New to the forum - just bought a 2006 G35 Sedan on Monday night. Sweet ride, but I'm already bummed about the fuel efficiency - or inefficiency. Anyway, it's too late now and I love the ride and power of the car in any case.

Topic:

The car does not have automatic daytime running lights, which I want for safety and visibility (I have a black car).

Has anyone tried putting black felt or something over the sensor and tricking the system into thinking it's dark so that the headlights become running lights when set in the automatic mode?

I can't see why this would cause any problems, but if you can think of one, can you share it?

 

You can try it.

You could also put in a relay that turned on the headlights when the ignition was on but they would be on whether the car was runing or not.

 

Why not just leave your lights on all the time? They go off eventually if you forget about them.

 

I thought that I read that in the owner's manual, but wasn't sure. Something about turning off after 5 minutes and if you flick the switch you get another 5 minutes.

So, even if the lights are turned to the full "on" position, they will turn off totally? No battery drain? No parking lights or something similar are left on?

I guess the only benefit to doing what I described would be that they turn off faster than 5 minutes, right?

 

Well, I've left the switch on "On" for the lights before and they eventually turned themselves off. I would recommend doing it and watching to make sure it will happen that way but in my experience the car turns the lights off even if you leave the switch in the on position.

 

I leave my parking lights on all the time to keep my halos on and they turn off after ~5 minutes.

 

... or you could just turn them on/off everytime you get in/out of the car????

 

You sure could.

I just came from a car with auto day running lights (disengage emergency brake, lights turned on), though, and won't remember to turn them on. Nine years of the same is habit forming...

I just want the same automation, which seems best accomplished by placing a little circle of black felt over the light sensor on the driver's side of the dash.

 

Off topic but the baddest DRL's I have ever heard of come in the new Audi R6 with 5 LED Bright Whites under each headlamp assembly. One for each of the 10 cylinders in a horizontal strip. in this months C&D....

 

There are lights that come on whenever the car is on. These are called "Darytime Running Lights". The G35 just doesn't use the HID for that purpose. The DTRL just illuminates the fogs at 50% power. You can always replace your fogs if you don't like the look of the DTRL.

 

All Canadian models have DRL's, it shouldn't be hard to figure out what the mod is.

 

Sorry, Slider, but I don't understand what you are saying.

Are you saying that there is a way to make the fogs illuminate at 50% power on the G35 sedan as a DRL?

 

Can you please get going on it?

You are right, though. The dealer should be able to do something about this...

I'm so new to the car that I don't even know this: when the auto lights come on, is it the main lamps or the fog lamps?

 

YES - No mod required - that's what they do now. Don't your fogs come on when you start the car?

 

The US models don't come with DRL's. You can add a couple relays to turn on your fog lights when the car is on and the e-brake is off. If you want me to show you how just send me a PM.