How to get daytime running lights for free or how to get rid of DRL

[topspy]

By design, DRLs control lighting at the FRONT of the car.  AFAIK, they do not affect the REAR lights.  That is why you will often see someone driving at night with only their DRLs on, but no taillights....the driver thinks his "headlights" are on, but he doesn't realize they are NOT!!

In some cars, backlighted instrument panels will light up whenever the car is on.  This is to allow the instruments and gauges to be visible, otherwise they would be dark.  Early 2ndGen Siennas have the older design of instrument panel illumination where it is only lit if at least the parking lights are on.  "Newer" Siennas with the electroluminescent "Optitron" gauges are lit all the time (I think...??).  For these, it is very easy to "forget" to turn on the headlights at night.

YMMV.
Good Luck!! 

[brian_bp]

I have noticed on some Siennas that have DRLs that their tailights seems to be affected, also.  Is that pretty typical with DRLs that are factory-activated, perhaps?

While some makes and models have run the tail and marker lights in DRL mode, this is now very uncommon.  My Sienna runs only the high beams (in low-output mode) for DRL, and I would be very surprised if this changed.

And, also, I was riding with my boss in her '09 XLE last week and I noticed that her dash lights were lit, so I wondered if that had anything to do with drls.

No, the dash lights do not come on with DRL in the Sienna or any other vehicle I've heard of.  Having the dash lights off is an important safety feature, because when it gets dark outside the lack of dash lights is the clue to the driver to turn the headlights on. The lack of appropriate lighting on the road in front of the vehicle is often not an effective clue to the driver in conditions with streetlights.

Some vehicles have instrument panels which are unreadable without backlighting, so the dash lights are always on. This is not a matter of being older or newer (except that specifically in the Sienna, Toyota went from a good instrument panel to this horrible design so the always-on dash lights are newer); it is a styling decision. This is a problem with DRL because many people drive at night with only the DRL (which are glaring for other drivers, ineffective for road lighting, and operate without tail and marker lights), because they are too clueless to realize that they have not turned the headlights on.

I assume that an '09 Sienna - particularly an XLE - has Toyota's version of the always-lit dash, which is called OptiTron as topspy mentioned.  It is unrelated to DRL, other than causing confusion among less competent drivers.  In daytime, the instrument lighting is on full-blast to have some hope of visibility in high ambient light levels, so it should be noticeable to the passenger.


I realize that this entire post is basically redundant given topspy's response (I guess it was on the next page so I didn't see it before composing), but I couldn't resist leaving my version in to vent about the OptiTron gauges.  I rented a Matrix with them once and they are easily the least desirable feature of the car - I would pay extra to not get them. Of course, this is a personal opinion and I'm sure many people like their OptiTron Sienna gauges.

[siennami]

Kolkh,
  I realize this is a very late posting, but I had an additional question.... and it's been two years since I activated the DRLs on my Sienna.  A friend of mine just got an '07 and would like for me (haha!) to activate the DRLs for her and I can't remember what I did.  I found where the spare fuse goes, but I want to make sure that I have the correct fuse number.  I placed a 20 fuse in mine, but I saw that someone mentioned using a 30...oops!  Also, please remind me of the deal with the parking brake.  Is it just for safety, or is that an added step for activating the DRLs?  I just can't remember! 

Thanks!

[brian_bp]

When the Sienna having the DRL feature is started with the parking brake engaged, the daytime running lights are not turned on until the parking brake is released; this avoids some unnecessary operation of the those lights in a situation during which they have no value.  Since this logic is built into the Sienna's headlight controls, releasing the brake is simply a necessary step to seeing the lights operate, so checking that it has been released is part of troubleshooting. I think that's all the significance of the parking brake to DRL.

Note: if the parking brake is re-applied, the DRLs do not go off... you need to shut of the ignition or turn on the headlights to kill the DRL mode.

[topspy]

Kolkh,
  I realize this is a very late posting, but I had an additional question....

FYI....our friend [kolkh] has been MIA for a few months.  Not sure what happened. 

Though his presence and contributions to our community are missed, we are fortunate to have many other helpful members, such as [brian_bp].  

[siennami]

Thanks, Brian and Topspy!  I was just wondering before I attempted something on someone else's baby!

[siennami]

And....done!! I activated the drls for my friend today...I'm sure I got some strange looks as I was busy under the hood while at school!  At first I thought I'd made a mistake because her van is an LE and has the OptiTron lighting, so when I started the van after placing the fuse, and the dash lit up, I thought "Oh, no...what did I do wrong???" I'd put the 30 fuse in.  Went back under the hood, replaced it with a 20 like mine has.  I did ask my friend if her dash always lit up like that.  I have never driven or ridden in an LE before, so I had no idea.  When I got my CE 2 yrs. ago, it was the only one they had on the lot, and I didn't even try anything else because I was looking specifically for a CE.  While I was under her hood, I noticed that there's a 15 or maybe 25 fuse where a 7.5 should be (according to the diagram on the fusebox cover).  Do you think that's worth checking out, or does it matter?

Thanks again for all of your help!

[brian_bp]

...While I was under her hood, I noticed that there's a 15 or maybe 25 fuse where a 7.5 should be (according to the diagram on the fusebox cover).  Do you think that's worth checking out, or does it matter?

The overly large fuse may have been used simply because that was all that was on hand; however, the factory wouldn't do this, so the original fuse must have blown at some point, which suggests a problem. It might not have been a fault in the vehicle (so there may be nothing that needs fixing), but even then the circuit is not properly protected, and may have components which are not safe at the amount of current levels the wrong fuse could allow if there is another problem in the future - I would want to investigate, or simply swap in the right size of fuse.

Commonly, over-sized fuses are used because the circuit keeps blowing the correct fuse.  This is due to inappropriate use of the circuit (such as excessively high-power appliances or too many devices powered from the accessory "lighter" sockets), or a fault in an electrical component... there's no other choice.  Since the larger fuse only masks the problem, allowing the faulty or unsafe device to continue to be used, I think that it is worthy of investigation.

The fuse added to enable the DRL isn't being used as a fuse, and so it can be rated arbitrarily high - the circuit is protected by a fuse at some other point in the circuit.

[siennami]

Ok....that makes so much more sense!  She wrote down the fuse number when I told her about it, so maybe she'll have it checked out pretty soon.  She bought the LE used from CarMax.  I have learned so much from all of you!

Thanks!

[sejose]

Hey this is just too awesome, thanks!  I have been bothered by the fact our Sienna did not have DRL but my Buick does, what gives?  Now the Sienna has 'em too, I am sooo happy, this adds yet another dimension of safety to this wonderful vehicle.  Thanks Siennachat and special thanks to the posters.

Scott

[jonl]

wow, thanks for all the info, I will give it a try on my 10 LE!

[macmanjimmy]

Have a 2001 is this procedure the same, simple as removing a 30 amp fuse? Thanks