Rear Tailights (Question)

Last night, I was curious to find if there was a way to disable DRLs without a Vagcom. Doesn't look like it though. Anyway, I shifted to the rear tailights, curious to disable them for a new look at night. I was wondering if the rear brake lights can be disabled with a typical 12v switch. My question is: Are all of the lights in the back 12v? I would just remove the whole assembly of every light, but then I would probably get pulled over by a cop if they saw I didn't have lights. I'm new to electrics, so I may sound like a dope. Anything helps! Thanks!

Yes, they should all be 12V, but disabling the rear running lights is dangerous - how do you expect the cars behind you at night/in bad rain/snow/fog) to see you?

Oh boy. This is a great way to cause an accident!

Leave this **** alone and do something more productive on your car


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Your trying to do something that is not road legal in any situation at all. You wont be able to pass inspection and your new look at night will be the red and blue flashing lights of your impending fixit ticket and or a crash. Please done disable your rear lights. It's not difficult to bypass the dtrl for the headlights but it's also borderline not road legal because it's designed that way and it is a dot regulation. That being said, a relay and some wiring fixes the headlight dtrl

I'll leave them alone, but thanks for the info. Just was curious to see what it'd look like. Won't drive with them off.

go outside at night and look at your car when its off. done.
I should not be telling you this , BUT if you pull up the eBrake a tick or 2 you can disable your taillights, at least the mk3's did this, not sure about this generation though.

Thanks for the info, I won't be a dumba** after the points made earlier. I think that on this car it turns of the DRL if you only pull the brake up a tick or 2, like you said. I'll look at the tail lights to see if those shut off too. Thanks for the help everyone!

To disable DRL you can simply bend the tang over in the connector.
Like the tail lights, they are a proven safety feature, think pedestrians, other cars.

Which pin in which connector? The one in the light switch in the car? The one that powers the headlights?

My link was bad.
https://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=103477

I know what connector you are talking about, i've had the switch out before. If this works, i'll be happy. Don't want the bulbs running all the time. Thanks for the helpful link! do you think it would work on a MKV, though? I don't want to risk wrecking another pin if it isn't the same kind of wiring harness. Then that pin might be doing something else.
EDIT AFTER BENDING MIDDLE PIN: I just tried bending the middle pin down. It turned off the DRL's, but it also turned the low beams on, so basically the same as having the DRL's on, except I couldn't turn off the low's. Any reason it would do this? Btw, the connector looked like this. (My car doesn't have fog's. I'm guessing that's why it only has 6 pins instead of 10.)
The X's are where the pins are on the 2 x 5 pin connector. I tried bending the middle pin. (See arrow)

XX
oo
-->Xo
XX
Xo

Rob Mayercik said:

Yes, they should all be 12V, but disabling the rear running lights is dangerous - how do you expect the cars behind you at night/in bad rain/snow/fog) to see you?

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Not to mention likely illegal in all states.

TDI-WNC said:

Not to mention likely illegal in all states.

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altering any safety feature (from airbags to head lights and mirrors and so on...) or emissions features of any DOT license motor transportation is a federal law. all 50 states its highly illegal. If you have a licence plate you cant alter these things unless they comply with regulations and will pass inspections held by the state that is mandated by federal law.

Mirrors are not federally controlled safety features. The legality of mirrors is state dependent. A single rear-view mirror, however, is a federally required piece of equipment.

jerrymander said:

Mirrors are not federally controlled safety features. The legality of mirrors is state dependent. A single rear-view mirror, however, is a federally required piece of equipment.

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The DOT requires that under federal law that if the vehicle is capable of a view from the rear, that a rear mirror must be present and at least 1 side mirror.
Only exceptions are hot rods and other parade use vehicles or ones so old that they don't have them. Look at why we can’t have cameras and screens for mirrors yet. It’s not DOT approved. If the car has 3 mirrors on it, removing one is a road hazard moving violation. It’s not about what’s on the car, it’s what you alter. If you so much as get into a fender bender with no tail lights and this thread pops up as evidence somehow, your insurance is going to drop you and your rates are going to skyrocket as well as major fines and depending on the severity of what happened, possible jail time.
If you got into an accident and just before that you got a fix-it ticket for a broken mirror and it was PAST the repair date, your insurance will drop you and not cover anything at all as you are now in violation of operating a safe and road legal auto. Read your policies and understand your federal and state laws.

I've seen a number of ways to disable the daytime running lights (DRL headlights) by altering the light switch in a VW.

Why, do you not want to be seen? In the 80's I drove a Acura Integra, and people were always pulling out right in front of me, as they typically had a bigger vehicle. I wired the fog lights as DRL's and there was a very noticeable difference and I had to slam on the brakes less frequently.

Or see someone today, driving at dusk in the rain, in a dark gray car.... and no lights making them virtually invisible.

I have brighter than stock lights (LEDs) on all my vehicles, as I really prefer that other drivers see me.