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Interceptor amber DRL's on Explorer St

Ghost117

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#1
So the 2020 and newer police interceptors have the same hazard lights as the ST, but they use those as daytime running lights in place of the long white led lights that are on the ST.

My question, has anyone thought about trying to reprogram that if possible. The amber hazard lights staying on as daytime running lights look amazing on the police interceptor. I'd love to do that to my ST, but I'm not sure if I can change something in forscan, or having to swap out the whole headlight assembly.

Any help would be great, I haven't seen anyone talk about this yet,
 

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#2
I have a 2014 Chevy Cruze and had the lovely people over at www.gen5diy.com built a relay harness that diverts the headlight DRL voltage to my fog lights so it doesn't burn through my HIDs for daytime use.

They make all sorts of relay harnesses and I'm sure if you contacted them, they'd be able to work with you. Assuming there is no option in Forscan to swap the DRL strip for the turn signal strip, you'd definitely need some sort of relay system so you can continue to use the turn signal strip as normal and double it as a DRL. It definitely would look nice!
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #3
If it's in forscan i haven't found it yet. I think the headlights are programmed differently in the explorer and the interceptor. Thank you for the suggestion though, I'll check that out.

http://instagr.am/p/CFdyU4nBO--/
That's the best view i can find of what I'm talking about.

Love that look.
 

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#4
You can modify the front signal lights to be DRLs in Forscan, however I haven't figured out how to turn the actual DRLs off.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #5
You can modify the front signal lights to be DRLs in Forscan, however I haven't figured out how to turn the actual DRLs off.
So you can turn on the turn signals as DRL. But if you put it to "Turn, DRL, and position" the turn signal function no longer works. That's the problem. You can't keep them on all the time, only with the actual DRL's. Trying to find a way around this.
 

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#6
So you can turn on the turn signals as DRL. But if you put it to "Turn, DRL, and position" the turn signal function no longer works. That's the problem. You can't keep them on all the time, only with the actual DRL's. Trying to find a way around this.
If this is the case, it could simplify the relay harness should you choose to take that route, provided you can still find a voltage that is active when the turn signal is active. Essentially, a relay could just act as an interrupter and turn the front signal LED off when the BCM sends a signal on voltage. Of course, this would be out of sync with the rear signal and side mirror repeater unless you chose a delayed relay, then it would come down to finding the right timing to sync it back up. There's always options, it just depends how in-depth you want to get with it.
 

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#7
So you can turn on the turn signals as DRL. But if you put it to "Turn, DRL, and position" the turn signal function no longer works. That's the problem. You can't keep them on all the time, only with the actual DRL's. Trying to find a way around this.
Ahh. I never actually tested it. Just saw that it was marked as an option. Good to know that it isn't accurate.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #8
Ahh. I never actually tested it. Just saw that it was marked as an option. Good to know that it isn't accurate.
So I tested it this morning. Thanks for the original reply by the way, I missed that in forscan originally. So if you put on "Turn, DRL, and position" it works, but it won't use those lights as turn signals like it should. If you do turn and drl, it does exactly that. When doing it that way the turn signal has a slight delay up front, but not bad enough to worry about. I haven't tried "Turn and position" but I'm guessing it'll still not work as a turn signal. I'll keep digging and see what I can find.

Personally the turn signals as DRL look amazing compared to that long white led strip. Both are good, but the amber turn signals look perfect.
 

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#9
So I tested it this morning. Thanks for the original reply by the way, I missed that in forscan originally. So if you put on "Turn, DRL, and position" it works, but it won't use those lights as turn signals like it should. If you do turn and drl, it does exactly that. When doing it that way the turn signal has a slight delay up front, but not bad enough to worry about. I haven't tried "Turn and position" but I'm guessing it'll still not work as a turn signal. I'll keep digging and see what I can find.

Personally the turn signals as DRL look amazing compared to that long white led strip. Both are good, but the amber turn signals look perfect.

Ya, from when I was messing around in there, any time you set the lights to 'position' it cancels out all other functions. I also want to use the turn signals as the DRLs, as it looks sweet. I haven't found any way to turn off the white DRLs in forscan yet. If you come across a way, be sure to post it up.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #10
Ya, from when I was messing around in there, any time you set the lights to 'position' it cancels out all other functions. I also want to use the turn signals as the DRLs, as it looks sweet. I haven't found any way to turn off the white DRLs in forscan yet. If you come across a way, be sure to post it up.
I started messing with several functions, like outage and things. So far no luck. If i figure it out I'll post it right away.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #12
Negative. Every available option in forscan will not allow me to use the amber lights as DRLs AND turn signals. Sadly. I still look online every so often to see if i can figure something new out though. I'll post if i ever do.
 

ST_Murdered

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#13
I think it's a seriously cool idea. I dive with some of the guys from county - I'll ask them. I also know some of the guys over in the garage. Maybe I can go over there and have a look around. All they can do is throw me out. LOL!

I'm sure we can figure this out; there are a lot of smart dudes on this forum. I think those guys who suggested the wiring harness are probably right. I'll see if I can get the part numbers from the mechs over at the garage.
 

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#14
Negative. Every available option in forscan will not allow me to use the amber lights as DRLs AND turn signals. Sadly. I still look online every so often to see if i can figure something new out though. I'll post if i ever do.
Just curious, but are you using the hex code to try changes or the UI options? I like the idea of using the Ambers as DRLs and am wondering if I try to start making some changes in hex, if it may be the ticket.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #15
Just curious, but are you using the hex code to try changes or the UI options? I like the idea of using the Ambers as DRLs and am wondering if I try to start making some changes in hex, if it may be the ticket.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm honestly not confident enough to mess with much. I went through the bcm? Lists where i can change things back and forth. I never tried changing number or letter values of anything.

It's just a shame because there's a simple toggle setting for using the turn signals as drls, but it stops them from functioning as turn signals.
 

AshWaa

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#16
So from "You can modify the front signal lights to be DRLs in Forscan, however I haven't figured out how to turn the actual DRLs off.", does this mean you can do the regular DRL (white strip) and front signal lights to be an addition with the regular DRL? And does this also mean the turn signals function too? Trying to figure out how to do this on my XLT.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #17
So from "You can modify the front signal lights to be DRLs in Forscan, however I haven't figured out how to turn the actual DRLs off.", does this mean you can do the regular DRL (white strip) and front signal lights to be an addition with the regular DRL? And does this also mean the turn signals function too? Trying to figure out how to do this on my XLT.
You can set the front turn signals on as drl. What this does is turn them on with the white drls. This only works in daytime with the auto light feature on. After dark it just goes back to normal lights at night. The turn signals will still work, but when they are on as drls with the white drls, there is a small delay, maybe half a second, from when you put on the turn signal to when the orange signal blinks.
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #18
So from "You can modify the front signal lights to be DRLs in Forscan, however I haven't figured out how to turn the actual DRLs off.", does this mean you can do the regular DRL (white strip) and front signal lights to be an addition with the regular DRL? And does this also mean the turn signals function too? Trying to figure out how to do this on my XLT.
20210309_153634.jpg
 

AshWaa

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#19
Thanks for the quick reply! I am getting my forscan tomorrow off amazon. Gonna try for the first time and disable double honk and do the cool DRLs. Do you personally do the DRL with white light and orange lights, as you just mentioned about?
 

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Ghost117

Ghost117

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Thread Starter #20
I had it on, but i ended up turning it off because i personally didn't like the delay. Get rid of the double honk, have fun playing around with it. Forscan is a great tool. Post on here if you can find out anything yourself.
 



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