Article by: RobRed

Applicable Models: 1998 – 2002 / 100 Series Land Cruiser or Lx 470

Updated: 7/25/2012

Adding a Switch to override your DRL’s is very simple. You might ask why you would modify this obvious safety item? The answer is individual choice. I can say for myself I want the ability to loiter in the truck with the engine on without the lights alerting folks to my presence as well as not effecting others when parked and idling. This mod has proven very useful for slinking into campgrounds or hunting spots early/late at night. The 100 series Land Cruiser uses the high beam lamps running at a reduced power as DRL’s. This modification does not effect normal high / low head lamp operations, only the Daytime Running Light feature.

Locate the DRL harness by laying down on the drivers side floor and put your head on the brake pedal. Look up underneath the steering wheel column, its just to your right. To the right of the brake pedal metal assembly (looking up at it) is a black box mounted with a connector on its base. you’ll be staring at it. Reach up and disconnect the gray 18 pin connector (D8) by squeezing.

Connector Detail

In the connector locate a solid red wire with blue stripe (pin 2), far right in the image above. Remove this wire from the connector to simply disable your DRLs. If you want to add switched capability you will need to leave the wire in the connector but cut it a few inches down the wire harness. This will facilitate adding a toggle switch in the circuit. Simply Wire the switch input to the harness side and the switch output to the connector side.

I mounted a switch next to the mirror control pad, left of the driver. I ran wire from the connector location to the dash area behind the mirror control pad. I popped the control pad out of the dash and unplugged it’s harness. I Dremeled out the back of the mirror switch plate to make room for the switch. I soldered wires to the switch and used 3M bullets on the connection to the toyota wire harness. I left enough room to reconnect the DRL back to factory If I ever wanted to.

Before Dremel

After Dremel

I opted for a 3 position switch – Mainly because it’s what I had in the drawer.

position 1 – down = DRL on as normal
position 2 – mid = DRL disabled
position 3 – up = [Momentary] DRL on as normal or “flash” mode. returns to position 2 when released.

All told 35 minutes to make the mod. Very slick.

DRL Switch Final

Optional: If you want to make it all very factory looking you could order the Mirror control switch with folding option and wire the Mirror Fold button to do the same function as my mini switch above. At a glance no one knows you had added or changed a thing.