just bought a 2000 tundra sr5 4wd. i work late nights and my wife and new baby are already in bed when i get home. i wake them both up every night with the lights shining in the window when i arrive. no matter what i do, i can't figure out how to turn off the lights before i pull into the driveway. this is the worst feature i have ever seen on a vehicle. is there some way that i can get the lights to go off?

 

DRL. No way to turn them off, as far as I know.

 

Daytime running lights...

You might look at this, it might be a similar process for you:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75269

 

that sucks. i hate these new cars trying to think for you. i like having the extra lights, but i think i will just have to take the bulbs out. where we live, we really don't have any car headlights shining in windows from the road. so when my lights shine in at night it is very noticeable. my wife and i are up enough at night with the new kid. i can't be waking them up unnecessarily every evening just because i can't turn off the driving lights. does anyone else have any other suggestion? where is the sensor that tells the truck it is dark outside? if you can find the sensor, how can you make it think it is daylight all the time?

 

More reading for you:

http://www.tacomaterritory.com/wiki/...Running_Lights
http://stason.org/TULARC/vehicles/to...nect-them.html
http://www.lightsout.org/disable.html
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/autos/toyota-faq/tundra/
http://www.wikifaq.com/Toyota_Tundra...nnect_them_.3F
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.a...1a7015b63c5091
http://www.google.com/search?q=tundr...e7&rlz=1I7GGLJ

 

try and unplug it http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...killing-ddl-2/

 

If you "take the bulbs out", you shouldn't do much night driving, because you will have no headlights... they are one in the same...

 

thanks for the info watrd. i didn't realize that they were on all the time. i thought that the pushbutton switch on the lower left side of the dash turned them on and off during the day, and that they just automatically came on at night whether the switch was on or off. if they are on all the time, then what is that pushbutton switch on the lower left side of the dash?

 

i thought that the lights that i couldn't turnoff were the clear ones in the front bumper. i thought that they were seperate from the headlights. like i said, i just got this truck and have not really walked around it and tried out all the lights. forgive me for being such an idiot about this, but all i know is that i can't get the lights to turn off at night and i can't have these lights shining in the windows late at night.

 

see if can unplug it see my post theres a pic there towards the bottom

 

are the daytime running lights and the headlights actually the same? if so why do the lights get brighter when you turn on the headlight switch? from inside the cab it seems like some other lights are coming on. it is a little hard to check this out on your own. i would, but i am a little scared to apply the parking brake, put it in drive and then walk in front of the truck to see what the lights are doing. i can imagine the newspaper headline already.

so if you can't turn the running lights on or off when you want, then what is the light switch on the lower left side of the dash used for? i didn't get an owners manual with this truck, or i would just figure out these things on my own. thanks for your help and all the info guys.

 

I check my backup lights all the time by putting it in gear and setting the parking brake. The torque converter allows a lot of slip, so it wont hurt you. Besides, at idle it barely moves forward.

 

so what is the little light switch on the lower left side of the dash? i still don't understand why you need, or even have a switch for lights that you have absolutely no control over. or is this switch for some other lights?

 

The switch turns on the headlights. Please read some of the links I posted for you.

With the daytime running lamps alone, you have no tail lights. DRL's are just a safety thing. It makes you more visible to have the headlights on during the day, even in a dimmed mode. You still need, both headlights and tail lights at night.

 

That little feature will save your butt someday.

I learned this on 1/2 million miles of motorcycle riding... starting clear back in the 50's.

I used to get (on my cars)... "hey buddy your lights on."

That went on through the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's... somewhere in the late 80's other people finally started to wise-up.

Low beams on a regular car will keep that one in 10,000 drivers from pulling in front of you when you had no reason to expect they'd make the move. The lights, even on low beam, make sure you've been seen by an otherwise distracted driver.

Can't tell you how many times I've seen a driver (in all those years) start to pull out into my lane... then stop because of the lights.

Let me put it this way... if James Dean had had his low beams on... he'd still be alive today... or at least would not have lost his life the way he did.

 

DRL's are dimmed headlights, most new vehicles come with them and they cant be manually turned off unless you disable them somehow. Sometimes they are completely separate headlamp, sometimes not. dunno anything about the tundra's setup but just by reading the links posted its just a plug to disable them

go back and read through the links. its not hard.

 

why not just back in the driveway at night?

 

the headlight switch is a turn switch on the turn signal lever, this is not the switch i am asking about. the switch i am talking about is a push button on off switch on the lower left side of the dash beside my left knee. what does this switch do? if the daytime running lights are on all the time regardless of whether the headlights are on or off, then why have a switch for lights that you have no control over? or is this switch for something else? which lights on the front of the truck are actually the daytime running lights? are they the clear lights in the bumper? or are they the headlights? at night when i turn on the headlights things get a lot brighter in front of the truck. it looks to me like the lights in the bumper are already on these are the daytime running lights, and then when i turn on the headlights things get a lot brighter.

 

Does it looks like a salad bowl tipped on it's side? If so, that is the fog light switch. You may or may not have fog lights. You are going to need to have a look. If you have fog lights, they are distinct from daytime running lights.

Why not find an assistant and have them switch on various items while you stand up front, so we can be clear about what you are talking about?

 

My solution to checking that the lights are working may not be available to eveyone... but here is what I do.

In the back of the house is a large sliding door glass area. Once in a while I'll take a given vehicle back there and position it so I can see the reflected lights in the glass door. In this way you can easily check that all lights are working.. brake lights, tailights, turn signals, back up lights... and in the case of the Volvo, the rear fog lights (very bright red).

Same thing with the front.

If I didn't have that, I'd have the wife verify them periodically.

Lights are a safety factor... worthwile and easy to check periodically.

Many vehicles have bulb failure dash alerts. Very nice. But I still check every few months anyway.

It just takes a few minutes.

Don't mean to sound like a nut on this stuff.. maybe I'm a bit more cautious at my age.... but I like to think my caution is one of the reasons I'm still around.

Also, I'm not a slow driver. I'm an agressive, fast driver... with rules I've learned from experience, mostly on motorcycles. Simple rules.. but they make a difference in the odd situation where you have a combination of unexpected events. Most "accidents" are a combination of events. There are some situations where nobody could avoid an accident. But thinking for the other guy, awareness level, and thinking about situations, knowing how your vehicle works and responds... those give you the edge in the very rare situation. /soap off...