# How to: Disable DRL (Daytime Running Lights)...



## Ice512 (Oct 16, 2006)

................... If anyone knows how to disable the DRL, please please please tell me how.
thanks a million.


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## Canada's Far East (Jun 15, 2005)

*DRL*



Ice512 said:


> PS: If anyone knows how to disable the DRL, please please please tell me how.
> thanks a million.


..........

*Might* be able to help on your "DRL" if I knew what the acronym stood for


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## Rockford (Jan 28, 2005)

Daytime Running Lights, I'm guessing.
Though I can't imagine why'd you want to disable that quasi-safety feature.


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## aussietrail (Sep 24, 2004)

Ice512 said:


> PS: If anyone knows how to disable the DRL, please please please tell me how.
> thanks a million.


Although I am not sure of your country's regulations in regards to the legality of disconnecting the daylight running lights, as it is a safety feature and may be required by law, but if you wish to disconnect them at your own risk, then this is where the wiring harness controlling them is located.

  

It is the big harness located closer to the door in the photo.

We don't have the DRL feature on the xtrail in Australia, but I wish we did, it is a safety feature indeed and quite handy to have.


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## Ice512 (Oct 16, 2006)

ooo dont get me wrong guys...i still turn on the corner lights as my DRL, just like many other cars out there.

Just wondering how can i turn it off if i get HID installed...


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## Avery Slickride (Jan 6, 2005)

OK, I'm curious. Why would anyone want to disable their daytime running lights? Are you particularly fond of head-on collisions?


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## ValBoo (May 19, 2003)

Ice512 said:


> PS: If anyone knows how to disable the DRL, please please please tell me how.
> thanks a million.



*First*, I must state that I do not agree with disabling DRL. Daytime Running Lamps are mandatory legislation in Canada. And you must realize that any law enforcement officer that notices something is wrong with your system/lights can stop you and deliver you a sizeable fine.

*Second*, the following wiring procedure is really easy to do, *but* I must also mention that you do it at your own risk (although I know for a fact that this works).

*Third*: Here is how one would go about disabling DRL:

*Step 1)* From the post above by "AussieTrail" you know where to find the daylight control module:


AussieTrail said:


>


*Step 2)* Refer to wiring below:



*Step 3)* What to do & how it works:
The principle (and I think you probably have noticed this) is that when your parking brake is on, the DRL are not operational. Once you start your car they only come on when you release the parking brake. 
So the trick here is fooling the daytime light control module in believing that your parking brake is always on! 
You do this, just as in the picture, by locating the purple/white wire of terminal 10, cutting it, extending it and grounding it. The other end you insulate and tuck away.
That is it. (before someone asks: Don't worry your hand brake dash warning lamp will *not* be on all the time)

PS: If you are able/knowledgable with wiring & soldering you can add a toggle switch (tucked away somewhere) that would give you the option of enabling or disabling your DRL.


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## TjC (Jun 11, 2005)

u can actually just pull a prong out of the head light just not sure which prong it is?

my hids automatically turned em off lol


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## aussietrail (Sep 24, 2004)

Marc, the pics I posted IS the solution without the need to cut any wires. Just disconnecting the harness I have shown will be enough to disbale the DRL. I think it is an easier option than cutting wires


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## ValBoo (May 19, 2003)

aussietrail said:


> ..... without the need to cut any wires. Just disconnecting the harness I have shown will be enough to disbale the DRL.......


hummmmm, not sure if there could be differences in models having DRL modules but I have *checked* and *re-checked* the wiring diagrams for this on the Canadian edition and sorry to say this but you cannot simply disconnect the harness from the module because your lights will not work properly; for example one of the beams (left hand high beam and ground) is directly connected to the DRL control module. If you disconnect no power will reach the left hand high beam.


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## aussietrail (Sep 24, 2004)

Aah, yes you're right. There could be a difference in the light configuration between models. This method (i.e. disconnecting the harness) worked well with the Russian version xtrail. Sorry, I forgot about that.


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## wasabi4ever (Aug 27, 2005)

Hi guys, I just ordered my HID as well... I know there a few guys on here that use HID. I'm wondering the same thing, do we need to disable the DRL to use HID ??? The ballast does it have the feature to disable it for us ?
And why do we need to disable it ??? from what i heard from a friend, the reason we have to do this becuase it actually damage the bulbs/ballast if we dont use the full voltage to the HID. Is this true ?

Thank You


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## misterhobbster (Jul 25, 2014)

*daytime running lights*

If you want to run HID's then yes you need to disconnect the DRL feature. I'm about to do that for the same reason. For what it's worth, when I do this on my own vehicles I add a set of led daytime lights and often wire them so the daytime light feature adds the rear and side lights, very good to have in low light conditions.I usually put the DRL feature on a separate disable switch for versatility.Grounding out the parking brake wire is usually the easiest way for most makes.In canada there is no law that you have to use your DRL, many factory vehicles come with disable switches.

loren


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## coboarder (Nov 25, 2014)

*2013 nissan juke led DRLs*

on the 2013 nissan juke nismo models the LED fog lights turn off when the headlights are on. does anyone know where i can find the relay so i can trigger them on at will?


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## NAS (Apr 9, 2015)

Yeah i have a patrol platinum andI have been trying to figure out how to do this as well.. It's a pity that there is no button to do this. I understand the safety features and stuff but sometimes you just wanna park your car and sit inside it for a while without being noticed that Ur in the car.. I'm not pulling out any cables from my car, I think I'll just go over to the dealership and have my LEDs fitted with a switch.


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## Jguy_ca (Feb 13, 2005)

Hi Everyone,

Me and my friend installed a HID kit on my 2005 X-Trail (T-30) couple years ago. Since the OEM headlight handle everything (DRL, High beam, Low beam), he designed a circuit board with a 5V relay that connect to a pair of LED Bulb as DRL instead. The relay powered from the High beam prong of H4 plug that DRL current should only turn on the LED, which powered direct from car battery. However I found that recently it also turn on HID as High beam after a short drive. Sometime the High Beam even turn on the moment I release the e-brake. Could anyone tell me what did I do wrong? I did piss someone on the road and chase after me with high beam because of that. Thank you.


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## oecaraudio (Feb 12, 2016)

For the after market Nissan X-trail daytime running light, it usually with ACC, BATT, ILL cable, if with yellow turning light function, it also come with a cable connecting to the turning light.
What ILL is used for is to DIM the DRL, means when the headlamp is on, the DRL will be half brightness.
There it will be easy to disable the DRL, just DISCONNECT the ACC or BATT, the DRL will be not working.

For the car come with the original DRL, it is similar with this solution I think, because it need to get the power from BATT, so just disconnect the ACC or BATT cable(usually there will be a sticker on the cable) will be OK


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## karde (Mar 23, 2021)

[QUOTE = "Ice512, viesti: 1152251, jäsen: 60759"]
................... Jos joku osaa poistaa DRL: n käytöstä, kerro kuinka.
Kiitos miljoonasti.
[/LAINATA]
päivänvalon ohjausyksikkö (DRL) pienempi johtojen liitin irti,ei muuta tarvvitse tehdä.


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## otomodo (May 23, 2008)

karde said:


> [QUOTE = "Ice512, viesti: 1152251, jäsen: 60759"]
> ................... Jos joku osaa poistaa DRL: n käytöstä, kerro kuinka.
> Kiitos miljoonasti.
> [/LAINATA]
> päivänvalon ohjausyksikkö (DRL) pienempi johtojen liitin irti,ei muuta tarvvitse tehdä.


Translated 
daylight control unit (DRL) smaller wires connector disconnected, nothing else needs to be done.


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## Missieanne32 (Jul 11, 2021)

Rockford said:


> Daytime Running Lights, I'm guessing.
> Though I can't imagine why'd you want to disable that quasi-safety feature.


To watch a movie at the drive in theaters with the air on and windows up.... rather then get eaten alive by mosquitoes, or having the windows up to get so foggy you can't see out them.


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## DFSpencer (Oct 21, 2019)

Ice512 said:


> ................... If anyone knows how to disable the DRL, please please please tell me how.
> thanks a million.


As others have noted I don't know why you would disable the DRL (daytime running lights), so what do you gain, but the type of DRL, as others have suggested, depends on the market the XTrail was sold in and possibly whether the vehicle has xenon versus halogen headlights. The European XTrails (I assume the German and northern Europe and probably others) use a DRL which actually simply turns on the low beam headlights, the tail lights, marker lights etc. when you turn on the engine, so exactly what happens if you turn the light switch to the second position. In Canadian XTrails the DRL actually turns on only the high beams, and at half voltage. This is done through the DRL control box (behind the left foot panel) and is accomplished by relays which divert the line from one headlight's high beam to put it in series with the second headlight's high beam. So in the Canadian T30 the left headlight is grounded only through the DRL controller, and in DRL mode the left high beam is connected in series with the right high beam. There are two relays in the Canadian DRL controller so the voltage is switched and the ground is switched such that if you turn on the low beams the left headlight returns to 'normal' operation, but all through the DRL controller. It is true that in the Canadian vehicle the DRLs won't come on if the parking brake hasn't been released and that is done through pin 10 of the controller such that when the parking brake is on pin 10 is simply grounded. 
I thought the original motivation to disable the DRL had to do with replacing the original halogen headlights with LED and it is true that with the DRL controller in its original configuration in a Canadian XTrail you cannot get LED headlights to work and that is because although halogens, being filament lamps, can function at reduced voltages (so at say 6 volts) LED headlights need around 8 or so volts to even fire so hooking two in series as I recall allows only one to work (at best). If you live in a jurisdiction where functioning DRLs are mandated by law and if you have periodic government vehicle inspections that check than then simply grounding pin 10 of the controller will only get you by if you use a hidden switch you can flip, but that trick will not get you by with LED headlights. For my XTrail I did a lot of bench testing of the LED lamps I bought, with a voltmeter across a bulb and an ammeter and various resistor values in series. That allowed me to predict approximately what resistors in series with the controller circuit to the LED high beams would give me a reasonable light intensity. Coupled with that I did some reconfiguration of the controller that changed some of the wiring, all related to what the relays did. I actually put an external connector block on the top of the controller so I could actually experiment (in the day and night) with resistors to settle on what I decided was the best value (as I recall it was either 15 or 20 ohms in series with each bulb, the resistors being 5 watt) to produce a reasonable DRL.


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