a_very_naudi_guy

Anyone have an idea whether or not it's possible to disable or otherwise "trick"/"fool" the vehicle into NOT bringing up a MIL for a malfunctioning running light? I had very bad external and internal oxidization on both of my headlight assemblies so I picked up new ones from the junkyard. Both of them are very clean (especially the drivers side; I will re-furb the passengers side exterior soon enough!) and I am satisfied over-all with the appearance now, and get a brighter beam from my headlights.

HOWEVER, the drivers-side headlight's running light is dead. It's not the bulb as we tried swapping the bulb out three times with no luck. It's probably something with the wiring inside the light and, quite honestly, I don't want to spend another several hundred dollars for a new headlamp assembly just to repair the running light or even rip the darn thing out and spend a deal of time diagnosing it. If possible, I'd like to disable the MIL from popping up. Aside from the passenger-side knee airbag AIRBAG light, it's the only other warning indicator on my dash these days. You cannot even notice that the light is out unless you're looking for it and I've considered removing my passenger-side running lamp as well in order to even them out aesthetically. They really serve no purpose at all and, just like my old VW Jetta, was just an annoying light that burns out and costs money now and then.

Anyone got an idea if anything can be done, or is it just something I must live with?

Thanks
Naudi Guy

Dino1147

What if you shut off the DRLs in the MMI, do you still get the dash light?

a_very_naudi_guy

Sorry for not getting back sooner.

Yes I disabled "Daytime Running Lights" in the "Exterior Light(ing)" section of the car setup in MMI. They're on still. Can I disable them via VCDS or somewhere else? Maybe some German word in the MMI hidden "green" menu setup?

Thanks

Jack88

It can be done via VCDS, I have done it. It's straight forward, in the long coding of the Central Electrics, if I recall correctly.

a_very_naudi_guy

I assume this is in the normal VCDS codings files? Or the documentation? I hadn't seen anything, but there's a lot and it can be easy to overlook.

Regards

Jack88

It's labled by VCDS in the long coder, just check each bit and you'll see one for DRL's and you can tick which boxes for which lights are used as DRL's. I just unticked all of them.

a_very_naudi_guy

In VCDS I opened the headlights control and under the Coding there was a flag/position for "DRL - Present" and not present, along with some DRL options enabled in MMI or not. I coded that the car does *not* have DRL, and the DRL is still on.

What long coding were you referring to above? And anyone have any other idea? I just want to turn the dang DRLs off all together so that a) they dont not run b) the dash does not light up a MIL saying one is dead.

EDIT: To be clear, I changed the original coding for CENT ELEC 1 ( J519 ) from 0111113 to 0111013; that set the "0xxx?xx" to 0, which is "Daytime Running Lights (0=Disable / 1 = enable). Yet, it did not turn off the running light, nor did it stop the running light burn-out MIL from popping up.

Would maybe changing the country from US to somewhere else disable the DRLs (for instance to a country where the DRL isnt preferred or required in some jurisdictions?)

See attached BMP image file for coding info from VCDS pertaining to this





Thanks

a_very_naudi_guy

*bump* on this- Anyone have an idea if this is possible, to disable the DRL completely? Is there some other field / setting I'm missing somewhere?

Dino1147

Disconnect the lights? Would that throw a code?

a_very_naudi_guy

Yup - that's what's throwing the code/MIL right now in fact. A headlamp assembly I installed has bad wiring for the running lamp and as a result I get the same coed as a burned-out DRL would have. It shows up on the dash as a light out on the headlamp of the car.