Guide How To Disable Daytime Running Lights (instructions)

[chickdr]

Yep kind of strange, not even offered as an option. Not the end of the world though, going to add some led DRLs with sequential turn signals.

View attachment 303819

I actually started out looking at a certified 20 GTR at local dealer but they were trying to add a $2700 "CPO" fee on top of their other fees and lowballing my trade in. Ended up going to a dealer an hour away who had 4 CTs in stock, gave me $2000 over what I paid for my trade in and no crazy add on fees.

How are you going to add sequential turn signals? I assume it will be added on the outside of the housing? That was one big reason I went with a GT in 19 and a GTR in 21. I like the Carbon edition but it is essentially a Touring trim without all the nice features I like (better LED lights, ventilated seats, rear heated seats, HUD). Silly to me you can't add that to the Carbon.

You can add LED turn signals to what you have now. I bought built in resistor bulbs for the rear and had to go with VLED's in front with an external resistor. You would also need to swap your rear brake bulbs for LED. Your fog lights are already LED. You can also get an interior LED kit with all the bulbs you need as well.

 

[CT21]

How are you going to add sequential turn signals? I assume it will be added on the outside of the housing? That was one big reason I went with a GT in 19 and a GTR in 21. I like the Carbon edition but it is essentially a Touring trim without all the nice features I like (better LED lights, ventilated seats, rear heated seats, HUD). Silly to me you can't add that to the Carbon.

You can add LED turn signals to what you have now. I bought built in resistor bulbs for the rear and had to go with VLED's in front with an exterior resistor. You would also need to swap your rear brake bulbs for LED. Your fog lights are already LED. You can also get an interior LED kit with all the bulbs you need as well.

mazda cx 5 drl/turning signals - Search Videos

www.bing.com

These kits available on Ebay, Aliexpress etc $60-$100

 

[Mazdiod2]

Isn't there a way to disconnect the resistor that supplies the DRL?

I thought it would be in this thread but I can't find it.

 

[chickdr]

mazda cx 5 drl/turning signals - Search Videos

www.bing.com

These kits available on Ebay, Aliexpress etc $60-$100

Interesting. I think I would disable the incandescent light in the headlight(or swap to LED) if I got those) Looks strange with LED and standard bulbs as they don't flash the same way.

 

[CT21]

Interesting. I think I would disable the incandescent light in the headlight(or swap to LED) if I got those) Looks strange with LED and standard bulbs as they don't flash the same way.

Not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the turning signal bulb in the headlight? (The headlight bulb is LED. ) They flash at the same time as the led sequential turn signal is triggered by the regular turn signal. One just flashes, the other is sequential. The colors match pretty well and all the guys that have done this seem happy with results. But you do you.

CX5 - LED fog light + turn signal

I found this setup. Looks pretty cool plus it isn't as expensive as OEM fogs. White DRL lights and then goes to amber & blinks when turn signal is on. My concern would be longevity & quality...

mazdas247.com

 

[chickdr]

Not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the turning signal bulb in the headlight? (The headlight bulb is LED. ) They flash at the same time as the led sequential turn signal is triggered by the regular turn signal. One just flashes, the other is sequential. The colors match pretty well and all the guys that have done this seem happy with results. But you do you.

CX5 - LED fog light + turn signal

I found this setup. Looks pretty cool plus it isn't as expensive as OEM fogs. White DRL lights and then goes to amber & blinks when turn signal is on. My concern would be longevity & quality...

mazdas247.com

There is a non LED turn signal inside the headlight housing. All the turn signal bulbs are incandescent on the CX-5 (which I don't understand considering the Mazda 3 has full LED lights on upper trims). If you watch the video you linked, the bulb in the headlight housing has the softer flash of an incandscent bulb versus the sharp ON-OFF of an LED so it looks really off to me - especially when you have the LED added at the bottom and you can see the LED in the mirror as well. I recently switched my front turn signals to LED which is a huge improvement over stock. The lights you posted look ok, but I don't care for the super low position at the bottom of the bumper. I am not a fan of the off position location of rear turn signals such as the in KIA Sportage (in the rear bumper separate from the rest of the rear lights). Very strange to me. Have you seen the other LED's that replace the reflectors in the lower rear bumper?

Mazda CX-5 Rear Bumper LED installation guide 2017+

If you go with the ones in front you would probably want those as well. I have two issues with the rear ones:
1) they are too low
2) why RED? Should be orange to match the standard bulbs.

 

[CT21]

There is a non LED turn signal inside the headlight housing. All the turn signal bulbs are incandescent on the CX-5 (which I don't understand considering the Mazda 3 has full LED lights on upper trims). If you watch the video you linked, the bulb in the headlight housing has the softer flash of an incandscent bulb versus the sharp ON-OFF of an LED so it looks really off to me - especially when you have the LED added at the bottom and you can see the LED in the mirror as well. I recently switched my front turn signals to LED which is a huge improvement over stock. The lights you posted look ok, but I don't care for the super low position at the bottom of the bumper. I am not a fan of the off position location of rear turn signals such as the in KIA Sportage (in the rear bumper separate from the rest of the rear lights). Very strange to me. Have you seen the other LED's that replace the reflectors in the lower rear bumper?

Mazda CX-5 Rear Bumper LED installation guide 2017+

If you go with the ones in front you would probably want those as well. I have two issues with the rear ones:
1) they are too low
2) why RED? Should be orange to match the standard bulbs.

The good news is that you don't have to install these on your CX 5 if you don't like them.

Too low? Here's my last car, with factory S model appearance group, which includes DRL leds down low.

 

[chickdr]

DRLs are fine, it just looks strange to have a secondary turn signal down there (I assume those are not turn signals too, correct?) especially if the original isn't LED (as is the case on the CX-5). Not an OEM look in my eyes. As you said, different strokes for different folks.

 

[Chocolate]

I recently switched my front turn signals to LED which is a huge improvement over stock.

Agreed, huge improvement for 20 bucks. I posted this a while back. They are much brighter and better at signaling to pedestrians and other vehicles.

LEDs

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imgur.com

 

[yrwei52]

Agreed, huge improvement for 20 bucks. I posted this a while back. They are much brighter and better at signaling to pedestrians and other vehicles.

LEDs

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like powerhawk5000.

imgur.com

Which one did you get? Switch-back? Build-in resistor?

 

[Chocolate]

This one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

Built in resistor, plug and play. Currently out of stock, but there are a ton of similar lights on Amazon. This one has a large, heavy heat sink which I like.

 

[chickdr]

I went with VLeds and it came with external resistors. I tried using one with a built-in resistor as well but as I already had LEDs with built in resistors in the rear, they would all hyper flash (which is a known issue). It works perfectly with the external resistors and was not too hard to install.

 

[Fsquared]

Worked for me on the first try. I have to admit, I felt like the dupe of some joke while I was turning the lights off and on. But the instructions looked real enough. No misspelled words like that email from that Nigerian prince. I don't like DRLs because when it gets dark, it looks like my lights are on when they're not, so I'm running around with no tail lights.

This is why Mazda shouldn’t include the headlights in the daytime running light system to begin with. Just have the cool thin front lights on as daytime running lights like most other cars these days.

 

[Fsquared]

Here's why!

I was out on my motorcycle yesterday. It was a bit hazy in the morning but the sun was out. I came up on a slow moving car on a two lane. The other lane looked clear and I was just about to pass when I noticed that it wasn't clear to pass after all. There was a dark colored car coming at me. If that person had had their DRLs on I would have seen them immediately.

To each their own but for me the additional bit of viewability, and safety, that DRLs provide are most definitely worth it.

What's the down side? I still don't get it...

You can have your front and back thin daytime running lights on without the headlights if you have the stick in the parking light setting, if you do the video game trick.

 

[Fsquared]

So on my new 2022 Premium (2022’s equivalent to the old Grand Touring) that I’ll be picking up in a few weeks, do I have to do the video game cheat code to get the look in this picture? I did it on my 2017 Grand Touring and it worked perfectly for five years. Gives you total control of the light knob in the car. Only downside is that to have the thin DRLs on, the taillights (which are cool, so it’s not a problem) are on too, because the light knob is turned to the parking light setting. If I’m not mistaken CX-9s come with this front daytime running light already activated but I might be wrong about that.

 

[cz5gt]

you can try and let us know if the procedure still works on 2022.
The US headlights have different wiring somehow and somewhere so they can not have only the led signature lines act as DRL. Headlights light up too.
at least on all gen2 up to 2021 and if I am not mistaken the 2022 is the same.
Yes the cx9 use only the led stripes as drl if I recall too. As to why the US cx5 is different no clue. Some stupid marketing or other decision or they cut some cost somewhere as it happens.

 

[Fsquared]

you can try and let us know if the procedure still works on 2022.
The US headlights have different wiring somehow and somewhere so they can not have only the led signature lines act as DRL. Headlights light up too.
at least on all gen2 up to 2021 and if I am not mistaken the 2022 is the same.
Yes the cx9 use only the led stripes as drl if I recall too. As to why the US cx5 is different no clue. Some stupid marketing or other decision or they cut some cost somewhere as it happens.

I live in the US and when I did the series of instructions on my 2017 years ago, it worked perfectly and displayed only my thin DRLs (pictured) and my rear parking lights when I had the parking lights on. If I had the knob turned to OFF, everything was off. The video game cheat code makes the lights knob in the car function correctly to whatever you turn it to, instead of the headlights always being on no matter what. In five years of having that car (a drunk driver ran into me and totaled it a couple weeks ago), I was the only one I ever saw driving around with only the thin lights illuminated, or with all lights turned off.

 

[Fsquared]

you can try and let us know if the procedure still works on 2022.
The US headlights have different wiring somehow and somewhere so they can not have only the led signature lines act as DRL. Headlights light up too.
at least on all gen2 up to 2021 and if I am not mistaken the 2022 is the same.
Yes the cx9 use only the led stripes as drl if I recall too. As to why the US cx5 is different no clue. Some stupid marketing or other decision or they cut some cost somewhere as it happens.

If you’re saying the headlights are always on on US models, then what do you mean by “let us know if the procedure still works on 2022”? I live in the US and it worked perfectly on my 2017 to only show the thin daytime running lights (and the taillights) when I had it set to parking lights.

 

[yrwei52]

This is why Mazda shouldn’t include the headlights in the daytime running light system to begin with. Just have the cool thin front lights on as daytime running lights like most other cars these days.

Yes, DSLs started using reduced high-beams by GM but drew some criticism that would shine into eyes of opposite drivers. Car manufactures avoided using the low-beams apparently are afraid of burning out the halogen light bulb too soon with the low-beam on all the time. Eventually LED headlight technology on cars became more mature and started been used widely; most car manufactures use dedicated LED accent stripes or halos to be the DRLs, but Mazda, only for the US or North American market, chose to use low-beams (AND LED accent strips on higher trims) is a bad decision IMO. It loses uniqueness of the DRLs, and, as mentioned many times, makes drivers forget to turn on the headlights when dark.

 

[yrwei52]

You can have your front and back thin daytime running lights on without the headlights if you have the stick in the parking light setting, if you do the video game trick.

What do you mean by “video game trick”? Does that mean turning the light switch to “parking light position”?