Day time running lights

Why would you try to turn off your day time running lights?

Lee

Yeah...why?? I belive it was Sweden that was the first country to make Daytime Running Lights mandatory. Canada followed suit for the

1990 model year. Tests have shown it is indeed a good, idea resulting in less accidents.

Craig

As OujdeivB noted below, this is a trick. Just what models of Studebaker have daytime running lights?

It does remind me of a story, though. One of our favorite customers at the motorcycle shop had a Laverda 1000, took immaculate care of it, and rode down from Detroit maybe twice a year for some little maintenance item. Laverdas were one of the earlier bikes to use a "black box" cast-in-plastic ignition, where there's nothing to go wrong and that's good because you couldn't fix it if it did. When Michigan passed the motorcycle running light law, there was a lot of discussion of whether your battery would stay up with your lights lit all day, so many people installed little-bitty auxiliary lamps to satisfy the law. Our guy's good-buddy shorted that sucker just the once and did in his $multihundred ignition module. You could short out BSA's all day long and not do any damage that wasn't built in at the factory. Was his face ever red.

Just what models of Studebaker have daytime running lights?

Optional in 1965-1966.

Was that the ltitle light in the middle of the grille?

Mark

65 Cruiser wrote:

I remember that option being a bit of a fad at the time. My dad's '64 Plymouth wagon had the optional running light. As I recall, Dodge later had a running light as standard built into the driver's side of the grille on the full-size cars in 1969/70 known as the 'Superlight'.

Craig.

subaru had a center light too. hidden high beem only. one year only i think.odd. As for the shut off of the day lights....put your e- brake on just as little as you can. they should turn off. the brakes may engage (or not) but the lights should go out. if they do just go looking for the light shut off parts under there some where. one wire usually does it. if you get it right the e-brake light on the dash MAY not stay on. Your ins. company may not cover you if you trash the car and they discover your fiddling. leave it alone. if the car is a GM unit the best thing to do is sell it. Rich

Uh, what kind of car? The running lights can be disabled on my Olds Bravada with a series of commands using switches. Paul Johnson

99 chevy malibu, i have seen the facts sure it reduces accidents by a fraction of a percentage. The darn lights turn on when i odnt want them, its a good feature so you dont forget to turn them on but i hate having them on all the time, its ugly, having the car for a while makes the gas add up, and a little extra wear on the bulbs and alternator isnt needed. Would just taking out the DRL fuse solve the problem or cause more of them?

Have you try painting the bulbs black? ;)

mike hunt

Then you painted the bulbs black? ;)

mike hunt

I remember that passing light Subuaru's had under the center emblem around 1982 or so. At least that's what Subaru called it; more of a common practice in Europe on the high-speed Autobahns, Autostradas, Motorways, et al where one flashes their lights twice before passing a slower car.

Craig.

Headlights on are ugly. The bulbs and alternator will wear out faster. Might as well take out those heavy airbags while you're in there. Bumpers, who needs them... they only work if someone hits you and the car will be totaled anyway.

So if I disconnect my daytime driving lights my gas mileage will go up???

Lee

The Subaru center light was in 1980 (I had one). It was actually called a fog light and was turned on with a dash switch so it wasn't useful as a passing light. Paul Johnson

since General Motors embraced daytime headlights, we can assume its a bad idea.

I doubt it would cause a problem. Maybe one day, a loaded semi truck will pull out to pass another one while heading West into a setting sun, and the driver will fail to see you or your beater Malibu because the daytime running lights are off, and you and your car will become a grease spot on the highway.

Like I said, no problem.

Gord Richmond

Ya think?? Was Studebaker a 'bad' company because it was the first to make front seat belts standard equipment in mid 1963?

I think the reason GM 'embraced' daytime running lights was so that they would only need to stock one wiring harness for the lights; not a separate one tagged 'US' and a different one for 'Canada' which would be a nightmare to sort on the production lines when the cars could be sold in either the US or Canada.

Craig.

Gord is right Now, wear and tear? hmmm...I doubt that its anything major.

1987 Mercury Tracer, DRL, one alternator/two batteries in 308,000 km 11 years, used for city delivery for years, equivalent to 500,000 tough km 1994 Pontiac Sunrunner, DRL, 10 years two alternators (replaced at 366,000km)/one battery, 397,000 km 2000 Pontiac Sunfire, DRL, one alternator/one battery, 90,000 km 3 years 1994, Toyota Corolla, DTL, one alternator/two batteries, 288,000 km 13 years

Headlights/DRL marker lights are cheap! Hospitals are expensive. Cemeteries are forever. Usually the headlights (and the lesser used high beams at that) are on a lower volt circuit so the filaments last a loooong time. And it is just the headlights, not all the lights, so not much additional wear n tear at all. They have saved my bacon MANY times. Of course, if you always drive on divided or multi-lane highways, you might never appreciate them. But on windy, narrow two lane highways they give you a real good idea especially in marginal weather/dawn/dusk/ bright sunshine in your eyes/cloudy/foggy/rainy days just how far away/how fast that vehicle is coming on.

Of course, the DRL circuit used in GM products is a frigging nightmare. Designed to p*** you off when it acts up/fails, which it will.

Jim Bartley >> 99 chevy malibu, i have seen the facts sure it reduces accidents by a

out to pass

see you or

I have to say that I hate the implementation of GM DRLs as well. High beams? come on... ever drive towards a Saturn around dusk when the driver hasn't turned his headlights on yet? Blinding glare... and then the ones that use the turn signals? Whose brilliant idea was that? takes a full cycle of the directionals to figure out exactly what the other driver is trying to tell you (assuming, of course, he uses them at all) IMHO if you want DRLs just run your low beams all the time, works out better that way.

AFAIK the American auto industry lobbied NHTSA to allow some of the more questionable implementations of DRLs even though NHTSA's own studies showed they were a bad idea...

At least they finally got their act together recently; my '05 Impala uses the low beams for the DRLs. They haven't done that across the board though; the Malibu and some trucks still use the directionals. Haven't seen too many new high beam ones though which makes me happy.

Were they really concerned about safety rather than simply the perception of safety, IMHO, they would have used dedicated DRLs with lower-wattage bulbs than the headlights rather than trying to tack that function onto some other existing equipment, like they did with the Chevy pickups a few years ago.

nate