I'm a 08 lancer owner I love the car in almost everyway, I do however have this one problem that is truly ascetic but still needs fixed. Theday time running lights need to be shut off, I mean even on the lancer commercial they are not on and I know it must be anoption.Its a waste of electricity and everything. I prefer to have the power to decide for myself what lights I want on and when they should be on. Only a jackass in my opinion woulddrive around in broad daylight with lights on.I have talked to two different mitsu service shops in my area and both are claiming it is not an option to disable this feature. They did however say that after enough customer’s complain about it that mitsu would put out a fix. Does anyone know a fix for this? second does anyone think that daytime running lights should be forced on consumers with no choice of disabling this function.

I’m no tree hugger but in a world were we are trying to save energy running lights all day long seems like such a waste especially if you think about it running on several hundreds of thousands of cars. Imagine the saved energy if those hundred thousand cars only used the lights when needed.

 

I've also got the 08 lancer. While I'm not necessarily *against* DRLs, there have already been two separate occasions where I wish I could have turned them off.

This weekend I'm going to do a little experimenting with the DRL wiring, fuses, and relays as well as hopefully some CAN bus sniffing. Unfortunately, I don't have a factory service manual for the car, so I'm going to be head first in the dark.

If anybody has any tips related to disabling them, let me know! If I discover anything of value, I'll definately post here.

 

Hey I know that I dont even own a Lancer, but hopefully thatll change in the month of June. =D But ya my friends 2007 Subaru WRX had DRL's and he didnt like them. He ended up figuring out that the wiring to the DRL's are located behind the glove box. You have to take off your glove box to get to them. He then cut it and wired it up to a switch and mounted it on the dash of his car to either turn them on or off whenever he felt like it. I dont know if its the same on a Lancer but I guess the dealer knows best. Lol. Good luck mate.

 

Well the most I discovered so far was that removing the "DRL" fuse in the engine bay didn't turn them off And the spot for the "DRL" relay isn't even populated. I supect it'll be fairly complicated on the Lancer, like a CAN bus mod or something. It looks like the DRL's share the low-beam bulbs, so its probably controlled by whatever CPU controls the headlights.

Anybody got a factory service manual yet?

 

Ah didnt know that. I told you im a newb lol. Wait you dont get a factory manual when you buy the car? []Uh oh

 

Hi! I'm new here! I own a 08 lancer GTS. I just upgrade my lights to HID and the problem is that the DRL run at 12v and the Low beams @ 14v and there is no fuse that drives the DRL. The lights use the same config so I'm sure the signal is coming from the ECU so I guess we will have to wait for service manual guys.

 

The DRL is enabled through CAN bus and is an option coded in both the ECU and the ETAC units. If you want them turned off the only way I can think of turning them off is todo it through the option coding. I am not sure about the states but in Canada DRL is manditory. We have done out of country inspections on alot of vehicles from the states and in order to be registered in Alberta the have to have working DRL if the vehicle's Canadian counterpart is equiped. Just a quick hint though (if you don't mind having your brake light in the dash on all the time). You can try grounding out your emergency brake wire at the handle and see if your DRL goes out. I know that prior to CAN Line you could do this with Mits vehicles,not entirely sure bout the 08's though.

 

Thank you moronicion,

My best option would be a full 12v for DRL instead of the weak 12v at 0.125 Amp. So I've tried to use a 12v Relay plug to my DRL signal but the signal is not strong enough to latch the relay. I searching for a 12v relay that latch at 1.2w

 

The DRLs use a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal at (if I recall correctly) about 65Hz and 35% duty cycle (which is then inverted by a transistor/mosfet in the fuse box to a 65% positive duty cycle). If you open the hood and fuse box cover and on the right-hand side you'll see a "relay" with a big heatsink on it. This is the transistor/MOSFET/whatever that controls the low-beams. The ECU sends the PWM signal to here and it acts as a digital 'switch' to switch the lights on/off really fast so they appear dim. When you turn on the low beams, the ECU sends a steady signal so the lights are at full brightness. Note that these signals were tested with an oscilloscope and my car is the 08 Lancer GTS with fog lights, navigation, sunroof, and premium sound, if that makes a difference.

Assuming there is no option code in the scan tool to disable the DRLs, the easiest way I can think of is to put in a circuit to filter out the ECU's PWMed pulse and only allow a 'steady signal' to pass through. The signal is active low (the lights light when the signal from the ECU is low).

The more complicated option which I'm going to be working on is using a PIC microcontroller to control the DRLs right at the fuse box. I envision that it'll be a completely plug and play circuit module that will take literally 5 seconds to install, and fully programmable so you can make the DRLs behave exactly how you want them to (i.e. disable them entirely if you have HIDs, otherwise allow an easy way to turn them off in specific situations if you wish). Of course I won't have anything built soon as I still gotta design & test the whole thing...

Anyway, if you put a relay in its place, your relay will probably die because it'll be switching on and off at 65Hz. Also, you shouldn't use an ECU controlled signal directly to drive a relay without knowing the specs of the ECU as you may damage the ECU.

 

Wow! Thanks a lot guys!