I’ve also seen numerous drivers cruising down the highway not realizing their headlights (and sidelights and taillights) aren’t on because their DRLs were on. This is a serious weakness of DRL systems that has been a pet peeve of mine for years.
That idea is nice from a safety perspective, but it would really hack those of us with HID’s off, since the best way to prematurely wear that very expensive HID bulb is to flip it on and off a lot.
I turn my headlights off when I back into my garage at night. My garage faces the alley and if I didn’t turn them off, I’d be shining them right into my alley neighbor’s bedroom. If I’m camping at a camp site, I do the same thing – just drive with parking lights on so I don’t shine them into people’s tents.
Otherwise, I drive with them on about 100% of the time (it’s a habit I picked up in the Army).
"Parking lights aren’t a replacement for headlights (which illuminate the roadway so the driver can see). They are to make the vehicle visible to other drivers. "
I don’t think parking lights were ever gone over when I was in driver’s ed in the USA.
But when I took the German driver’s exam, there was a whole section devoted to them. Parking lights, like their name describes are intended to be left on in your unoccupied vehicle in areas that require them, as indicated in signage. They aren’t meant to be used while a vehicle is in motion.
MS also has the law about turning the headlights on when the wipers are on. My car has both automatic headlights and HID low beams (however, it does not have DRLs). The automatic headlight function turns the headlights on when it is dark, or when the wipers are on. Apparently, Ford wasn’t worried about this harming the HIDs, and so far it hasn’t. I suppose that if it ever does, one (very expensive) HID replacement is worth it if it keeps someone from crashing into me in the rain.
It often does rain very hard here, and I know that the other cars with their headlights on in the rain are easier to see than those with them off, or with just parking lights on. I do agree that in daylight and clear weather, having the headlights or DRLs on doesn’t seem to make any difference at all.
Makes some amount of sense.
Make that two replacements, since you have to replace them in pairs.
I like the arrangement on my TL. The highbeam/lowbeam are both HIDs (same bulb - uses an electronic shutter to raise the light beam), and then it has DRL’s mounted inboard of the headlights.
The concept I propose, having the regular headlights, sidelights, and taillights on whenever the engine is on, would preempt the need for seperate DRL lights. Granted, those with HID headlights would be replacing them more often, but it’s worth it to prevent accidents. Eliminating the need for seperate DRLs might even reduce the cost of the car by a few bucks.
I’d rather have separate DRL’s that come on with the sides and tails during the day when the engine is on AND the car is in gear (I really don’t want the car lit up if I turn the engine on at night at a drive-in, etc), and the headlights are user-controlled. Of course, if the car doesn’t have HID, there’s no need for the separate DRL’s. The extra cost probably won’t concern many people since the cars with HIDs tend to be in the higher price brackets anyway.
The service manual for my specific car does not require replacement in pairs. (While that might be a good idea, given the expense I think that I would follow the service manual on that and just replace the bad one.)
Mine uses HIDs just for the low beams. The high beams are halogen. I would think that would be a good thing when using the flash-to-pass in daylight (no need to fire up the HIDs).
I’m with ya… it may be safer to have daytime running lights, but they annoy the #$%@ out of me and I’m glad my vehicle does not have them.
I don’t live in Scandanavia, where the DRL study was conducted.
I’m glad to see some manufactures have gone to "Running lights "as DRLs.I think headlights before dusk are very annoying. Its bad enough that people drive with headlights and fog lights on , when the weather is clear and sunny.
Some type of light should be on during rain or foggy conditions. It seems that white or gray/silver vehicles never have any lights on in these conditions.
Most vehicles have a fuse that controls the DRL’s. This fuse can be pulled.
Yeah, read the owners manual. The nice thing about automatic lights is they also turn off when you park. Personally I think you should just wait a while and get used to them. My Pontiac allows shutting them off by going through the information menu so just check the owners manual.
Through a lot of exhaustive research and phone calls I have finally been able to disable my drls and auto headlights. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes. It’s best to take the cable off the battery to be safe.
- Remove the glove compartment
- Locate the DRL module. Its a black unit mounted sideways with a wiring harness plugged in the side of it.
- Unplug the harness from the module
- Cut the blue wire at pin 12. Leave at least 3 inches of wire sticking out of the connector in case you ever want to put it back.
- Tape up the end of both blue wires.
- Plug the connector back in.
- Put the glove box back.
- Enjoy the freedom of controlling your lights yourself.
I can’t answer for the Corolla, but I have a 2010 Highlander, and there are a number of items that the dealer can reprogram in the Highlander. The automatic door locks are the item I changed. There was also an opportunity to change the DRLs, but in the Highlander there are 4 choices: “no lights” or " DRL/automatic", “parking lights” and finally “lights on”. The owners manual says that the DRL cannot be changed in Canadian cars. So ask the service representative. There was no charge to me but I did it right after purchase.