how do i turn off my day time running lights (which stay on as long as the key is in the ignition) i want the option to turn them off

There is a way. You have to pull the headlight module out, it's up behind glovebox and cut off the DRL pin. Only problem is, I don't know which pin. I have an idea, I have been through this before...but I don't want to say the wrong one and you have to buy a new module. I'm honestly not sure.

Here are a couple sites. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCURACY I DO NOT VOUCH FOR THEM but...if you are determined............. http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/help-me-disable-my-daytime-running-lights-more-3419.html

http://s37.photobucket.com/user/blkjackel/media/car/DSC00261-2-2.jpg.html

OK, why do you want to do this? They're called "daytime running lights " for a reason, they're supposed to be on in the daytime! They're on for safety. Stop trying to second guess the engineers on this and enjoy your car the way it was designed. Besides, if your insurance company finds out after an accident that you intentionally pulled the wire on this and believe me, this can be proven, you'll be sorry you ever thought of this in the first place. My advice is don't mess with this.

Opps, 2003 has module under dash drivers side. My 2006 is other side.

Give Mark a best answer click. I was about to say that and he beat me to the punch, and I couldn't agree more. They do no harm and can actually save a life

Just today, I was out in the rain. I was going to make a left turn, on a cross street that traffic does not stop. I began my turn and a gray car, the worst possible color blending with road/rain with no drl or headlights. She was coming from my left and doing a good 50 in a 40 zone, and I barley got stopped in time and I GOT THE FINGER - and horn- from a speeding car. I know everywhere is different, but in Calif, blowing your horn is NOT good, and that simple act leads to more road-rage than any other reason

Fordnut, glad you were able to avoid an accident!

Unfortunately, there's no standard of any kind and daytime running lights are not required in the United States. That's a shame and here's another example of European countries being ahead of the curve in drivers safety. My advice is to consider purchasing your next car with daytime running lights so there's more of these cars on the road. Since 1989 Canada has required all vehicles to have daytime running lights and other countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden require that headlights or daytime running lights to be on for safety. An increased number of newer vehicles have daytime running lights, but, its not ubiquitous. And, there's a segment of people who are opposed to this. Their reasons are that it causes too much glare?? As if, there wasn't already plenty of glare from the sun and reflection caused by car windshields and just about anything else. People who are naysayers will naturally come up with an excuse for just about anything. Very sad.

Unfortunately, there's no standard of any kind and daytime running lights are not required in the United States. That's a shame and here's another example of European countries being ahead of the curve in drivers safety. My advice is to consider purchasing your next car with daytime running lights so there's more of these cars on the road. Since 1989 Canada has required all vehicles to have daytime running lights and other countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden require that headlights or daytime running lights to be on for safety. An increased number of newer vehicles have daytime running lights, but, its not ubiquitous. And, there's a segment of people who are opposed to this. Their reasons are that it causes too much glare?? As if, there wasn't already plenty of glare from the sun and reflection caused by car windshields and just about anything else. People who are naysayers will naturally come up with an excuse for just about anything. Very sad.

Sorry, didn't mean to post last message twice, first time it failed, so, I went back and retried it.

Mark, it's the same thing as seat-belt laws. People don't want the Gov't. forcing them to do anything they deem as Gov't intrusion on their personal choices, even on something as inane DRL's. There is even an organization calls themselves "Association of Drivers Against Daytime Running Lights" with a web-site soliciting 'financial support' and a silly agenda labeling DRL's as "A waste of gas and cause of dangerous glare" The amount of gas used by the extra drag of an alternator is virtually none. Not even measurable. That right there cause a loss of credibility for me. Is that the best they can come up with? If they want to crusade about something, fine, pick something that matters for your time and effort. (and you can simply delete your redundant post. That has been happening to me too, "Thank You your post will appear shortly" It's part of the fight against the bombardment of spam for the movies and not quite all the bugs out of it yet)

Hey Mark..what happened to your good-lookin' mug?

http://www.ajdesigner.com/fl_horsepower_trap_speed/horsepower_trap_speed.php

Off topic, but doing this I found this dry but very interesting/educational http://phors.locost7.info/phors06.htm

Using my Corolla as an example, High beams, 65W each, X2 = 130W + Low beams at same time use 55W = 110 watts. OK, 130 +110 = 240Watts. That consumes 0.25HP. (¼HP) So, DRL are 40W each. X2 = 80W. Using the speed/curve graph my engine is using 37HP to maintain 60mph level ground. Add High-Beam (4 lamps) I am using 37.25HP. That much has already hurt my head, but if you continue with the math... 80W instead of 240 ..... 160 W less is a miniscule amount of power when translated in to fuel consumed

Fordnut, my pic got deleted by accident, plan to re-post that.

Wisely, Hyundai is following Toyota's lead, with "DRL OFF" on the light switch. Toyota (and now Hyundai) has chosen the proper approach. ALL 2016 Toyota's have "DRL OFF" on the light switch. If you want to drive with lights on during the daytime, you can, if you don't want to, you can turn them off. Makes everyone happy. These are true, Daytime Running Lights. What Nissan has, and some others have, is actually called, Forced Lighting. With Forced Lighting, the driver has NO control, and is at the total mercy of the programmers in Japan / Detroit. General Motors has petitioned the government on two separate occasions to mandate Forced Lighting (aka DRLs) in the US. In both instances, the government turned General Motors down citing NO safety evidence. Moreover, notice that most law enforcement vehicles have their Daytime Running Lights disconnected. Far from being considered primarily as a 'safety feature', manufacturers and the motoring press are treating DRLs as a 'stylish addition' to a car, concentrating on the look of DRLs as adding character to a car rather than contributing to its safety. A British study said that statistics about DRLs from eight European countries over a 15-year period show that road fatality rates dropped faster in NON-DRL countries such as Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands than fatalities in pro-DRL countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Indeed, Austria has gone as far as to BAN Daytime Running Lights. If waiting for someone outside at night I may not want my lights on. I also like to go to drive-in movies, people react badly when you're shining lights in their eyes. Toyota and new Hyundai's gives their drivers a choice. Sadly, Nissan does not.

well I beg to differ. This is ridiculous, it's amazing pop had the brains to survived house before they were childproofed or cars with rumble seats and no seatbelts. I had an 89 Toyota Corolla and it did NOT have these stupid "daytime" lights. I never forgot to turn my lights on and some areas in CT have signs that say "lights required to be on" and u know what I was able to TURN THE FRIGGING BUTTON AND TURN THEM ON Jesus pop get more and more useless. They are an annoyance. I have a Toyota Corolla 2003 now. I often have to wait to pick ppl up so there I am sitting in my car with the GD lights shining in pols eyes, windows, wherever , it annoys me and it annoys them. In the winter it SUCKS I have to sit there with the stupid lights on because yeah it's below 20 out . I would much rather drive my mother SUV when I visit or to take long trips, I am perfectly capable of turning of and on my own GD lights thank u. Her SUV is newer and doesn't have these permanently on lights, I am fine with it because I grew up with a car like that it comes as natural as using a blinker. That will be next cars that blinker themselves as apparently ppl are too stupid to handle pretty much anything nowadays. Next cars that drive themselves are already in testing. Tech isn't always good. It makes ppl lazy and dumb. I used to use a map until 2 years ago I needed a GPS for work. With that map I could navigate anywhere and my internal navigation system was amazing. I went to GPS and hello laziness ...why figure it out when u can blindly follow the robot

Just an observation, i used to repossess vehicles and when "scouting" at night you want to be able to turn DRL's off so you can watch a vehicle and not be noticed, maybe this is a reason the OP was asking, more for night time

Hmm... this sucks. I drive a Corolla as well and I am an independent contractor running deliveries and a good portion of those are in the evenings. I wish they would turn on automatically every time you have your car on, but with the choice to turn them off because I think it's a bit rude to leave my lights on late at night when I'm parked in a complex somewhere as most people would be sleeping or winding down. I don't turn my car off every time I do a drop-off either because I'd rather waste my gas than mess up the ignition. I'm just used to turning the lights on anyway even if they are on already. Force of habit from my old Mustang. I understand why they are there nor do I condone wire-cutting for this. However I just wish they had that option for earlier models. :(

I have got to be missing something here. I have a 2016 Corrola and I put the light switch in the DRL position. Everything seemed to be working fine. Then I realized that when I park and leave the car running the headlights stay on but I have no lights in back at all. No tail light. No brake light. Nothing. Is my car broke? Or am I missing something? I now turn the lights on and off manually.

Not only do you have to replace the drl bulb more often. The alternator operates more often, and for longer periods, and when the alternator coming on the car consumers more fuel. If on a clear sunny day you can see a car coming down the streets, you shouldn't be allowed to drive

Not OP, but I want to be able to turn off DRL when we go to the local botanical garden's drive through Christmas light display. They are not needed because of the luminaries along the road & lights out is requested by the garden staff.

If you disable your DRL and get into an accident and your insurance company finds out then they may try and put the blame on you. Just something to think about.

I am a Canadian living in Ontario and have had DRLs in our cars since 1990 and I am grateful for that. Vehicles that are equipped with them are much easier to see no matter what the sun is doing. When going to the drive-in and you want to run the vehicle to use the heater or for some other reason, just apply the parking brake and they go off. It is illegal in Ontario to disable the DRLs.

>> Vehicles that are equipped with them are much easier to see no matter what the sun is doing. << Possibly due to buyer dislike, General Motors has petitioned the government on two separate occasions to mandate Forced Lighting (aka DRLs) in the US. In both instances, the government turned General Motors down citing NO safety evidence. Moreover, notice that most law enforcement vehicles have their Daytime Running Lights disconnected. Certainly the cities that do this care about their officer safety. But they know, that it doesn't matter. A British study said that statistics about DRLs from eight European countries over a 15-year period show that road fatality rates dropped faster in non-DRL countries such as Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands than fatalities in pro-DRL countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Indeed, Austria has gone as far as to BAN Daytime Running Lights. Finally, far from being considered primarily as a 'safety feature', manufacturers and the motoring press are treating DRLs as a 'stylish addition' to a car, concentrating on the look of DRLs as adding character to a car rather than contributing to its safety. To me, many cars with DRLs look like they are driving around with a Christmas tree on the front of their car. DRLs only increase the chance of contributing to an accident as they are increasing the chances of dazzling oncoming drivers while traveling.

If you turn the car off and pull up the emergency brake, then restart the car the lights will be off until you take off the emergency brake but obviously it only works if you're sitting in one place. But I have an 07 Corolla.

Every manufacturer has their own concept as to how things are wired for function. For example, I have a 2003 VW Beetle, it has day time running lights. When you are stopped and pull the hand brake on, it turns off the day time running lights, when releasing the hand brake the DRT lights turn back on. To my recollection when I was still in the work force GM 1 ton trucks operated in the same fashion as my Beetle. I can't speak for the current year vehicles. Maybe someone outthere is a little more knowledgeable about this. Just thought I'd give my 2 cents worth. I find these articles interesting.

My new 2017 Toyota has "DRL OFF" on the light switch, I LOVE IT. Toyota has chosen the proper approach. If you want to drive with lights on during the daytime, you can, if you don't want to, you can turn them off. Makes everyone happy. These are true, Daytime Running Lights. What others have, is actually called, Forced Lighting. With Forced Lighting, the driver has NO control, and is at the total mercy of the programmers in Japan / Detroit. Possibly due to buyer dislike, General Motors has petitioned the government on two separate occasions to mandate Forced Lighting (aka DRLs) in the US. In BOTH instances, the government turned General Motors down citing NO safety evidence. Moreover, notice that most law enforcement vehicles have their Daytime Running Lights disconnected. Certainly the cities that do this care about their officer safety. But they know, that it doesn't matter. A British study said that statistics about DRLs from eight European countries over a 15-year period show that road fatality rates dropped faster in non-DRL countries such as Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands than fatalities in pro-DRL countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Indeed, Austria has gone as far as to BAN Daytime Running Lights. Finally, far from being considered primarily as a 'safety feature', manufacturers and the motoring press are treating DRLs as a 'stylish addition' to a car, concentrating on the look of DRLs as adding character to a car rather than contributing to its safety. To me, many cars with DRLs look like they are driving around with a Christmas tree on the front of their car. DRLs only increase the chance of contributing to an accident as they are increasing the chances of dazzling oncoming drivers while traveling. Avoiding Forced Lighting (aka DRLs) is easy to do. You have to make it a condition of the sale at the time of purchase. The dealer can easily accomplish this. Or buy Toyota, they have DRL OFF on the light switch.

I just wanted to go to the drive in without disturbing others. Why isnt there an on off switch? Because it would be to easy?

Another reason to be able to turn headlights off: I work on a military installation, I have to go through a security check point every time I go on base. At the check point there is a sign that says "turn headlights off" (to save the guards eye balls, no doubt).

DRL goes off when hand brake is pulled. Drive with it pulled only one click; not enough to apply brakes, but enough to turn off DRL.

The easiest way I found for a 2013 Corolla is to just disconnect the bulbs. Lift the and take the connector off the the bulb holder. Then disconnect the connector from the actual ball. Then place the bulb back into the headlight assembly. At this point it is disconnected.

Noyb, you nailed it. Anybody criticizing the inquiry that started this thread ought to think twice about doing so in the future. Let me assure you, under certain circumstances, as Noyb pointed out, the running headlights are inappropriate. If there is even one situation where headlights shouldn't be on while the car is on, this inquiry is LEGITIMATE! Do you people get that?! Are you so arrogant as to suppose there isn't a single situation that justifies the inquiry? Thank you, Noyb, for elucidating one such situation. I'm in the same situation, but with mine it isn't a mere matter of its being a nuisance, but my very way of life could be predicated on these damned running lights being turned off!

I work on a military installation. We are required to turn off our headlights as we approach the guarded gates to show our IDs. This keeps the guards from being temporarily blinded so that may check the dates on our IDs, compare the picture on our IDs with the people in the car, get a visual on our vehicles, and keep an eye on the surroundings. The is a safety issue. Being able to turn the DRL on/off should be optional. For the record, I always drive with my DRL on, but I do have a need to turn them off.

We live in an RV park and during the week leave for work very early in the morning. When we go out to warm up the car during colder months, the headlights automatically come on and shine directly into 2 of our neighbors trailers. We want to be good neighbors and don't understand why there is no override on this feature or at least only have it activated when the car is put into DRIVE.

You didn't state what brand of vehicle you have, but a lot of vehicles day time running lights are off when the parking brake is set. I know this is the case on GM and Volkswagen vehicles. You may want to check this out and see if it works on your vehicle. A lot of people, myself included rarely set the parking brake when the vehicle is setting on level ground or a ever so slight incline. I do set it it when parked on a steep incline. So check it out, this may solve the problem in your case. I have a Toyota, and on the turn signal stock, there is a selection for turning the day time running lights off. There may be other brands that also have this feature.

this post got deep before some people actually started figuring why someOne might want to disable the daytime running light and it has nothing to do with driving down the road with no lights off. It’s about getting somewhere early for parking on the side of the road can do your job or like some people to vehicles you want to go incognito you don’t want to Blair your lights and your neighbors house while you’re parked in your driveway waiting. The majority of people who want to disable them are actually for courteous not to be a dick and drive around blacked out

Imagine all the lights came on in your home every time the sun went down and short of flipping all the breakers off, there isn't a dern thing you can do about it. I guess you could ware blinders at bed time. Geez people, like markw and all the rest of you "knuckle head do gooders". Get out the owners manual for your brain and use it.

Engage the parking brake before starting your vehicle. This will turn OFF your driving lights. (I have a 2012 Toyota Corolla) Someone suggested to engage your parking brake by one click and this will do the same thing. If you’re wanting to drive without the driving lights engage the parking brake by one click. I’m not sure if doing so would harm anything or not.

I can understand wanting to do this. I'm sick of needing to run to the shop to replace a headlight every 6 months and having to worry about being pulled over if I need to drive with a light out before it can get fixed. No need for the dumb things to be on in broad daylight.

There's also the issue of going to drive-in movies. In most cases now, at least the one near me, you need to have your ignition to acc. to use the car radio, but you need to have all lights off.

I understand wanting to turn them off. I looked this up because I want mine off as well. Just so when I am parked in a parking lot, I'm not blinding others at night. I wish daytime running light only worked when in gear, not parked.

Riahunt3 thanks! That worked!

I have updated all lamps to LED. I don’t like the flicker I get from the DRL’s in my 2010

I want to because going on to a military installation requires you to dim lights for the sentry checking id’s.

No reason to disable the feature while driving, but it is nice when you're somewhere like the drive-in and you want to run your ac and radio without the headlights. How do you do it? No need to dismantle the car. When the car is off engage the emergency brake and start the car. Voila!