No, I'm not stupid enough to have the headlight switch turned on the whole time. But whenever its mildly dark out my 1998's headlights automatically pop on when the switch is in the off position. Now sometimes at night I'd prefer to have the car running but lights off. With the automatic headlight sensor thing-a-majig it won't let me. Is there anyway I could change it so I can actually control when my lights are on?

Also, are the driving lights that are always on able to be turned off manually? or is there a fuse I could pop out?

 

it might be a relay youd have to take out. not sure on that one though.

 

Check and see if you have a DRL fuse somewhere. If there is, I would pull it and see what happens. Now Im not sure how to disable the automatic headlights, but I do know that if your e brake is on and you start the car at night, your lights dont come on. Only after you release the e brake do they come on. I just leave the e brake on if I want to run the car with the lights off. There is no reason I would ever need to drive the car at night with the lights off, and I dont recommend you do it either.

 

Pretty sure there's a DRL fuse you can pull and solve both of your problems. DRL means daytime running lights just FYI. If you pull the fuse, your running lights won't come on when it's daytime and your headlights will no longer automatically turn on when it's dark.

If you want those features and want to let the car to idle with the lights off sometimes, set the parking brake and the lights should turn off both daytime and nighttime.

Edit: mrl390 apparently types faster than me lol

 

I literally just did this. I pulled 2 DRL fuses out, and I no longer have daytime running lights, however, when it gets dark, my headlights still do automatically come on.

 

okay its a fuse. i was thinking because of the auto on and off, that it would be a relay.

 

I have a 98 myself and all i had to do is pull the fuse and then everything is in your control

 

Puffins, which fuse did you pull exactly?

 

It was my day time running lights fuse that controled the sensor on the dash