Sin

I have a 98' Maxima, and I HATE the DRL's that the car came wired with. Is it possible to turn them off on my Canadian market Maxima? And if so, how do you do it? Thanks in advance.

MaxDriver98

We have DRL? Mine doesn't...

MaximaR3

he is from canada , no you dont have them

MChapel

iTrader: (1)

...and it would be illegal to disconnect them. If a cop wanted to be a jerk, he could have you towed on the spot, plus $110 (CDN) fine.

And IMHO, DRL's are a great idea, cuz lots of people are too damn stupid to think about whether or not other people can see them coming in bad weather or when the sun's low in the sky and overall visibility sucks.

...end of rant


Mark

MaximaR3

i agree

Sin

Actually, you are entirely wrong. In Canada, there are no actual laws for the operator of the car to have lights on during the day time. The only laws regarding DRL's are that all cars since a couple years ago, must come from factory equipped with them. I should know, I am intimately in touch with the Highway Traffic Act. This may be different in other parts of the world, but here in Canada, cars only need to be equipped with them from factory, and do NOT require their use.

Sin

So no one has ever turned off their DRL's?

Str8_Maxn_it

Gotta take issue with the DRL rant.

People who are too stupid to turn them on when they should be on should be ticketed anyway. Most DRLs are wired to the car's brights. So when it's dark, low viz, whatever, they are the ones blinding me. It'd be diff if they were wired to the low beams but, that is annoying.

Jime

iTrader: (10)

Sin if you want to disable the Daytime Light operation, clip term 3 wire going into the Daytime Light Control Unit it is a Red/Yellow wire. The Unit is located on the Passenger side front just left of the front headlight facing the vehicle.
Clip far enough back so you can reconnect again if you want in the future.
Actually I have gone the other way and have hooked up the fogs to the Daytime Light Control Unit so they come on when you start the engine. I did this because we have underground parking and this way I don't have to turn on the headlights to leave. The headlights for daytime running are only half brightness and very dim because they are both hooked in series with each other so only 6v are powering them.
Have fun

Sin

Thanks a lot Jime!!! That was exactly what I was looking for. BTW, is it possible to operate the oe fogs alone with the headlights turned off? I like the ability to actually run fogs with no headlights, as is optimal in really foggy conditions.

Jime

iTrader: (10)

Hey Sin I am working on that, actually I was trying to get the dash lights to come on as well so my wife can see the shifter in the dark underground parking without turning the lights on. I am into electronics a bit but some of this stuff is trial and error and hope you don't blow anything up. The FSM is invaluable for this stuff and 120 CND is not cheap but worth every penny, I have only had my max since Jan but I am doing a bunch of different mods like that and its a must.

PS I also clipped the wire that causes the alarm when you open the door with the key in the ignition. I do that a lot when I am working on the car and it is very annoying and I have not locked myself out of a car in 54 years so not likely to happen in the future unless my sometimers gets any worse.

Sin

Just wondering if you figured out a way to operate the fogs without the headlights yet.

Jime

iTrader: (10)

I did the fog light rewire.

http://www.voicenet.com/~breaux/car/fog/fogrewire.html

The fogs will work in all 3 modes, hi beam, low beam and park lights.

You could just hook the wire that goes to the front side markers to a hot 12v if you want them to come on without the parking lights or having the car running. Also could connect to the wiper relay to just get them on when the accessories are on.
I decided to leave it hooked to the parking lights to ensure I don't accidentally leave them on.

Jim

Sin

Awesome, thanks a lot! I'll try to tackle this asap.

Sin

Quick question. You spliced the relay wire to the corner lights so that the fogs would only work if the corners were on. But what if you wanted to be able to operate the fogs entirely independent? Where would I wire that wire that comes from the relay? I'm asking because there may be times that I want to run the fogs without having the dash lights coming on.

«§»Craig B«§»

iTrader: (5)

he mentioned it in a post above, but that is just the "trigger" for the fog light relay

if you want to be able to turn them on all the time, find a wire that has constant power
if you want them on with accessory, find a wire that has power only with ACC or IGN, etc

you should be able to find any of those types of wires somewhere inside the relay box with a voltage tester

Sin

Yah, I was just hoping he would know one right of the bat.

Jime

iTrader: (10)

The wiper relay wire that is hooked up to the ignition switch is light green so you could try that one. Just do it exactly like the how-to only instead of going to the marker lights hook up to the light green, should only take about 3 or 4 inches of wire. Just make sure you cut the green/yellow and hook on to the relay side.

I haven't tried this I am just going by the wiring diagram in the FSM, which is what I do for all of the mods I do.

Jim

PS Don't cut the light green for the wiper just strip and connect in.

BippuBenji

iTrader: (4)

Just like Craig B suggested, use a voltage tester to see which one powers up when you turn the car on, I didn't have a tester so I tried using a 194 sidemarker bulb by the way it lights up and in my 97 I found that the very middle wire of the wiper relay is the one that powers on only when the car is on so I followed the above link's instructions and then instead of splicing the wire coming from the fog light relay to the corner light, I spliced it to this wiper relay wire that was orange (it may be a different color for different years, so I suggest using a tester). I have a pictuer of them independently on my homepage.

Sin

Thank you very much Jime, «§»Craig B«§» and BenBlanco218. I worked my butt off this morning to get some free time this afternoon to work on it.

I did the DRL cut first. Just a suggestion Jime, for the wire to cut, you called it the Red/Yellow wire. Just call it the red wire with the yellow stripes, because there is a red/yellow wire where the red and yellow run longitudinally. For a moment or two, I was pulling one of those which wire to disarm the bomb scenes. I ended up using a multitester to figure it out to save myself the time and hassle of soldering and heat shrinking. BTW, 'jus tto emphasis the overkill part you will soon read, I wouldn't use electrical tape to seal the ends of the cut wires. I used heat shrink, and REALLY sealed the ends.

After that, I went about doing the fog light rewire, but did it slightly differently. I looked for a tab on a relay that would be hot in position II, but no where else, so that I could run fogs only while driving, and not be able to leave them on accidentaly if I removed the keys from the ignition. I cut the appropriate wire to the fog light relay, but instead of using a tap (which I have never liked, just because I don't believe the connection is good enough, and that it wouldn't seal well enough (just the paranoid overkill engineering side of me) but I just don't trust them) so I stripped the wire back a bit, used some high quality wiring (low resistance, large temp range, silicone sheathing, etc.) twisted the wires together a bit, soldered them together, and heat shrank the two wires together. I made the wire nice and long just like you recommended for the wiring to the side marker (3'). To test it out, I applied the other end of the wire to the positive side of the battery, it worked, relay clicked, fogs lit up, when the other end touched the positive terminal on the battery, so I continued. I took a look at the relay box cover, and figured the ABS motor relay would be a good bet. I used the multitester to find the right prong. I found the right one. Trimmed the wire to just a couple inches, just enough to thread it through from the underside of the relay panel through a little gap at the ABS motor relay, and applied the wire to the correct prong connection. Or atleast what I thought was the correct prong. I forgot that I double flipped the relay panel, instead of just turning it over, I also rotated it to get better access to the wires for soldering, and heat shrinking. So when I put in in position II, the ABS motor started running, and no fogs. So I turned it off and was like DOH! Moved the wire across the relay connection, and all was good. Instead of tapping into the wire and disturbing the wiring insulation, I decided instead to tap into the relay and panel right where the two meet. So I trimmed back the plastic on the side of the relay, pushed the wire into the female end of the panel, pushed the relay onto the panel, and everything worked like a charm. Sealed things up with a little silicone, put everything back, and now I have the lighting I have always wanted It's so beautiful

Jime

iTrader: (10)

Good Stuff Sin, glad you got it ok. Sometimes using the meter is best. I just called it the Red/Yellow because thats what it says in the FSM. I wrote it looking at the manual not at the wire. You have to pay attention under there because it a mirror image when you turn it over. You have to make sure you are working on the right relay first and then the correct wire.

Sin

Yah, I wouldn't even have bothered trying something like this without a multimeter. Yah, no problem, just want to help out the future people you will undoubtedly help.

I totally agree. I just totally forgot about the 180 rotation of the panel after the flip. With a single flip, it was easy. It was easy even with the 180 on top of the flip. I just forgot about the flip, because I got frustrated that I couldn't get in good position to work on the wires, and kinda did it unconsciously.

Thanks again. If it wasn't for your help (both with the DRL and the figs), I would've put this off for a heck of a lot longer than I already have.

elcid

Well my dalight running light unit was buzzing so I disconnected it because it was making a buzzing sound and it cost about $240+ dollars to replace it. It's the little black box between your passenger fender and the windshield washer fluid nozzle (where you pour the fluid in)It's a black blox with to plugs going into it. I can't remember which one you take out but I believe it's the smaller one. Regardless if you disconnect the wrong one your lights won't work, so it's not hard to figure out which one it is. I haven't had a problem with no drl's yet. Plus the module is a rip off.