Switch Off Daylights/Running Lights - Possible?

Four hundred ninety-eight switches that will fit are here.

They come in different colors with different designs and legends. Some have no design, in case you have access to engraving equipment to add your own. You can just engrave through the thin black surface to the translucent white beneath. The color is the color of the LEDs inside the switch. They come set up so one LED lights with your dash illumination and the other lights when the switch is on (of course both those things depend on how you wire it into the car). Inside the package is a little bitty circuit board with the two LEDs, resistors, and a bog-standard little 3 amp switch.

Some of those are sold with a mechanical push-on/push-off action, others are sold as momentary. The push-on/push-off can be converted to momentary if that's what you need (just look carefully at the little bog-standard switch while pushing on and off, you'll see the little spring that latches it, and you can tuck it out of the way).

In general, solder is king around things that don't move, such as components all mounted on a circuit board. Inside the switch you'll see that everything on the circuit board is soldered.

Outside of rigid assemblies like that, Toyota (and other car/marine/aerospace manufacturers) will use flexible stranded wire and crimp connections. (Solder will wick up the flexible strands, and then they aren't.) Toyota uses parallel crimp sleeves; there's a post about those. In exposed locations, they'd be done up in self-bonding silicone tape ("Rescue Tape") or with sealant-lined heat shrink tubing.

My usual advice around a "kit" to open the trim is to submerge it in a bucket of water, put that in a freezer, and wait for it to freeze solid. Then leave it alone and use nothing but fingers to take the trim apart. Less likely to mark anything up that way. The mystery moves are the first couple pieces to take off, which you can look up in the manual. After that it's just pieces that overlap other pieces and pop off like legos.

The wiring diagram should show you what you actually need to do.

 

Do the daytime running lights only come on if you shift outa park, something like that? Check that first, lol.

 

Or release the parking brake? I believe my U.S.-market Prius has the DRLs linked to the parking brake, though that doesn't mean the Canadian units are similarly wired.

Non-existent. Canada has no such requirement just yet (though something related is coming shortly), and such rear lights are a very rare feature in the U.S., and when found are primarily on certain European brands.

 

I've heard that too. Not on computer now, just phone, but a scan of owner's manual might resolve that. Or..., OP should just test.

 

I re-verified it while leaving for an errand today. After startup, my U.S. 2012 doesn't turn on its DRLs until I release the parking brake.

The other end is different, setting the parking brake doesn't turn off the DRLs. They stay on until the ignition is turned off (or until I open the driver door, as regular headlights do? I didn't watch close enough).

But don't assume this carries over to Canadian DRL systems, which use different lamps, different switches, and are built to conform to different laws (mandatory vs voluntary use). So test your own.

 

You could pull the fuse.

 

I ended up wiring a switch to control my DRL's. I need to make a write up on the process but now I have full control of my DRL's.

 

not when the car is off.

I just made the diagram cleaner, you can see it on the link below.
Wiring Diagram for Dual LED Switch Light Bar and DRL -

 

Nice clean job. I like the switch too.

I noticed you changed colors for the other switches, and the mirror switch.
Did you take it apart? If so, do you have a link on how to do it? I need to replace
the bulb in mine. Thanks!

 

I didn't change those, maybe because its a plug in?