DRL Question...

King Air Pilot said:

I have a 2010 1LT Malibu and I have noticed that the car is equipped with daytime running lights, I think this is a novel idea but I was wondering if it is possible and if so how to switch the DRL duty from the low beams to the high beams like the Toyota/Lexus/Honda/Acura vehicles have, the reason I want to do this is because I want to prolong the life of my HID low beams by not having them on all the time and divert that task to the high beams because I never use them. Currently I have disabled the drl's by pulling the fuse but I want to reinstate them as the high beams because I like the look of it an the idea of having daytime running lights. So is it possible to divert the drl duty from the low beams to the high beams and if so how?
Thanks

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Starship said:

I seem to remember DrivenDaily saying he had rewired his DRL circuit on his old Malibu to power the front parking lamps. It shouldn't be that big a deal to do the high beam lamps the same way. The trick would be to reduce the brightness. The usual method is to power the lamps in series to divide the voltage drop across each lamp in half. If he happens to miss this thread, you may want to ping him.

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SS is right. I modded my '09 so the turn filaments were DRLs instead of the low beams.

But something I discovered since getting my '11 is a correction of a statement I made back then. I said that the low beams are at full 12V during DRL operation and are merely kept on by a separate relay. Since I modded the '09 rather early in its ownership I never paid attention, but with my '11 I've noticed that when I purposely switch from DRLs to headlights the low beams get brighter. That means that somewhere, somehow, the DRLs have reduced power. I don't see anything at all on the schematic that tells me how they do it. It's possible that it's just the undersized wiring that limits the voltage, but there aren't any resistors or fusible links identified anywhere in the DRL circuitry.

If you follow the link below you'll be able to download the schematics to the 2008 models. For '09+ they discontinued the fender-mounted turn signal repeaters, but other than that I never found anything different in my '09. For '10 they moved the location of the mirror adjuster and locks. The mirror adjuster for '08 and '09 had a selection switch that selected either left or right. For '10+ it has an additional center "Off" position. For '11 the paddle shifters were removed from the steering wheel and replaced with a single button on the shifter.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4191695/08_chevy_malibu_complete.pdf

Look on figure 49 for headlights. At the top left is the DRL fuse and relay. There's a purple line going from the NO contact to the NO contact on the low beam relay. The actual wire is under the fuse block in the engine bay. To access it you'll need to disconnect the battery wire feeding it, and the bolts in the center of the block. Then you'll have to wrestle a little with all the snaps they use to keep that plastic stuff together. But underneath is the purple wire you need. I actually removed my battery to make it easier to work on it.

Like SS says, I would favor having you put the two high beams in series to reduce the power output. Otherwise you're gonna be blinding people as you drive. You could also see about getting a huge resistor, like maybe the kind they used to use on Chrysler vehicles back when they had external resistors on the coils. It is designed to be bolted down and carry some current but I don't know if the high beams are too much. It might require one per lamp.

A number of studies have discovered that amber-colored light is easier to see during daylight hours than white light. My preference would be to see you switch over to the turn filaments like I did, and like I'm gonna do on this car. It's a fairly simple circuit and doesn't endanger any expensive halogen bulbs. I designed it myself and it worked flawlessly until I removed it to trade it in. The only reason for holding off installing it on this one is because I want to place it in a different location since it sometimes interfered with putting the battery cover back on. (It was between the fuse block and the fender, but under the battery cover.) Heck, I'm even thinking about relocating my battery to the back of the car just to gain some room and a slightly better weight distribution, but that'll wait until better weather, and until or if I decide to do it. Anyhow, I'd be happy to share my circuit with you. If you'd like, I'll even build it and ship it to you for just the cost of doing it. (For all other readers: This offer is for King Air only.) The short intro to the parts: DPDT relay, 2 diodes, and 2200mF capacitor. The rest is wiring.

I thought this was gonna be a short post, but I seem to have written a lot! Sorry for the long read.

And here are the steps to find the purple wire that turns the low beams on.

This is a link to the entire album of 19 images, in order of what steps to take as seen below:

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x173/fell-uh/2011 Malibu LTZ/DRL/



Step 1. Using 10 mm remove GROUND cable from battery terminal. Move to side, then remove POSITIVE cable and feed to fuse block (with 7 mm).




Step 2. Using 13 mm remove battery clamp




View of fuse box from passenger side




Step 3. Using the screwdrivers as a guide, pry at these points to release this side of the fuse box

Step 4. Lift this side of fuse box to this level (screwdriver being used to hold it for the picture)




Step 5. Lift the unlatched side and move toward passenger side. This is what it will look like from the driver side




Step 6. Using 7 mm unscrew 4 "bolts" in center of fuse block until they spin freely. They don't come out. Then release bottom cover by unsnapping it.




Step 7. Separate halves

Step 8. Snap connectors out. You may need to pry them a little, but they DO snap out.




Step 9. Remove cover from second connector (counting from left in previous image). Find where a purple wire is connected to the same terminal as a slightly larger tan/white wire.




Step 10. Cut the purple wire identified in step 9




Step 11. Add terminals (notice male & female, and which wire they're on) so you can restore the DRLs to factory function in the future (optional). Mine are the crimp kind with the insulator removed and then soldered. It's a much better conneciton.

Step 12. Insulate the terminal with a heat shrink wrap, or tape it carefully.




Step 13. Heat shrink after heating




Step 14. Cover "orphan" wire with heat shrink or tape to prevent shorting during low beam operation.





Step 15. Attach a terminal to a LONG piece of STRANDED wire (mine was 4 feet long - it's cheap enough!), then cover with correct size heat shrink, then add a larger heat shrink to cover entire terminal once it has been plugged in.

Step 16. Use a wire tie or add a loom cover (shown), then reattach rear cover to connector.




Step 17. Reinstall connectors to bottom of fuse block. Install #2 then #1, then install #3 then #4.




Step 18. Reinstall fuse block into vehicle by snapping it in. Insert on driver side first, then snap in the passenger side. Keep new wire accessible.




Step 19. Reinstall battery, battery hold-down clamp, POSITIVE terminal and fuse block feed, then NEGATIVE cable.

You're welcome, and you're close on what to hook up. The parking lights are not part of this DRL mod. We'll be using only the turn signals.

If you look at the drawing you'll see where there are 4 notes where a wire will need to be cut. (There are 2 wires to cut, resulting in 4 ends that need connections.) You have two options here:
1. Find the wires under the hood and do all the mods there, or
2. Route the new wire into the cabin and do the mods there, at the BCM under the front right console.

I did mine in the '09 under the hood. I'm going to do mine at the BCM this time. It'll keep the components out of the weather and the under-hood temps. Plus it'll be completely hidden under the console.

At either location you're looking for a dark blue/white wire and a light blue/white wire. Light is left, dark is right. When you find them and verify that they are the wires for the turn signals, cut each one, but do so in a way that leaves you enough room to work on them. Then turn on the hazard flashers and, with a test light, determine which end is flashing and which is not. For each color there will be one flashing and one that isn't. The flashing ones are the ones coming from the turn signal switch. Refer to my drawing and hook the light one to the one that says "Left turn signal from switch" and the dark one to the one that says "Right turn signal from switch". Now hook the remaining light one to the one that says "Left turn filament to bulb" and the remaining dark one to the one that says "Right turn filament to bulb". Now all you have to hook up is the new wire from the original DRLs to the one that says "+12V from DRL wire" and the remaining wire (on the DRL device) goes to ground.

Test the operation. If done correctly, when the key is on and the gear selector is not in P, the DRLs will turn on. You will see the "turn signals" illuminate but they won't be flashing. When you operate either turn signal, both DRLs will cancel and the turn signal will flash. When the signal is turned off the DRLs will resume after about a second.