Hey guys, am I missing something on my 2009 ls460l. I'm trying to turn off my day running lights when driving. Is this full time or am I not looking in the right place.

 

The point of the DRL is that it will be on whenever you are driving, even when the headlight switch is in the OFF position.

 

I used the carista adapter to turn my DLR off.

 

I second that!

 

The DRL is a safety feature to make your car visible to other drivers, especially in odd light conditions. I realize folks managed fine without DRL for decades, but there are probably some accident data that justified introduction of DRL in the 90s.

I am curious to know why you would want to deactivate DRL. Remember it is not a driving aid for you, but a potential safety feature to help other drivers around you.

 

As noted, Carista can disable this and do many other customizations. Unfortunately, this only applies to U.S. vehicles and cannot be disabled on my Canadian LS, nor can it be disabled on Euro spec cars. This is because it is law here as well as Europe which introduced DRL's after Scandinavian studies showed DRASTIC reductions in collisions with DRL vehicles. That's why motorcycles have always had DRL's. It's proven effective.

 

The claim that DRL's increase safety is mostly bogus. Why? Because most accidents do not occur in an orientation where the lights are even visible. Rear end, side swipe, t-bone, rollover, and single car accidents occur without regard to headlights. And pretty much all drunk driving accidents occur regardless of anyone's visibility. And then there are distracted driver accidents, where the idiot looking at a text message wouldn't see the rollers on a cop car let alone the DRL's on your car. The only accident type that might be affected is the head on, and most of those don't occur because someone didn't see another car, but rather exercises poor judgement, is drunk, etc. Also, roughly half of all fatal accidents occur at night, where headlights are generally on for all vehicles, and the headlights don't stop them occurring. So it isn't a visibility issue that causes most accidents. If it were, then cars would all be Dayglo Orange or Neon Green. While it's true that having lights on makes a vehicle more noticeable, that's generally because the vehicles around it do not have their lights on, so the one with lights stands out. But if all vehicles have lights on, nobody stands out. And standing out isn't very effective either, as most any motorcyclist that has been tagged by some idiot driver who "didn't see them" can attest. I had 3 incidents in one summer on my bike, all of which would likely have been fatal if I couldn't have avoided the moron who didn't "see" me until I was sliding sideways past their driver's window dirt-tracking my street bike to avoid getting killed. Plenty of motorcyclists die each year in spite of their magic headlights.

So go ahead and turn off the DRL's if you want. Your safety won't be affected in any appreciable manner. But you might get to avoid burning out and replacing one of the useless but expensive little suckers.

 

Carista adapter ??? what is it, where is it, how is it..

 

This is their website. http://www.caristaapp.com/

 

So I did some digging, and chuckwagon has a point. "Bogus" is a bit harsh because DRLs were implemented on the basis of data not anecdotes.

An NHSTA report from 2008 found no benefit in most cases. A smaller study from 2010 from Mayo Clinic found a significant effect. Earlier studies from Scandinavian countries showing DRL effectiveness may have used inadequate statistical analyses. If there is a benefit, it may be restricted to vehicles in northern climates like Scandinavia, Canada and the upper Midwest where odd lighting conditions are more common, especially during the winter months.

NHSTA report
DRLData.pdf

Mayo study
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850978/

More reading material about DRLs
http://www.tundraheadquarters.com/bl...lights-safety/

I do enjoy the look of the endless variations of LED DRLs on the road today. So, I won't be getting the Carista app anytime soon

 

I just checked the Carista link, and it has some neat uses. Maybe I will get the Carista app and OBD adapter after all

 

I'm not gonna get into a debate about DRL's, but I will say that the Carista app and dongle are a cheap investment (about 20 bucks) that will allow you to do all kinds of customizations to your car that once could only be done via Techstream and your local dealer....for a hefty charge. The added bonus of a quality trouble code reader and SES reset ability makes it a bargain. I'lll add that the customizations will also work on many other makes of cars and the code reader/reset works on ALL OBD compliant cars.

 

The dealer shut mine off for free. Ask at your next visit.

 

Are you guys missing something I'm not? On my 2011 with the car running but in park I can go into the setup menu on the nav, go to vehicle lighting, select daytime running lights, select off, then save.

I leave mine off but when heading to our place in Sun River Oregon I turn them back on. A lot of people make sketchy passes over hwy 26 and on hwy 97. I'd rather be seen coming head on a little sooner in those circumstances.

 

The 2010+ models allow for owners to change majority of personalized settings Inc DRL via the nav screen menus vs 07 to 09 requiring a dealer visit for tech stream or owners with Carista app and dongle. I think the feature to disable is not available for Canada cars because DRL is law since early or mid 90s.