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Drl killer diy

18K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  pdcomm 
#1 ·
ok i threw this together for the guys who had trouble understanding the drl killers out there, i have had a few guys asking me questions lately here goes:tiphat

first throw away the directions you used already i hate when the guys on here tell people to use those ****in wire taps JUST CUZ ITS EASIER lol,

ok here is what you need:
1. 2 blue butt connectors
2. 4 female spade connectors(same blue color as the butt connectors)
3. electrical tape
4. 30/40 amp relay(any name brand)
5. 4 pieces of wire about 6-8 inches long
6. RAZOR
7. solder and soldering iron(these are optional)

all this can be gotten at autozone or napa or advanced auto, i use advanced auto they always have everything, dont matter though


first you are going to assemble the relay harness,

strip both ends of the 4 wires you have chose to use, on one end of ALL 4 WIRES crimp 1 of the female spade connectors, on 2 of those wires you will add a blue butt connector, the other 2 wires will stay stripped bare, ok now the 2 wires that are bare at one end, will go on pin 85 and 86 of the relay, the 2 wires with the butt connectors will go on pin 87(do not confuse with pin 87a, the one in the middle of a 5 pin relay) and pin 30

ok now we will install this into our factory wireing,
follow these simple steps and it will work, no need to search the wires they are already proven. the following is ONLY FOR THE DRL KILLER THERE IS ANOTHER PROCEDURE FOR THE QUAD BEAMS AFTER THIS

1. disconnect the power terminal at the rear fuse box i think a 13 mm
2. disconnect the 2 harnesses from the bcm(tan and grey)
3. find the pink wire with white stripe(grey plug, pin number A5)
cut in half, now strip and connect the side of this wire that is on the plug side to the wire on the relay harness that you previousely made, PIN 87(one of the ones with a butt connector) now the other side of the pink wire with white stripe gets stripped and connected to PIN 30(the other wire on the relay harness with the butt connector)
THESE 2 CONNECTIONS SHOULD GO TO THE EXACT PINS I QUOTED ON THE HARNESS YOU MADE EARLIER THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! IF YOU FORGOT WHICH WIRES ARE WHICH DONT HESSITATE TO PULL THE WIRES AND CHECK!!

VERY IMPORTANT!!!! IN THE NEXT STEPS YOU WILL NOT CUT THE WIRES!!
4. now find pin e7 on the tan plug SOLID PINK WIRE, you will use the razor to strip back and remove about 1 inch of the pink insulation on the wire then insert the razor between the strands of wire and seperate the strands gently, insert the wire you only stripped one end of on the relay you premade PIN 86, wrap this wire around the factory wire tightly, at this point you can solder the wires then tape them or just tape it up, this is called an ELECTRICIANS KNOTT

5. now find pin b6 (grey plug) solid white wire, now you will strip the wire about an inch
and seperate the wire strands like in the last step, insert the last wire remaining (pin 85) on the relay you premade, and twist it tightly around the factory wire, solder and tape or just tape it up like in the last step,

I ALWAYS SOLDER.. BUT YOU DONT HAVE TO IF YOU ARENT COMFORTABLE DOING SO

NOW FOR THE QUAD BEAMS

1. on the tan plug cut f10 in half (solid green wire)
2. strip back about an inch of e4 (the solid yellow wire) and seperate the strands of wire with the razor
3. strip about 1 inch of the green wire that you cut in half in the first step(the side of the wire on the harness not the side with the bcm plug), insert this wire into the yellow wire twist around tightly and solder and tape up or just tape it up, again up to you!
4. tape up the end of the green wire that is connected to the tan bcm plug, now you are finished

check to make sure everything is taped no wires showing, reconect the 2 bcm plugs and then reconnect the power to the battery post at the rear fuse block, go upfront and put a towel over the light sensor on the dashboard(this is to make sure that the auto lights come on later when the vehicle is started) shut the doors and hit the lock and unlock buttons, the front perrimeter lights (headlights) should not come on, next start the truck and put in gear the auto lights should come on, now flip the turnsignal switch forward and all 4 (hi and low beams) should come on like flash to pass,remove the towel off the light sensor and pull into the sunlight for a minute and the autolights should shut off

any problems send a private message or just post on one of my threads i have posted and i will get an instant email on my phone, i should get back to you pretty fast
GOOD LUCK IT SEEMS LIKE ALOT BUT ONCE YOU READ IT AND UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR DOING IT ISNT, IT REALY SIMPLE ACTUALLY
 
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#2 ·
thank you very much Cliff for you clear instruction. i'll try this sometime this week.
i have another question, how many light switch positions are on your truck?
there're only 3 on mine, Auto/Park/ON. i really hope there's no different between US & CAN truck version
thanks
 
#3 ·
mine has 4 auto park on and to the left of auto if you flip the switch left it is spring loaded and that turns off the auto headlights, if yours dont have this then it may be an early 03 some of them didnt have the switch with the auto off yet in early 03(still has some 02 parts)
 
#9 · (Edited)
hi Me007, before i asked Cliff to give me his instruction i've tried followed what article said, but didn't work on mine. as i said on my other post here:
http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?p=1082126&posted=1#post1082126 that the "white (-) with 0v when tested then 12v when light switch is ON" it's opposite on mine. i also tried to find another wire in both Tan & Grey harnsses, but couldn't find one that does the 0v then 12v switch on.
 
#12 ·
The dlr kill worked, but I must have messed up the quad beam because if I pull the high beam leaver towards me the high beam and lows are both on (which is normal), but if I push it forward nothing happens. Then the truck seems to freak out, a security light comes up on the dash and then -----unknown driver----- is displayed.

I did notice there was about three of the same green wires, but I lined one of them up to the number 10 and assumed it was f.

With the yellow, I only really saw one yellow, but it was on the same line as the green one so im guessing that's where I went wrong? Because it says e4 and I probably did f4 or something.

What did I do wrong?
 
#16 ·
Resurrection!

The directions in here work great. I'd already done the quad beam mod when we first got the truck (I did it under the dash, not at the BCM).

We've had HIDs for quite a while in the truck, and I bought the stuff for the capacitor mod well over a year ago and never got around to doing it, so we always just flick the DRLs off when we get into the truck.

I then came across this thread and remembered I had a spare relay/harness out in the garage from my old F-body. Wired it up exactly as in the first half of the first post of this thread.. was too lazy to solder, so I did my normal split-wire-reverse-twist-and-opposing-fold-and-tape ritual on the cut ends and then used some of those plastic splice pieces for the in-line stuff (FWIW, I've never had a problem with those). Electrician's knot wouldn't be very easy with the tiny wires used in the BCM wires.

Bottom line.. DRLs are no more! Both manual and auto headlights still work (we couldn't have lived without those).
 
#18 ·
Thank you for the post.
My journey was as follows:

1. Purchased sh*!ty HID bulbs and ballasts from eBay without knowing much. When I installed them and turned them on, all I heard was a buzzing sound that I was worried was a precursor to a fire. I immediately removed them.
2. I decided that a proper HID retrofit with projectors was what I wanted.
3. Purchased an HID retrofit system, hopefully the ones I got are decent but who knows.
4. I completed the retrofit in the headlight assembly.
5. Found out that DRL's suck for HIDs in cars that weren't meant to have them.
6. Found a DRL killer video on youtube and bookmarked it.
7. Bought a relay and relay socket for the project.
8. But the auto-lights feature turned me off. Project put on hold.
9. Searched today for a DRL killer that kept quad lights and auto-on/off headlights.
10. Found this thread.
11. Became motivated.
12. Took me about an hour and a bit to complete the project.
13. Worked perfectly the first time, thankfully.

No DRL
Lights turn on automatically at night when put into gear
Headlights do not flash when unlocking car
Yellow markers flash when unlocking car
Quad lights when put into high beam mode

I am a happy camper.

Your instructions were spot on. Though I'd recommend that you recommend a relay socket. I also labeled the wires ahead of time.
 
#19 ·
DRL Killer...

I followed Clifford Henlines instructions for making the drl killer except that I used a relay and socket and it worked flawlessly. The socket just makes things easier. The quad high beam mod works great. I used an HID conversion kit which came without instructions caused a little head scratching but I figured it out. I use 5000K Xenon bulbs and the difference is absolutely phenomenal! Well worth the effort!

This forum is great!!!
 
#22 ·
Before you disconnect the DRLs, check the boilerplate on your auto insurance policies.

Mine (Auto Club, most recently and WAS Prudential) says that (quote) "Any circumvention of factory installed safety devices will nullify this insurance policy and it will indemnify the insurance company (insert your company's name here) of financial responsibility during losses that could have been mitigated IF the safety devices had been in working and unabridged order. Any such disconnection, modification and/or elimination of these devices render the "insured" as "uninsured" and (they) will have no standing in claims for or to the company at which has been put at risk.

In other words: if you disconnect the DRLs (for instance) you ain't got no insurance if you have an accident.

Insurance companies will use this modification as wiggle room to indemnify itself and you have no standing in court whether you are a victim or the cause of the accident.

You are REQUIRED by the fine print to NOT PLACE "THE COMPANY" IN A JEOPARDOUS CONDITION by your actions. Disconnecting DRLs is an act against the company.

For the record - I have been in courts (as a "friend of the court" in Federal Exhaust Emission Cases) and heard the insurance companies plead "No Responsibility" in situations like this and the judge hits the gavel and says: "Make it so" and the claim goes away. ... and the insured is naked and has to pay both the other party's and his own damages, including all those medical bills of his passengers, loss of income and generally he is totally screwed up for the rest of his life.

It also makes you an "assigned risk" for any insurance policies you may want need in the future ... and those policies are really expensive and your vehicle MAY be subjected to inspections and finer scrutiny at that time too.

Play stupid games - get stupid prizes.
 
#24 ·
Before you disconnect the DRLs, check the boilerplate on your auto insurance policies.

Mine (Auto Club, most recently and WAS Prudential) says that (quote) "Any circumvention of factory installed safety devices will nullify this insurance policy and it will indemnify the insurance company (insert your company's name here) of financial responsibility during losses that could have been mitigated IF the safety devices had been in working and unabridged order. Any such disconnection, modification and/or elimination of these devices render the "insured" as "uninsured" and (they) will have no standing in claims for or to the company at which has been put at risk.

In other words: if you disconnect the DRLs (for instance) you ain't got no insurance if you have an accident.

Insurance companies will use this modification as wiggle room to indemnify itself and you have no standing in court whether you are a victim or the cause of the accident.

You are REQUIRED by the fine print to NOT PLACE "THE COMPANY" IN A JEOPARDOUS CONDITION by your actions. Disconnecting DRLs is an act against the company.

For the record - I have been in courts (as a "friend of the court" in Federal Exhaust Emission Cases) and heard the insurance companies plead "No Responsibility" in situations like this and the judge hits the gavel and says: "Make it so" and the claim goes away. ... and the insured is naked and has to pay both the other party's and his own damages, including all those medical bills of his passengers, loss of income and generally he is totally screwed up for the rest of his life.

It also makes you an "assigned risk" for any insurance policies you may want need in the future ... and those policies are really expensive and your vehicle MAY be subjected to inspections and finer scrutiny at that time too.

Play stupid games - get stupid prizes.
So, when GM offers the RPO T62, or a headlamp switch that allows for the deletion of the DRL's, or, say if it's a vehicle where it has a separate DRL fuse and it blows.... Or it's a NBS chevy/gmc silveyukoladierra and the lamps burn out and aren't replaced (which is the majority on the road now) how do they prove intent? Is the accident investigator going to go "ahh......I bet it was the lack of DRL's, pull that rear seat stat so we can do a forensic evaluation" I get you want to be the Dad figure in this thread, but there's a whole lot that would have to be overlooked as a cause to an accident before coming to Daytime Running Light mods.... Think of how many vehicles of that era NEVER came with them, how many vehicles have sub models that do and don't... Some that were optional... You really have to be on the radar for another reason for DRL's to be your un-doing in an accident investigation.
 
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