Headlights & ALC, DRL

[Cat]

Has anyone replaced their headlights due to aging? I see there are Vibe headlight replacements on eBay for about $200 and I would like to know if anyone here has tried them. I have tried cleaning mine up a few times, but they are too far gone to do much with.

Also, I have seen that there are at least 2, and maybe even 3 ways to disable the ALC and DRL, but I would like to know which way has worked the best for anyone here who has done it. Has anyone had any problems as a result of doing it?

[Caretaker]

I've done the wipe new and used some Turtle Wax and Meguiar's products on my headlights over the years following the instructions to a "t." However, the haze always seems to come back. Most recently, I took mine to Sam's Club and for $40 (as I recall), they did a masterful job and give a 5 year warranty. Walmart tire/lube shops also perform this function. You may want to turn it over to a "professional" before giving up and putting lots of headlight money into an aging car.

[andrewclaus]

You need body shop tools and supplies to do a really good job at headlight restoration. I bought a kit with a drill attachment and it did okay. It took about a half hour of work. Don't forget the back-up lights. Three years later and it still looks good.

I disabled the DRL on my base '07 by snipping a wire in accordance with directions I found on this forum. It's been working fine with manual control for three years.

[Cat]

I've done the wipe new and used some Turtle Wax and Meguiar's products on my headlights over the years following the instructions to a "t." However, the haze always seems to come back. Most recently, I took mine to Sam's Club and for $40 (as I recall), they did a masterful job and give a 5 year warranty. Walmart tire/lube shops also perform this function. You may want to turn it over to a "professional" before giving up and putting lots of headlight money into an aging car.

Thanks, I will look into those places. A 5 year warranty sounds good since they do tend to haze over again after a while from what I have seen.

[Cat]

You need body shop tools and supplies to do a really good job at headlight restoration. I bought a kit with a drill attachment and it did okay. It took about a half hour of work. Don't forget the back-up lights. Three years later and it still looks good.

I disabled the DRL on my base '07 by snipping a wire in accordance with directions I found on this forum. It's been working fine with manual control for three years.

Which method did you use? As I remember, one was to cut a yellow wire under the dash. Another was to cut a wire going into the module farther up under the dash and then grounding one side of the cut wire. I don't know if there are any advantages or disadvantages of doing it one way or the other, except maybe one is easier to reach. From what I have seen, neither is easy to reach, but the one where you just cut the wire and don't have to ground it seems a lot easier and faster.

[andrewclaus]

All I remember is cutting one wire, no grounding. Sorry, it's been a while.

[joatmon]

Do you still have an 03?

There were two main ways. If you cut the yellow wire, then you had to ground the end that went to the DRL module, basically trick it to think that the engine wasn't running. There was another wire you could just cut and not have to ground. On my first Vibe, I cut that one, ran both ends to a switch so I could enable/disable the auto headlights/DRLs. Looking over my previous posts, I said in the past it was a red wire with a white stripe, but looking at the wiring diagram I have, it shows two red wires with white stripes, and I can no longer tell which of the two I used.

Some people have been able to get by with just pulling the parking brake up one click, but in order for that to work, it has to be pulled up while the car is completely turned off

I found that I tended to leave it always enabled, never really needed to disable it.

[zbyers]

https://forums.genvibe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=897

[smash]

I replaced my headlight assemblies earlier this year as my youngest was going to use the Vibe for work that would go into the evening & I wanted the best visibility for them. They work well, and certainly make the car look better, IMO.

This https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078X ... UTF8&psc=1
and
this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078X ... UTF8&psc=1
were the ones I got for my 2009...were 11 bucks cheaper pre-Covid...

[jolt]

The easy way to turn off DRL on my 2009 was to use Toyota TechStream software and disable the DRL. No cutting needed.

[Cat]

The easy way to turn off DRL on my 2009 was to use Toyota TechStream software and disable the DRL. No cutting needed.

This is the first I have seen about that. Hows does it work?

Also, has there been a list posted anywhere here about the interior bulb numbers for replacing with LEDs? The manual only seems to list exterior bulbs.

[joatmon]

The easy way to turn off DRL on my 2009 was to use Toyota TechStream software and disable the DRL. No cutting needed.

This is the first I have seen about that. Hows does it work?

There were significant changes between the 03-08 Vibes and the 09-10 Vibes. I'd bet money the techstream method does not work on the 03-08 Vibes

Also, has there been a list posted anywhere here about the interior bulb numbers for replacing with LEDs? The manual only seems to list exterior bulbs.

I reformatted the info on interior bulbs for the 03-08 vibes in https://forums.genvibe.com/phpBB3/viewt ... =29&t=9745
Have to mind polarity if converting to LEDs. I know that the map light in the moonroof controls needs to have the wires switched to work with typical 1895 LEDs