You are of course aware that high beams blind other drivers? As Bradley said, you could never use your HIDs...

 

Who cares about other people...we would have HIDs...

They would be like "Ahhh! What is that light blinding me!? What the hell? Oh wait, its HIDs! AWESOME!"

 

For those of you asking what a MUT-III is, here are photos of my personal MUT-III that I use at home on my Evo and Lancer.








The whole setup comes in a briefcase complete with IBM Thinkpad laptop, Vehicle Control Interface handheld unit and all the cables needed to hook it up to any Mitsubishi vehicle. Costs around $4,500 brand new to Mitsubishi dealerships.

 

OK, all kidding aside, I'm going to get a little technical here.

Inside the red circle above is what is known as a field effect transistor. It controls the low-beam headlights and the daytime running lights. If you pull it out (be careful, it can get very hot... see the heat sinks?) you'll see 4 prongs on it. Two of the prongs are wired directly to battery. One wire goes directly to the low-beam bulbs. The other wire goes to the ETACS-ECU.

Let's call them the following:

Prong 1 - 12v power
Prong 2 - 12v power
Prong 3 - Goes to low-beam fuses
Prong 4 - ETACS-ECU

Prong 1 & 3 need to have a direct unblocked connection in order for the low-beams to illuminate normally at 100%. The field effect transistor uses semi-conductor technology to regulate voltage to the lowbeam headlamps. This is regulated by the signal sent by Prong 4. Prong 2 has a constant 12v from the battery and supplies the power needed for the 'gate' to work in the semiconductor. The signal sent through Prong 4 works in connection with Prong 2 to regulate the amount of voltage that Prong 1 will transmit to Prong 3. The e-brake, ignition power, headlight stalk setting, etc... all send signals to the ETACS-ECU that give signal to Prong 4 to either 'choke' the flow of electricity to the headlights (OFF condition), only allow 9v (daytime running light condition) or allow a full 12v to the low-beam bulbs.

The extremely hard way to get around this is to develop a totally different FET to be a plug and play device, but that would cost an arm and a leg and would not be very cost effective.

The Bosch relay method does not work, as the pull voltage on most Bosch relays is 8v and the DRL's output 9v.

There's always the ground switch method, but that would mean the installation of a grounding switch to activate a relay.

The most cost effective way to do it right now is to simply ask your local Mitsubishi service department to 're-code' your DRLs. They might charge you a few bucks, but until someone comes up with a better method, it's the only surefire way I know of right now.

 

Thanks for the info this may help us out alot!

 

In your opinion, what are the odds of them saying "yes"? Do you think every dealership would be willing or just the cool ones? Etc.

And what are the odds that all dealerships even know how to recode it? I know they're trained, but I doubt recoding DRLs shows up too much in training classes...

 

u sure? i was pretty sure those were the high beam bulbs.

 

As far as the training involved in recoding DRL's is concerned, it is the same procedure as re-coding the foglight parameter when the factory fog light kit is installed on a Lancer ES, just a different selection on the re-coding menu. So easy a caveman could do it...

What are the odds of saying 'yes'? Have you ever turned down paying work that involved the flick of a switch? I'm not too sure about the total legality of disabling the DRLs, but in all honesty money is money. I know... spoken like a true dealer, but we're not a not-for-profit corporation. If it's a job that helps the bottom line, doesn't involve hacking of the factory wiring and you have it incorporated with a regularly scheduled maintenance visit (oil change, tire rotation, etc...) I wouldn't see a reason for the service department to make a big deal about it. If the service advisor is cool and they see you're sincere, they might just throw it in. If the service advisor claims that they know nothing about what you are talking about, do not, by any means, get mad or upset. Simply ask the advisor if they can ask one of the more experienced techs about re-coding and that you're willing to pay the labor rate to have it done. The more mature and level-headed you portray yourself, the more likely the service advisor will try to facilitate your needs. That goes with all human interactions, really aka 'you get more bees with honey than with vinegar'. You don't know how many jobs I've seen turned away on Evos simply because the owner came in with a bad attitude and an aire of entitlement demanding their slipping clutch be warrantied at 4,000 miles because he liked to keep the car standing, up-hill, at a stoplight by slipping the clutch.

 

Canada, it is illegal to operate a vehicle with the DRL's dissabled if it was a standard feture. If we import any vehicles from anywhere that dont have DRL's you need to buy a relay kit so that the car has it.

So any canadian dealer wont do it.

BOOO

 

^
Sorry, I was only referring to the dealerships in the MMNA regions. MMCAN rules are totally different.

 

*begins slow clap*

Good (and thorough) answer. Thanks.

 

I'm almost positive those are low beams, the high beams are closer to the center and have a round bezel around them. See for yourself

 

I still say, just switch the freakin wires from the fogs to the lows. Its perfectly legal, it takes no time to do, and theres no new switches. You guys will go on and on for about 4 months until someone says "Hey, I think that guy Josh was right. Its just not worth it"

 

Hey Josh, we know that switching the wires works. Some of us don't want ANY lights on all of the time, and have a desire to find a solution to this. It's the concept of customizing your car to how the owner wants it. Some people don't want to settle for just switching the wires. We know this works, but we gotta be a PITA

 

Hey bradley,

I understand what you are saying.
(other than the part where you said you dont want any lights on at all, which if your state requires DRL's you would have to have some form of lights on at all times) But I personally think it gives the car a nicer look with the fogs on as DRL's, and some people think it is doing it the lazy way, but Its easier than farting, and it solves this whole case.