well if ya can deal with the light there is an easier way. remove the center console and unplug the trigger on the back of the e-brake assy.
it takes about 5min, no cutting, wire chasing, nothing. i discoverd this by accedent.
Oh, that's a beautiful car. Where do you live that you can have all that legal tint? Has to be FL or NV I guess?
Phil
Hi
I hope I'm still in the Noobie channel or I'm going to get roasted for sure here. I think some of this describes what I want to do, but I don't know all the acronyms.
I have a 03 Sunfire so I'm sure you know that the low beams are on all day. I want to upgrade em to something better; not quite Silverstar price (I want those for my high beams; I live in a very rural state and there's always crap waiting to run into the road; some of it big too. But, I don't want them on all day. I'm sure it does them no good in the long run.
So I want to upgrade the stock low beams (do you have any part numbers? I have the manual but don't see bulb part numbers anywhere) and I want to turn them on from the stalk switch when I feel like it.
When I turn on the lows, I want the little fog lights to come on automatically every time. I would like to upgrade them as the light projects maybe 8 feet in front of the car. Any suggestions? Maybe I've seen some 100w bulbs would fit there. Would I need to drill holes in the housing to cope with the extra heat?
Finally, I would like it so that either the fog lights stay on when I use the main beams, or, if they have to go off, I want them to come back on with the low beams after I shut off the main beams without my having to turn them on after every time I use my brights.
I suspect that one or more of these postings actually covers all this, but I just don't understand the lingo and the acronyms. If you could please point me to the appropriate posts (or maybe better yet, just collect and paste the relevant instructions, that would be extremely thoughtful and helpful to an old geezer who don't see too well.) I have auto email turned on.
THanks much
Phil
Hey Phil,
Ok.. the lights that come on when the car is running are called the Daytime Running Lights, or DRL's for short. You can disable them by using the method described in the second part of the very first post (cut the dark blue wire, and ground the Body Control Module - aka BCM - side to frame). This will fool the car into thinking the low beam lights are on, so it turns off the DRL's. Of course, the low beams lights aren't actually on (but grounding that blue wire on the BCM side) makes it seem like it is. So, you have no lights on at all until you turn them on yourself.
Bulbs, you can do whatever you want with. If silverstars are too expensive for ya, I don't know what to suggest... I see them on Ebay for pretty cheap. Keep in mind, you do get what you pay for.. cheap bulbs die sooner usually. I think the Sunfire uses H9 and H11 bulbs... not sure which is which tho, I don't have a Sunfire... nor stock lights for that matter
The fogs are harder to control... in 95-99 cars, it's an actual switch you turn on and off... then there's another relay that shuts them off when the high beams are turned on.... easy to bypass. The 00-05 cars are actually a button, which you push to turn on and again to turn off. You're sending a pulse to the BCM to request the fogs on or off.. so if the BCM sees the high beams are on, it will turn the fogs off. The only way I've found around this, which is how I've got it wired, is to gut the 00 switch and put the 99 parts in it... then re-wire the fogs entirely, including a relay, to turn them on and off manually. I broke two switches trying to make this work, so it's far from "easy".
Hi John
Thank you for taking the time to explain all that. I might tackle turning the DRLs off....do you think there is any truth that because they are on so much that the bulbs actually become dimmer over time, or is that some kind of marketing scare tactic to get people to replace their bulbs ever 12 months unnecessarily?
I driva a LONG way to work and back and I wouldn't want to replace the low beams with Silverstars if I'm going to "wear them out" unnecessarily. But, give it another month and I'll be going there and back in the dark anyway.
Phil
GREAT WRITE UP! This really helped me out on my 02 cavy! Thanks so much!
Great write up, but it's gonna be a HUGE bitch for me do to all my alarm wiring and things in the way.
You have a 2005? It's one easily accessible wire to cut and ground...
John Lenko wrote:You have a 2005? It's one easily accessible wire to cut and ground...
Yeah, true... I'll get it done this weekend for sure. I'm just taunted by the wiring, lol.
Wanted to say i did the drl disable on my 2002 ls sport and it worked perfect
thanks
Anyone interested in a parking light DRL how-to?
ok i have the 35w HID plug & play kit on my 03 cavalier...if i were reenable the DRL and use the high beams to run the HIDs will this have an adverse affect on the ballast? after having disabled the DRL my car alarm will go off every 20 minutes. any help?
thanks man. me and a buddy tried to figure this out but couldnt. this is gonna help alot.
This might seem like a stupid question but when you do the drl off mod for the 03 to 05s and cut the dark blue wire, the other part of the wire that I'm assuming actually went somewhere to trigger the drls, did you just tape up the end of this wire and let it be or what?? I know that the end coming off of the connector to the bcm has to be grounded, just wondering what was done with the other part of that dark blue wire?
Kardain wrote:Anyone interested in a parking light DRL how-to?
yes please, i was about to ask lol. ive been wondering that for a while
12.33 @ 111.67 mph [Oct 2009]
Dyno'd on 08/02/09 - Mustang Dyno:
327.6 WHP 333.6 WTQ [10.1 AFR]
just did the DRL, wish i had done it months ago. now i'm tackling the fogs and highs on my 03.
so let me get this straight, with the 5 prong bosche relay i should wire orange to 30 which is my power source, green/white stripe to 85 which is the trigger from my high beams, purple to 87 and 87a which go to my fogs.
when the highs are off, no power is flowing through 85, which sends the output through 87a and not 87.
when the highs are on, power flows through 85, sending power through 87, and 87a is off.
by wiring the fog light positive to both 87 and 87a, the fog lights will be on regardless of relay position.
did i get that right? i've been reading for a while now.
Listen F***ers. FASTERTHANAHONDA is a joke because I WORK FOR HONDA. I'll talk @!#$ about Fords to, that doesn't mean I can beat a 12 second mustang.
Just did the drl mod today on both my 03 fire and my dad's 05 fire, worked flawlessly! Much better looking now that I can run just parking lights with fog lights if I want to. Thanks guys for figuring out how to do this.
Thanks 1999 Cavalier Z24 for compiling this. I just did it the other night and it worked flawlessly on my 03
write up coming soon for parking light DRL? hope so
12.33 @ 111.67 mph [Oct 2009]
Dyno'd on 08/02/09 - Mustang Dyno:
327.6 WHP 333.6 WTQ [10.1 AFR]
Got it done yesterday. Worked like a charm.
This is me being retarded....what is the DRL mod....what does DRL stand for....
Chris wrote:This is me being retarded....what is the DRL mod....what does DRL stand for....
Daytime Running Lights.
Most people disable these so they can use HID systems properly so they won't blow their HID systems up due to DRL's not giving enough current. Your DRLs come on automaticly when you put your car in gear.
oh ok then...makes sense....lol thanks