Good question!

I did it for 2 reasons:

1. When using spotters on a trail it sometimes makes it hard for the spotter to see rocks underneath your truck because the DRL's are blinding them. With my headlights totally off they can see much clearer and get me down the trail safely.

2. Photo ops. I had too many nice pictures of me coming down terrain that were ruined by my DRL's. Sometimes it gets kind of dark with a lot of tree cover in the forest and the DRL's will overcome the camera and your pictures will come out like crap.

 

I found the wire. Piece of cake! It is a simple plug just like what was said.

The automatic On/Off still works great, so no possibility of "running the battery dead". I guess the 98-00 is a lot different than the 01-02 in that the auto off still works when disabling DRL's.

I dont know why they changed the design, because this was incredibly easy to disable, and I can enable down the road by just popping the hood and plugging it back in.

Thanks all for the help!

 

You should do the above mentioned mod for '01 and '02 4Runners. It should be this mod: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f127/2002-4runner-drl-disable-off-capability-87596/...unless you don't experience the following:

Do you have the problem of a dim intermittent “high beam” indicator light showing up on your dash w/ this write-up? I did when I did it. When it's very dark outside, I could turn my 4Runner off and see a faint blue high beam indicator light showing up. Every time I was in my 4Runner, that light would stay on unitl I turned my headlights on.

So I found this write-up instead, which tells you and I quote:

On the ’01 & ’02 4Runner, Pin 2 is the White/Black Stripe wire, which is the ground wire & needs to remain intact to prevent the side effects...

AND

Procedure:
Cut the Pin 12 Black/Yellow Stripe wire to disable the DRL “circuit” operation...

I connected my originally cut wires back together, then I cut this wire and the mod works great, plus I do not have that faint blue high beam light showing up anymore. No need to worry about any battery drain or DRL malfunction now!

 

On the 2000 4Runner:
Cutting connector D8 PIN 2 (Black/Yellow Stripe) wire disables DRL.
An added switch inline with the cut wires will provide manual control of DRLs.

 

Hi,

Just wanted to thank you for this advice, i read the forums on customtacos.com and toyotanation that tells u to cut the white wire with black stripe on the DRL relay to disable the DRLs but after cutting that wire it didnt help at all!!!, but once i found this lil black magic box and disabled it, it worked like a charm. Thanks so much for the CORRECT info.

 

Maybe too late but this might help someone. This should break it down pretty well for you guys...(I was bored)

 

Thanks alot TRD_4runnin11, that should help out. I have already found that magical DRL box.

My next mod that I wanted to accomplish is the fog light mod on my 2000 Limited 4x4. I have heard many instructions but none that was year specific. If there is anybody out there that has done the fog light mod where I can turn on the fog light with only the parking lights on a 2000 Limited, I would like to know. Thanks so much in advance.

 

i recently installed a hi/lo hid kit on my 2000 4runner. i'm not sure if all the kits are the same but the way mine wires in it plugs into the factory headlight harness on the dr/batt side and then runs from that side to the pass side headlamp leaving the pass side headlamp harness unplugged. i tried unplugging the resistor box, tried removing the drl fuse, and still the drl's remain on. what other options do i have? anyone else had this problem or know how to solve it? i really want to stay away from cutting wires.

 

i recently installed a hi/lo hid kit on my 2000 4runner. i'm not sure if all the kits are the same but the way mine wires in it plugs into the factory headlight harness on the dr/batt side and then runs from that side to the pass side headlamp leaving the pass side headlamp harness unplugged. i tried unplugging the resistor box, tried removing the drl fuse, and still the drl's remain on. what other options do i have? anyone else had this problem or know how to solve it? i really want to stay away from cutting wires.

 

I have a 2000 SR5 that I put a bixenon HID kit in. I unplugged the magical box connector and my headlights stopped working all together. I have the grey box like the OP, can I cut wires? I HATE DRLs!