How do I turn off the DRL's on a 2006?

[BigRondo]

The reason I want to disable my DRL, I am an amateur astronomer and frequent "star parties" and other group observings at which people are taking astrophotographs of objects in the sky. Also, any "white" light will destroy your "night vision". If I wish to leave the gathering before some of the other photographers are finished taking their photographs, I don't want to destroy their picture or ruin their night vision. Satisfied?

How about just taking the bulbs out?

 

[wd4ity]

Because the DRL use the same bulb as your regular headlights. Since at the star parties all "white lights" are banned, it's very difficult to install your headlight bulbs not to mention being very impractical. In my older Explorer, I could drive a ways off from the group before turning on my headlights.

 

[BigRondo]

Because the DRL use the same bulb as your regular headlights. Since at the star parties all "white lights" are banned, it's very difficult to install your headlight bulbs not to mention being very impractical. In my older Explorer, I could drive a ways off from the group before turning on my headlights.

Sorry, I don't have DRL. I guess my solution wouldn't work. Good luck in your quest.

 

[wd4ity]

I'm still looking and seems there might be a resister below the left headlight somewhere. They're also telling me that relay is in the dash on the right side but I'm not sure what year model or vehicle they're referring to. Oh well. I'm guessing a 38 special mght work. LOL

 

[1Bad04]

Will they go out with the parking lights on? I know that's not exactly what you're wanting, but it may be less distracting.

 

[wd4ity]

No, they won't go out with the parking lights on. They come on whenever you put the transmission in gear and the only thing that changes them is when you turn the regular headlights on. At that time, the bulb simply gets brighter. The DRL light uses the same bulb as your headlight but at a reduced voltage. They have a resistor in the wiring and I'm going to try to find it tomorrow. I don't know what will happen if I simply take the resistor out. I may have to remove the resistor and put in a jumper wire or something. I'll find out though. Thanks.

Steve B.

 

[Limited02]

Now work with me here

Do the DRL come in when in reverse? 1,2,3, N? Or is it only in D? Somewhere some time ago, on either this site or another, someone had their steering coloum apart and showed a wire for the DRL. So i think you could take your steering cover off and look for a wire that is near the shifter that has some sort of attachment that when you put it into drive, it sends power to the lights?

But as Froader said, I might be talking out of my ass

 

[wd4ity]

Well, I went out there and looked behind and underneath the left headlight. I even took the headlight out and saw nothing that resembled a resistor plugged into the wiring harness.

You may be right about the wire as my DRL's come on in Reverse and any other gear outside of Park. The only problem is that my gear selector is in the console in the center of the truck so the wire will probably be there instead of in the steering column.

So, I guess I'll have to find a service manual specifically for my vehicle to find out where the resistor is and then hope it disables the DRL's wihout messing up anything else. Doubtful that it'll be that simple. Nothing is simple on cars these days. That's why I work on motorcycles and even those have went to computers and junk. The security systems on the Big Harleys give more trouble than they're worth. After a year of fooling with those things, people are begging others to steal they're bikes. A security system that is so bad it makes you wish someone would steal your bike. LOL

 

[Limited02]

Crap, I forgot you were in a 4th gen Now that this is on my mind, I may investigate a little to see what I can find out. Goodluck!!!

Edit: I search google images for DRL schematic for a 2006 Ford Explorer and this link led me back to this site This is in the 01-05 Sport Trac section, but hopefully it will be similar?

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218688

 

[waskly]

you can have it programed out. dlr on or off.

dont think anyone but the dealer can do this tho.

also if it really is that big of deal. just put a switch on both headlights. when you want them off u flip a switch. when you want them to work you flip the switch.

 

[wd4ity]

If it were any other dealer than the one we have here, I'd probably agree with you. But the dealer here can't even find a leaking radiator which seems to be one of the biggest problems with Explorers. I had to come home get my pressure tester and go back and show them the leak. They won't leak if they don't have water in them, Duhhh!

I've looked and can't find it so I guess I'll have to get a book somewhere.

Wiring in a switch isn't that simple. If the DRL used a different bulb, I'd just take the bulb out but since it uses the same bulb for the DRL's as it does the main headlights, I'm not going to have it where I've got to raise my hood every time I want to turn the DRL's off. That's kind of Neanderthal. The way I understand their principle of operation is that a relay turns the headlight on when the transmission is put into gear. But, it does this by going through a resistor in the harness resulting in a lower voltage at the bulb making it dimmer. The you turn the main headlight switch, the relay is disengaged and the main headlight wiring takes over putting full voltage to the bulb.

 

[waskly]

If it were any other dealer than the one we have here, I'd probably agree with you. But the dealer here can't even find a leaking radiator which seems to be one of the biggest problems with Explorers. I had to come home get my pressure tester and go back and show them the leak. They won't leak if they don't have water in them, Duhhh!

I've looked and can't find it so I guess I'll have to get a book somewhere.

Wiring in a switch isn't that simple. If the DRL used a different bulb, I'd just take the bulb out but since it uses the same bulb for the DRL's as it does the main headlights, I'm not going to have it where I've got to raise my hood every time I want to turn the DRL's off. That's kind of Neanderthal. The way I understand their principle of operation is that a relay turns the headlight on when the transmission is put into gear. But, it does this by going through a resistor in the harness resulting in a lower voltage at the bulb making it dimmer. The you turn the main headlight switch, the relay is disengaged and the main headlight wiring takes over putting full voltage to the bulb.

put a switch on the 2 circuits. you can even put the switch by the headlights.

its the same bulbs. you have 2 filaments in them since gen 4 explorers have hi/low beam in the same bulb.

i can program drl on and off when i want to its all how the sjb programmable feature set to.

 

[wd4ity]

Well, I made some progress. I looked under the hood again and agian, found nothing. I got in the truck and switched the ignition on, buckled the seat belt to quiet the chime and started shifting the trans. from park to rev. I can hear a click under the dash just above the emergency brake pedal but I can't locate it. I tried having my wife do the shifting while I felt around for a "click" to no avail. I'll just call a Ford dealeship about sixty miles from me and see if they can disable the DRL's. I'm afraid that if I don't find a way to turn the lights off, the rest of the astronomy club is going to ban me from our dark site.

 

[waskly]

Well, I made some progress. I looked under the hood again and agian, found nothing. I got in the truck and switched the ignition on, buckled the seat belt to quiet the chime and started shifting the trans. from park to rev. I can hear a click under the dash just above the emergency brake pedal but I can't locate it. I tried having my wife do the shifting while I felt around for a "click" to no avail. I'll just call a Ford dealeship about sixty miles from me and see if they can disable the DRL's. I'm afraid that if I don't find a way to turn the lights off, the rest of the astronomy club is going to ban me from our dark site.

there is a box, the fuse box behind the brake cable, that is the sjb that inside controls day time running lamps.

solution #2 is use a switch on the 2 wires that are hot.

that would be at the head lights or 2 the fuses you have for headlights. under the hood. think they are 10amp fuses. just going off the top of my head. left headlight and right both have fuses. since they go hot or have voltage drl is on.

 

[wd4ity]

I'd rather not use a switch because it makes a modification in the wiring. I'd rather "unplug"something if that's possible. I'm good with mechanical stuff as I'm a retired millwright. I now fix H-D motorcycles for a daytime hobby. I work on the older model Shovelheads and Panheads that the dealers will no longer work on. I also work on Evolution powered Harleys as well. I do not work on anything built after 2000. Got to leave the dealership mechanics something to do. I've been a mechanic all my life on something or other so this in not totally baffling just suffering from a lack of information.

If I've found the "Smart Junction Box" that controls the DRL's, what do I do to disable the DRL's in that. Is there a fuse that I can remove, a jumper wire that has to be moved? How does the dealership do this? That's what I want to do.

 

[waskly]

I'd rather not use a switch because it makes a modification in the wiring. I'd rather "unplug"something if that's possible. I'm good with mechanical stuff as I'm a retired millwright. I now fix H-D motorcycles for a daytime hobby. I work on the older model Shovelheads and Panheads that the dealers will no longer work on. I also work on Evolution powered Harleys as well. I do not work on anything built after 2000. Got to leave the dealership mechanics something to do. I've been a mechanic all my life on something or other so this in not totally baffling just suffering from a lack of information.

If I've found the "Smart Junction Box" that controls the DRL's, what do I do to disable the DRL's in that. Is there a fuse that I can remove, a jumper wire that has to be moved? How does the dealership do this? That's what I want to do.

dealerships reprogram the sjb. what you can do from the looks of things is just pull the fuses to the headlights in the battery box.

each headlight has a fuse. you can put a switch on that or just pull them every time you go to your event.

i'll edit this in a min when i look up drl again.

if you pull from the under hood fuse box, fuse 34 and 29 both 20amp (yellow) it should turn the headlights off. even drl since that supplies headlight power to the sjb.

 

[wd4ity]

Well, I guess I could do the mod to the fuse panel. I could intentionally blow a fuse and trim the top to where I could solder a mini switch to it. Then plug it back in. The only problem with that is I'd have turn the switch off when I arrived just before sunset and then drive off the field without any headlights. Once away from the group, I'd have to stop the truck raise the hood and flip the switch to get headlights again.

If I found the wires going from the fuse panel to the headlights, I could wire a switch in series with that wire and mount them inside the vehicle somewhere. That would solve the problem of killing the DRL's but would result in a modification of the wiring harness that sooner or later is going to cause a problem. One other problem with either way is that the switch doesn't just disable the DRL's, it disable the headlights as well.

If I could find the output of the DRL Relay going to the fuse panel and determine if it had two hot wires to each fuse, one from the DRL relay and one from the headlight switch, I could simply disable the wire from the relay to the fuse. I don't care about DRL's. I rather not have them at all.

 

[waskly]

If I could find the output of the DRL Relay going to the fuse panel and determine if it had two hot wires to each fuse, one from the DRL relay and one from the headlight switch, I could simply disable the wire from the relay to the fuse. I don't care about DRL's. I rather not have them at all.

drl output is the same 1 wire that is the lowbeam. through the can network the truck turns headlights on once the pcm shows truck in gear.

everything drl related is built inside the sjb. i would not go opening it up and modding it, since its not a cheap replacement.

 

[wd4ity]

Ok, if I can' work from that end, how about going to the other end and finding which wire comes from the gear selector and activates the DRL relay. As far as the relay is concerned, I never take the gear selector out of Park, but I do and I turn the headlights on whenever I need the lights, I've just got no DRL's which is what I want anyway. Now all I need is a schematic telling me which wire it is. Hmmm.

 

[waskly]

Ok, if I can' work from that end, how about going to the other end and finding which wire comes from the gear selector and activates the DRL relay. As far as the relay is concerned, I never take the gear selector out of Park, but I do and I turn the headlights on whenever I need the lights, I've just got no DRL's which is what I want anyway. Now all I need is a schematic telling me which wire it is. Hmmm.

again. trans is connected to the pcm, once the pcm sees vehicle in gear the sjb sees vehicle in gear which turns on headlights this done over the "can" network. its not a wire dedicated to you are in gear turn lights on.