How to disable headlight DRL feature

[T5Terry]

I've had my C70 for one year and its been great apart from one really annoying issue. The bloody headlights come on in headlight switch position 0, apparently as a poor mans DRL feature.

I have lost count of the number of times either my wife, or me, have driven off in the dark without remembering to turn the light switch to on. So I have decided to get this 'feature' disabled.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done through VIDA or will it mean a trip to a main dealer?

What really drives me nuts is that the car is fitted with Xenon HID Bulbs and you aren't supposed to turn them on and off quickly as it can shorten their lifespan. But if you start the car with the headlight switch in position 0 then you have to turn them off to get to the on position.

So the sooner I can get the DRL feature disabled the better. Then I will replace the HID bulbs as they will have been on for quite a long time over the cars 54,000 mile life.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

[Simmy]

why keep turning lights off and on. just leave them on and forget about worrying if they are on. we never turn ours off on our c70 and have had no troubles with xenon bulbs in 6 years . the life of a xenon bulb is abt 10 years . the lights on is a safety feature which has been on all volvos for years why disable it? .vida is required if you want to disable them.

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

I've had my C70 for one year and its been great apart from one really annoying issue. The bloody headlights come on in headlight switch position 0, apparently as a poor mans DRL feature.

I have lost count of the number of times either my wife, or me, have driven off in the dark without remembering to turn the light switch to on. So I have decided to get this 'feature' disabled.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done through VIDA or will it mean a trip to a main dealer?

What really drives me nuts is that the car is fitted with Xenon HID Bulbs and you aren't supposed to turn them on and off quickly as it can shorten their lifespan. But if you start the car with the headlight switch in position 0 then you have to turn them off to get to the on position.

So the sooner I can get the DRL feature disabled the better. Then I will replace the HID bulbs as they will have been on for quite a long time over the cars 54,000 mile life.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Main dealer only as the car needs a software update to allow the switch to work "correctly" ie, Off > side lights > headlights

Some volvo main dealers will tell you "its illegal" , which it IS on a 11 plate or newer car, but perfectly legal on older cars ,

Vehicle manufacturers must fit DRL to new types of passenger car and light goods vehicle (car derived vans) type approved to European vehicle requirements from February 2011[footnote 1] . In practice this means that any new model launched after this date, and many launched before, will be fitted with DRL. However, existing models on sale before this date without DRL fitted can continue to be sold and used indefinitely

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...running-lights


the Road traffic and lighting act and revisions of Cover all types of natural lighting and when you Should turn lights on and which ones, so your covered there,, (wait for the wails of the cant see a car unless the lights are on in Good lighting/good visibility folks then ask them why there guide dog is driving as all conditions Are covered by existing legislation, ,,,yes pet hate of mine )

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

...
So the sooner I can get the DRL feature disabled the better. Then I will replace the HID bulbs as they will have been on for quite a long time over the cars 54,000 mile life.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Although Im fully behind "24/7 lights on" camp, I totally get your point with HIDs and stupidity of DRL solution on our cars. As stated above, only proper way is dealership and paying big bucks for it (probably these days) once you win the battle of convincing them to do it.
Other obvious but stupid way is to put light swith in pos1 "parking" before starting the car and drive on parking lights during the day, but good luck remembering to switch them off every time you get out of the car.

on sidenote, 54miles is not much for (good) xenon bulbs, im getting close to 80K on my Osram CB D2S and those still going strong, no discoloration etc... But I do turn them on/off manually (DRL disabled) after the car starts so those dont flick around unnecessarily.

[Simmy]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

I've had my C70 for one year and its been great apart from one really annoying issue. The bloody headlights come on in headlight switch position 0, apparently as a poor mans DRL feature.

I have lost count of the number of times either my wife, or me, have driven off in the dark without remembering to turn the light switch to on. So I have decided to get this 'feature' disabled.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done through VIDA or will it mean a trip to a main dealer?

What really drives me nuts is that the car is fitted with Xenon HID Bulbs and you aren't supposed to turn them on and off quickly as it can shorten their lifespan. But if you start the car with the headlight switch in position 0 then you have to turn them off to get to the on position.

So the sooner I can get the DRL feature disabled the better. Then I will replace the HID bulbs as they will have been on for quite a long time over the cars 54,000 mile life.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

hi terry have you looked at the price of a philips d3s xenon bulbs you might want to reconsider replacing a working bulb. they are very expensive .

[T5Terry]

Firstly, many thanks for the replies to my question. This is what makes forum membership so worthwhile.

Sorry Andy_D but it is definitely not illegal to not have DRL's on any car in production before the DRL legislation came into law in 2011. We owned a Suzuki Grand Vitara bought new in 2016. The Suzuki GV was never fitted with OEM DRL's as the last model Suzuki imported into the UK was introduced before 2011. This explains why you will see plenty of cars driving around on 63, 64, 65 and 66 plates without any DRL's.

The legislation only ever applied to brand new models introduced from 2011. As the C70 model was on sale prior to 2011 it has never needed to have DRL's. So if any dealer claims that they do then that dealer is completely wrong.

I know that some people think it is safer to drive around with their headlights on all of the time. As a motorcyclist I can assure you that this is not the case. My current motorcycle has two bloody bright LED headlights yet I still find myself having to take evasive action to avoid accidents far too often.

Furthermore Volvo also seemed to think that this was not a safety feature worth keeping as it used to be possible to buy an optional DRL kit that simply replaced the woeful fog lights with LED DRL's. This could only be fitted by a Volvo dealer as it required a software change so that the headlights are turned off and the DRL's dimmed when the headlights are switched on.

I have seen a couple of Volvo's with this option installed and it works well. I did consider getting it for the C70 but it is no longer available.

I'm still not clear about exactly what needs to be done to get the headlight DRL function turned off. It is either possible just from VIDA or it must be done by a Volvo dealer. If anyone has already had this done on their car then please let me know how you did it.

My car will be going to my local independent Volvo specialist soon so I will ask him if he can do it.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my post. It really is appreciated.

[wynnj]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

As a motorcyclist I can assure you that this is not the case. My current motorcycle has two bloody bright LED headlights yet I still find myself having to take evasive action to avoid accidents far too often.

But what you don't know is how many times your life has been saved because you were more visible because of your "two bloody bright LED headlights"

[MDS40]

I'm still not clear about exactly what needs to be done to get the headlight DRL function turned off. It is either possible just from VIDA or it must be done by a Volvo dealer. me know how you did it.

Yes Vida is needed to turn it off via a software patch which is not available to the likes of us who use a cloned version of Vida not connected to the Volvo servers which requires a licence fee of £££££.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by T5Terry

...
My car will be going to my local independent Volvo specialist soon so I will ask him if he can do it.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my post. It really is appreciated.

To properly disable DRL you need to use authorised dealership as procedure require downloading special software from Volvo servers that you pay for just like for car part + labour. Unless your indie have access to VIDA subscription and can download oem software, he wont be able to help you. Same things with key coding etc etc - dealership software+labour.
as for DRL fogs, you are partially incorrect as it wasnt "option", Volvo introduced it instead of "always on" lights on 2011+ models if I remember correctly so on last ywar production of S40/V50 you were not able to have "foglamps" in classic sense of it, just those LEDs.
It makes no difference to fact that pposition 0 = ON using PWM feature was plainily stupid, bad for bulbs and causing projector reflector bowl to flake out, that could have been handled much better and its a thumbs down for all P1 generation :/

[T5Terry]

Volvo did supply them as an accessory for C70's made between 2006 and 2013. I managed to find their installation instructions on the web. The instructions were published as document number 31338928, version 1.1. The title is Installation instructions, accessories, Volvo Car Corporation Gothenburg, Sweden.

The two DRL lights are listed as part numbers 31338926 and 31338927 for the left and right side. They can be fitted in place of the fog lights quite easily and that part is definitely something a lot of owners could do.

However, the final step in the instructions is to apply a software update using VIDA and the part number for the software update is 31330690. That will require a trip to the dealer to get it done.

The DRL legislation came into force in February 2011 and my car was first registered in June 2011. There is a 2013 C70 for sale down here and that one doesn't appear to have them either. Shame really as they would have been far more useful than the pretty useless front fog lights my car has.

Having found the part numbers I have found them here:

https://www.volvoparts.tmsmotorgroup...1--16832-p.asp

The price is £250.33 so a bit expensive.

However, the best bit is the following text on the page:

** Once fitted your car will require a software download activation by your local Volvo agent, which may result in extra costs. **

I'm going to ask my local Volvo dealer how much they will charge to do the software upgrade and will report back. It probably won't be any more expensive than asking them to turn off the faux DRL's after all.