How do you disable the Daytime running lights? 2004 LS-Canada car

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ga289stocker

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Ok i just bought by first LS last week. The carfax report noted it came out of Ontario, Canada. No issue w/ this at all. I did notice that the car has the daytime running lights feature, which I can't stand. In searching the forum it appears this may have been a Canada thing. My question is, is there any way I can disable this feature. I would really like to be able to run just the parking lights and fogs from time to time w/ the DRL's on all the stinking time. Thanks for any advice, input. Can it be done w/ a scan tool/Tuner(SCT)??? Dealer??
 
I believe that your only two options are:
1. Reprogram ("FLASH") the FEM.
2. Replace the FEM.

AFAIK, only dealers (and maybe not all of them) have the tools to reprogram the FEM. I don't know if they will be willing to do it.
 
If gen 1 and gen 2 are backwards compatible, i'll trade you mine for yours. I was looking for a way to get DRL's and that sounds like a good way to get them.
 
craigh said:
Call the dealer. They should be able to do this for you.
Click to expand...

I did that first and was told by the service writer to check the internet. If i could not find anything he would be happy to charge me $120 to hook up to their diagnostic machine and then go from there:(...
 
ga289stocker said:
I did that first and was told by the service writer to check the internet. If i could not find anything he would be happy to charge me $120 to hook up to their diagnostic machine and then go from there:(...
Click to expand...

G-RELL said:
find a better dealer...
Click to expand...

Hmmmm....

Arrive at dealership.... The door locks don't seem to work and neither does my remote.
Service Writer..... Google it and if you can't fix it or find the solution then bring it back and we'll look at it.
 
G-RELL said:
find a better dealer...
Click to expand...

I see it as the writer saying "we can do it, but check online to see if there's another way that won't cost you $120"

You can then either take that as "I don't know the answer and I can't be bothered to check for you" or "There might be a 'hack' that Ford would not tell us about"
 
fudge12 said:
If gen 1 and gen 2 are backwards compatible, i'll trade you mine for yours. I was looking for a way to get DRL's and that sounds like a good way to get them.
Click to expand...

You could look around for a PWM DC Motor controller and run a secondary power wire to the high beam bulbs. Use diodes on the stock wires to prevent the motor controller from sending power the wrong way into the FEM. PWM is what the car uses to dim the dash lights and run the high beams. A PWM DC motor controller is nothing more than a relatively high-amperage unit that chops up a power signal. A 65-watt bulb draws ~5.5 amps, so it'd probably be easiest to get a single 11amp or greater controller. It will have a knob to adjust the duty cycle (brightness).
 
Using diodes and a PWM external to the FEM should trigger the bulb out warning, and it will make the actual high beams a bit dimmer (due to the voltage drop across the diodes).
I do believe that there are DRL modules that you can buy rather than hacking your own solution together. Of course, fudge12 could go to a Canadian Ford dealer and get them to turn the DRLs on, on his LS.
 
Is there a highbeam bulb out error? I'd go check but it's cold, windy, and my LS is under snow. I've had enough plastic tabs snap in the cold for one week. I don't think the car checks for all the lights, at least on the Gen 1. IIRC, it doesn't care about front bumper markers or rear tails (just the 168 bulbs, checks the 3157 low).

I could see the diodes being a problem since I don't know what kind of signal the car uses to check the bulbs, but the PWM module itself would be outside the normal high beam circuit.

The problem with the dealer is the usual minimum cost of 1 shop hour. Personally, I'd want user control over it anyway, so I'm just biased. I don't even like normal DRLs being solely computer controlled. The only DRL mode I'll remotely accept is they wait for the car to go into gear, which is what current Subarus seem to do. Most others turn them on with the key in "run"

If Fudge definitely wants them on, then he could try to tack it on to some other dealer service to cut down on time cost, say with something else that takes 30 minutes. Granted, most LSes aren't rolling into the dealer any more for service... Are Ford dealers any cheaper than Lincoln? The Ford I work at charges $120/hr
 
When I say Ford, I mean Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury.
I don't know for certain that there is a high beam bulb warning. If there is, it's actually the PWM circuit that would upset it. The bulb minder circuit sends out a calibrated small current (this is what makes the LEDs glow slightly) and then checks for a certain voltage drop across the bulb. Too low, and the bulb is shorted. Too high, and the bulb is open. Since the PWM circuit would be feeding a much greater amount of current into the bulb, the voltage drop would be too high. (The diode would then make that drop even higher. Yes, the diode is keeping the PWM from feeding voltage back to the FEM, but the FEM will source up to 5 or 12V trying to get a few mA of current to flow into the bulb.)
 
I just went out and checked. Neither the high nor low beams are checked on my Gen 1. As far as I can tell, neither are the front parking lamps (front blinkers are checked). While tail lamps are checked, I don't think the four 168s are checked (Gen 1 only, obviously), so only the 3157s are checked, high and low.
 
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