Canadian Jeeps and Daytime Running Lights
Canadian Jeeps have daytime running lights. It’s basically a third setting for the headlights that are automagically turned on whenever the vehicle is moving, and it’s on all vehicles here.
My brother called me tonight, sort of stranded. He was out in the Jeep, on his way to work in another city, and couldn’t get his headlights to turn off. Even with the vehicle turned completely off, the headlights will stay on, and the high beam indicator on the dashboard is also on.
After a bit of google searching it appears this is an issue with the daytime running lights (DRL). The module on the firewall will malfunction and cause all the symptoms above. Disabling the module by simply unplugging it will remove the DRL functionality, but will not prevent your headlights from working. You will no longer have a high beam indicator, but your low and high beams will still work.
The module on the firewall can be found under the hood, close to the master cylinder near the driver’s side. It’s a 3″x3″ black box, and you should be able to unplug it by hand.
Here’s a picture of it I found online.
If you still want to have the normal functionality of your DRL, it looks like a new module can be bought online for about $40.
-Davin
December 14th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Wicked. Took care of the exact same problem I had with my 03 Jeep TJ in 5 minutes…. which is good because working outside in December in the Canadian prairies sucks.
Thanks for posting this.
May 6th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
The only snag here is unplugging the DRL module on the TJ causes the high-beam indicator (blue light) on the dash to stop working. Or perhaps it is not so bad, because the stock headlights on the TJ are so poor that it doesn’t seem to matter much if you are in hi or lo beam anyways…
May 13th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
Davin, many thanks. My DRLs turned on… while parked in the driveway.
I took the module out & on the bottom
“Made in Mexico”
go figure.