Hi all, I am trying to find a way to temporarily disable the DRL feature in my wife's 09 Escape. I like having the DRL feature, but there are times when they are annoying, such as pulling into the base checkpoints, certain drive through situations, etc. where it is a courtesy to dim the lights for the sentry.

So, I was thinking I would try to find a way to temporarily disable them when I need. Since they are only activated any time the vehicle is taken out of park, I began by looking at the shifter.
There are 4 sets of wires which run under the console to the shifter unit:
1-illumination light bulb
2-brake pedal interlock solenoid
3-small micro switch activated as soon as you pull the shifter "trigger". This one will signal a relay located near the instrument panel, but I have no idea what it is controlling. There is no affect on the DRL by manipulating this switch. Plus, the DRL feature is not activated until the shifter moves out of park, and this switch will activate as soon as you hit the shifter trigger.
4-There is another unidentified wire set (2 wires) which run internally to the shifter, and I could not determine where they run, or what they control.

My thought was to make the vehicle think it was still located in PARK, by using a switch which I could activate at will. However, I was not able to mimic this condition with the wires I mentioned above. I was hoping that it would be something as simple as closing a circuit, or introducing a ground to a wire with an additional switch.

Does anyone have access to the wiring diagrams to identify what the wiring #4 mentioned above is for? One wire is brown, and the other is white.

OR...... is the PCM told to activate the DRL by a switch or sensor located in the transmission?

I know I can just run to the stealership and have them disable the DRL, but if there is a way to have them on when you want, and off when you don't want them, that's the best of both worlds.

Thanks!

 

Take a thorough look through the owners manual for setting DRL operation. There may be a 'hold your mouth just right' set of instructions to diddle with that, like there is for the automatic door lock option.
I had the impression the switch would over-ride the DRL, such that if you turned on the parking lights, it would extinguish the DRL.
Well, that won't work. Reading up, it states the DRL will operate when
the headlamp switch is not in the headlights on position
the ignition is in RUN position
the parking brake control is released

The easiest to get around, such as with a temporary switch is the parking brake sense switch. You could produce the same condition {ground?} with a switch and a bit of wire.
tom

 

Here are the DRL wiring diagrams with colors so you can ID what you are working with.

 

ok, after looking, reading, testing, and LOTS of thinking, I have a way to do this!

I picked up a couple of "Add A Fuse" wire pigtails, and will be using them to "re-route" the low beam wiring circuit. I am going to install the "add-a-fuses" into the fuse box (Fuses #7, #8 - left and right low beams). If I install the add-a-fuse, and only install a fuse into the "NEW" portion of the fuse, the voltage will then run from the fuse panel supply, and into the "new" fuse, then out the "pigtail" of the add-a-fuse.

From there, the pigtail will run to a switch that I will install somewhere on the dash/console. From the switch, I will run it back to the "output" side of the "original" fuse slot in the add-a-fuse.

This way the circuit will still be fuse protected, and can be manually interrupted anytime I want to disable the low beam DRL's.

Since each low beam has its own fuse, I will be running them to a DPST switch, which controls them identically, yet keeps the circuits independent of each other.

Once I get this completed within the next few days (hopefully), i will post back with some pictures.

Going this route will not disrupt any factory wiring, or mess with the PCM/DRL modules either.