of the DRL system, even if I (and I tried this) remove the 2v output from the relay feeding the highbeams, thereby just leaving the DLR module to function as is, but the highbeams not receiving the 2v, the MID gives you a nag message.
somehow the system is monitoring all aspects of the circuit, from its actual functioning to the 2V feeding the highbeams.
As a side note, as I was out driving today, most of the cars I saw with DRL's on were lower end cars, with the other end being high $$$ sedans usually driven by metamucil and ensure powered humans.
So, I agree with the statement that DRL's have this cheapening and impaired stigma associated with them.
Personally I hate them.

 

If you interrupt the 2v circuit to the DRLs, the system thinks one or more is burned out, and gives you the error message so you'll know to replace them. That's what it's monitoring.
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You stated that you live in the U.S. - then you already have DRL's
The reason for lights at night is not always for you to see - it's sometimes for you to be seen and that's to your advantage.
Did you really buy this car not knowing that it has automatic lights?
After you bought it, did you read the manual?

 

Is it safe to leave the headlights on the auto position ? I was just thinking they tell you not to leave the lights on and start the car on convential cars. If you leave it on auto and start the car up in the night it will turn on before the motor starts and than loose power for a sec while starting right ?. Wondering if that's bad for the hid bulbs ?

 

I'm sure the engineers thought of that when they designed the system.

 

Live the lights in auto for the life of the car. It's all taken care of in the software.

 

I know. I got pulled over the day after buying the car so I hadn't finished the manual. Yes, it was an oversight on my part. But what's your point? Never mind.

 

It should be possible to measure the resistance of the DRL bulb portion of the circuit and replace it with a resistor of suitable resistance. That'd prevent the open-circuit detection from signaling bulb burnout.

 

Yeah I guess different engineers designed the auto switch than designed the trunk release.

 

As long as you could find and mount a resistor of about 30 watts that could safely disipate the heat. I, again, just don't get what the need is to defeat a safety feature? Because it makes the car look cheap? Please!

There is a roadcourse over in Western Michigan called Gingerman Raceway. I did a fair amount of instructing there and also would help out on the track.

Generation 4 Corvettes did not have DRL and Gen 5 Vettes do. One of the corner workers mentioned how much faster you could pick up the newer Vettes coming out of the corners with the DRLs. I started watching this and it was the first time I really appreciated what DRLs could do. I'll trade some increased safety over a concern that somebody might think my car isn't expensive enough every time.

 

guess that means officer friendly can pick up the vette earlier too.
another reason to disable the DRL.

 

Try that again???

 

I leave mine on 'Auto' all the time. If the car showed signs of cranking slowly, I'd temporarily turn the 'auto' off -- and then replace the battery :-)

 

If I recall correctly I think C&D or MT did a story several years ago where they found that DRLs and having highbeams on at night might inhibit the ability for laser to immediately lock on.