Jeffs1997

After a year of dealing with my L/F turn signal and DRL not working while the the R/F worked perfectly. My issue was was no power at the light blue wire at the pigtail.

I finally got a chance to really look into this this weekend and after advice that it was probably just the pigtail but they are about 35.00 a piece. I did testing and found I did infact have power coming out of my steering column for this L/F signal but none at the turn signal.

I pulled the DRL module which is behind the radio and found power on it's "light blue with white strip" input wire coming from the switch, however the "light blue wire" going to the L/F turn signal had no power. I then jumped the two wires and my L/F turn signal immediately started flashing.

I then pulled both these wires from the DRL pigtail along with the "dark blue with white stripe & the dark blue" wires and spliced them together.

I then plugged the DRL pigtails back in and while I lost my DRL's I still retained my automatic headlights. A positive side of this no more torching of my front turn signal sockets and so far besides the DRL not working everything else does. I have never liked the DRL anyways also because I used to always have change front turn signal bulbs a lot. If I want lights on I can just turn on my headlight switch, so far though the front turn signal work perfectly and have not been a problem.

One other issue I noticed was both output wires for the drl/turn signal wires has browning on the insulation. This circuit must build up a lot of heat for this to occur.



Of course solderless connectors were used before the module was put back in dash. So don't waste money on pigtails, as bad as mine were torched they were not the culprit.

Jeffs1997

Just wanted to update this, so far turn signals have worked perfectly since doing this.

GaryDoug

Good for you in figuring this out. The real problem was likely with the connector, either not making good contact with the module or not making good contact inside the connector itself, hence the discoloration. Not likely a problem with the module, because the relay is a few inches away from the connector and the heat would probably not transfer that far to any degree

Jeffs1997

I tried crimping the L/F input and output wires so they would make a better connection but that didn't help a bit even though it had a tight connection.

I see browning of the output wires for both front turn signals. This all started after hitting a very large pothole and the car was jarred very hard. I'm wondering if this broke a filament in the L/F turn signal and shorted out the DRL module.

But at any rate this simple mod fixed my car so figured the thread might help others.

I did take the cover off the drl module and saw no burnt circuits, but being a solid state unit chips could have fried and no visible signs.

GaryDoug

The chips don't carry any real current. All the "heavy lifting" is done by the three/four relays. The one in the middle is the one for the turn signals and there are actually 2 relays inside that one's case.

iamdtoolman

Jeffs1997. I have had your exact problem for months now. I tried all you did, more, and then gave up. But State Inspection time was coming up so I did the following which is I believe exactly what you described as your solution.

Unbolt the radio and pull it out, no need to unplug wiring.
Un-clip DRL module from duct-work.
There are 2 plugs going into the module, you want the larger of the 2.
Cut the following wires:
Dark Blue
Lt. Blue
Dark Blue/White stripe
Lt. Blue/White stripe
Then permanently connect together the wires as follows:
(This is the car side of the wires, module side of wires are abandoned.)
Lt. Blue/White stripe connects to Lt Blue.
Dark Blue/White stripe connects to Dark Blue.
Put module, radio, and bezel back.

GaryDoug

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6spd4lf

i know this is an old thread and i probably won't get a response quickly (if at all), but I'm wondering if there's any downside to doing this without being 100% certain the DRL module is the culprit? i've always hated even the idea of DRL so I wouldn't miss them a bit, but I have about a week to go before my inspection and registration are due (TX) and I JUST ran into a problem very similar to the one OP described but possibly not identical. Let me provide a quick summary

several years ago, my rear tail lights started delaminating at the seams between the black ABS and the colored lenses. happened first on either the backing or turn signal on the left side and I was living in Houston. my first indication that there was a problem was seeing my tail lights filled up half-full with water such that the bulbs and sockets were probably immersed at some point. I would assume the sockets would be aluminum or brass or something, but they showed serious signs of corrosion after a couple of years. i fought it for a long time and had moderate success cleaning them with a brass wire brush, but the past two years they've just been so intermittent that I could check them and 30 minutes later at inspection, they wouldn't work properly. since they worked occasionally, i got a pass twice, but this year I knew they'd remember and i went through the process of splicing in new sockets on the brake and turn signal (3157). They work in the new-to-me tail lights, but absolutely would not fit in the old shells that I still have. Very puzzling. Spliced in the replacements from autozone using butt-splices and they check out fine, no problems. So i look around the car for other problem areas and I remember the inspection guys noted the front left turn signal AND marker last year, and when they pulled it to check the bulb, the bulb was good but the socket looked charred. So I was going in to replace the socket. it was a direct replacement since the front turns use the 3057 bulb, so just a matter of doing the splicing. after doing the splicing exactly the same as my rears, i got no joy on the left front turn signal.
I had no idea what to do at that point. I haven't exonerated the the socket, but the splices are tight and don't feel loose with a light tug. left side marker and DRL/turn signal bulb come on when the remote fob is pressed to lock the car, but do NOT come on for DRL, turn signal or hazards. passenger side is fine with the possible exception of the side marker that i haven't looked at to see if it's just a burnt bulb, and that's not an inspection item, anyway. This is literally the only light not working and right when i need to get my car inspected (end of August.....next week). I've seen the DRL working on the driver's side (reflected in the tailgates and trunk lids on cars in front of me) as recently as about two months ago, so i don't know if this is something that's JUST finally given up the ghost or what.

Can anyone tell me if this absolutely points to the DRL module and if doing OP's fix would solve my problem, or is there something else I haven't considered?

on a side note, i've checked all the dash fuses and almost ran into a problem with that in that the plastic tabs seemed to start yielding when pressing in the fuses after each check and I almost lost my interior fuse panel into the side of the dashboard.

Any help y'all could offer would be greatly appreciated since I'm on less than a week ticking clock.

Thanks!

GaryDoug

The only downside to doing the bypass would be to have to splice the wires back to normal if it doesn't work.

Where did you get the replacement front DRL/Turn bulb socket? Were all the wires different colors or all black? I had some trouble splicing a new socket because all 3 wires were black and I had to so some trial and error, which sometimes blew a fuse. Even if they are colored, they may not be correct. That can happen because these sockets are used in different years of various models and on the front or back, hence the possible wrong colors.

Keep in mind that one wire is for the ground and that goes to two contacts in the socket. Are the bulbs LED? If so, you may have to pay attention to the orientation of the bulb in the socket. Normally with incandescent bulbs, the 3157/4157 bulb can go any way you choose.

6spd4lf

I got the socket at Autozone. The original socket and bulb type were 3057 and this was a direct replacement. It's a Dorman 85881 (https://www.autozone.com/electrical-...5881/18625_0_0). all wires are black, but the original was marked "A","B" and "G" just as the replacement was, so i just did a wire-for-wire splice to the originals ("A" is lt. blue, "B" is brown, and the ground is black). bulbs are not LED. i think they're the standard Sylvania ones you buy at Autozone in a 2-pack. since this isn't a jury-rigged swap llike the back end brake light/turn signal swap, I would assume that the socket wiring wouldn't have any guesswork. Since the wires were barely long enough to work with out the trap door under the front end, I didn't even try to swap the lt blue/brown connection to see if that had a different result. i figured either the socket itself was bad or I had another problem (which ultimately led me here).

if I do the mod the way OP describes, though, the only thing I lose is DRL (which i actually hate), right? As OP described, i would still keep my auto-on headlights (which i really, really like) and everything else should work fine as long as i clip the right wires (lt. blue/dk blue and solid and striped versions), right? is the only risk that it may not solve my problem?

the other thing i'm wondering is if it's critical to disconnect the battery if I do it. 12VDC isn't enough for me to really worry about at the light sockets, but the additional electronics in that DRL unit make me wonder if i could fry something or pop a fuse while doing this type of repair