Temporarily disable auto headlights?

Technical info on the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix including do-it-yourself info
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Browning
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2014 2:06 pm

Temporarily disable auto headlights?

Post by Browning »

Is there any way to do this? Was told lift the e-brake one click then start the car but that doesn't work.

There's a drive-through Christmas light show around here and they want you to turn the headlights off but leave parking lights on. We went through with the lights on as did another vibe and a few other vehicles that couldn't turn them off but we plan to go again soon and want to be able to drive through without shining our lights on the car in front of us.

Is there a relay/fuse I can pull for 25 minutes for this to happen?
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joatmon
Posts: 10018
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:19 am
Location: SMC MD

Re: Temporarily disable auto headlights?

Post by joatmon »

You could pull the HEAD relay, which is located in the under hood fuse block on your 05

Pulling the parking brake should work, but a couple of things to keep in mind.

First you only want to pull the brake enough to get the Brake light to light up in the instrument cluster, and no more, maybe one or two clicks. You're trying to tell the electrical system the ebrake is pulled, but not enough to actually engage the mechanical brake itself.

Second, for the ebrake trick to work, you have to turn off the car completely, apply the ebrake, and then start the car. If you start the car with the ebrake not applied, it won't work.

Whatever you try, do it and verify before you get to the light show
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zbyers
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:12 pm
Location: Sheffield, Pennsylvania

Re: Temporarily disable auto headlights?

Post by zbyers »

Well, pulling up the e-brake one click should work. However, it has not worked, ever, on my '07.

You don't want to just disable the automatic headlights, you also want to disable the daytime running lights. that can be done here.

viewtopic.php?t=897

to disable the automatic headlights temporarily, you could unplug the sentinel on the dash near the windshield.

There is no way to easily disable the DRL if the parking brake trick does not work. You would have to cut the wire as mentioned in that write up.
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