[jaca89]

Hello everyone. I just bought a 2016 Jeep Cherokee Trail hawk in Aug 2017. This Jeep came from Quebec, Ontario. It was sold to Corwin Dodge Jeep in Springfield, MO. I can not turn off the daytime running lights. There no option or check box to turn on or off. I understand that Ontario it is mandatory there to leave the day time running lights on all the time by law. Is there any way or a link or something I can do to reinstall the program to be able to turn off the daytime running lights? My car dealer doesn't know what to do.In the states it is a option to use day time running lights. Even the Uconnect people didn't know what to do. Any help would be thankful.John.

 

[Mark_]

Hello everyone. I just bought a 2016 Jeep Cherokee Trail hawk in Aug 2017. This Jeep came from Quebec, Ontario. It was sold to Corwin Dodge Jeep in Springfield, MO. I can not turn off the daytime running lights. There no option or check box to turn on or off. I understand that Ontario it is mandatory there to leave the day time running lights on all the time by law. Is there any way or a link or something I can do to reinstall the program to be able to turn off the daytime running lights? My car dealer doesn't know what to do.In the states it is a option to use day time running lights. Even the Uconnect people didn't know what to do. Any help would be thankful.John.

Hey John, welcome to the forum !

I'm in Canada and yes, DRLs are mandatory. I didn't know the US Cherokees had the option to not have them ON though...

My humble opinion : the eyebrow DRLs on the Cherokee give it a distinctive look, they are LED so low power drain and they don't bother oncoming drivers. And they should last a long-long time... Any harm in leaving them as is ? I'm biased but I see a safety advantage to having them ON...

As far as programming : these FCA vehicles are tough nuts to crack... so I don't think you can tinker with anything...

 

[jaca89]

Thanks Mark. Was just checking for some answers. What I don't understand is how people can see a 6 to 8 inch long day time running light but not see 5 foot by 5 foot vehicle or truck or bus without lights. If lights make a different in accidents no police car or emergency vehicle's would ever be in accidents, and there would be no accidents at night because all the lights would be on. I would like them off because the lights on shorten the life span of battery and bulbs and reduce very little in gas mileage. A lot of big company's stop requiring drivers to leave them on all day because it cost them more in maintenance and replacing batteries and bulbs. Thanks for your help. John

 

[MKR_DmD]

There is no way to turn them off, unless you pay someone a ton of money to hack it, or cut the wire, not recommended. They are LED so the current draw is low so they won't affect the battery or gas mileage. Majority of US cars are going to DRL's due to safety, I don't get it, but that is life. I think it adds a little something to the front of the vehicle and make it look better.

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

find the wire to the LED's, cut the wire and put a resistor on to simulate the electrical load.............not an ideal thing to do, its a safety thing pretty much just have to live with it.

 

[IRSmart]

Yup, you’re pretty much going to have to deal with it.

As a side note, your dealer didn’t tell you that your car was preowned certified, did they? Fun fact: a us dealer can’t CPO or put an extended warranty on a car that was built for sale in another country, in this case, Canada.

 

[UN4GTBL]

There probably is a way, after all, they do sell some in the US without the DRLs enabled. The problem here is that the vehicle is set to Canada specs, so it won't enable that check box in the uconnect for you.

If you were close, I'd offer to plug in my AutoEnginuity scan tool and see if we could modify the DRLs, or even turn them off.

I've been able to set the DRLs on my Caliber to the fog lights, and the same with our Caravan.

 

[jaca89]

There is no way to turn them off, unless you pay someone a ton of money to hack it, or cut the wire, not recommended. They are LED so the current draw is low so they won't affect the battery or gas mileage. Majority of US cars are going to DRL's due to safety, I don't get it, but that is life. I think it adds a little something to the front of the vehicle and make it look better.

I'll just leave them on. Lights don't cause accident's, people do.

 

[jaca89]

Yup, you’re pretty much going to have to deal with it.

As a side note, your dealer didn’t tell you that your car was preowned certified, did they? Fun fact: a us dealer can’t CPO or put an extended warranty on a car that was built for sale in another country, in this case, Canada.

They still gave me the warranty that came with the car. That was a good thing.

 

[jaca89]

There probably is a way, after all, they do sell some in the US without the DRLs enabled. The problem here is that the vehicle is set to Canada specs, so it won't enable that check box in the uconnect for you.

If you were close, I'd offer to plug in my AutoEnginuity scan tool and see if we could modify the DRLs, or even turn them off.

I've been able to set the DRLs on my Caliber to the fog lights, and the same with our Caravan.

There should be a way ,cause it just a computer drive and if they can remove the option .They can reinstall it.Thanks.

 

[UN4GTBL]

There should be a way ,cause it just a computer drive and if they can remove the option .They can reinstall it.Thanks.

Most likely the issue is that the dealer doesn't know how, or doesn't have access to the function in their scan tool.

I originally had my DRLs changed to the fog lights through an "Engineering" level scan tool. It was supposedly better than what the dealers had access to.

 

[IRSmart]

There should be a way ,cause it just a computer drive and if they can remove the option .They can reinstall it.Thanks.

There’s not. Your cars computer was flashed with international hardware, and therefore unable to accept anything else. Your car will think it is Canadian until the day it dies. The only way around it is to physically disable it, like cutting a wire, which we don’t recommend and don’t really understand why you would want to, anyway.

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

Ok so there is a way, they are disabled when the e-brake is on, older vehicles one click of the e-brake and the DRL's went off, you can't do that in a cherokee as soon as you engage the e-brake it activates fully. Fiddling with the switch might be one place to start

 

[Mark_]

I think the OP is Ok with the DRLs now. I think it would be wise to let him keep them as designed.

 

[Sparky853]

You should be able to disable them using the AlfaOBD app and an OBDLink MX scan tool. I have been tinkering with it on my Ram, and it has options for the Jeep on it as well. There is a big post over on Ram Forums about some of the functions that can be changed. Not sure but most likely apply to Jeep as well. Going to try connecting to my wifes Jeep, see what it says. https://www.ramforum.com/threads/alfaobd.123982/

 

[UN4GTBL]

There seems to be an update for my AutoEnginuity available. Once I get it and test it out, I will report back.

 

[Ronin38]

I actually like the LED DRL's. What I don't like is how my current 2015 Subaru still uses the low-voltage High Beam bulb. It makes an ugly, yellow light, and wears the bulbs out faster. yeacchh. There is a way to disable it, but I haven't had the time or motivation to crawl under the car and remove a couple of parts, then unplug the module.

 

[techguyga]

I wouldn't expect there to be a way to disable DRL since they are mandatory in Canada and the vehicle has that software on it.

In the US, disabling DRL is as simple as unticking a box in the Uconnect settings.

 

[sadatoni]

After having done a 3,000 mile road trip at the start of this month, I found the vehicles w/DRL were a lot easier to spot in the rear view mirror than those without.



I've kept mine set to turn on. I think the ones on the Cherokee are rather cool looking. All my previous vehicles didn't have them.

 

[sanghill]

Put tape of your choice of color over the lens. Trim it neatly around the edges. Good to go.