Car weirdness

[billhammond]

Just got in the car to run to the store, and the interior lights illuminated as usual when I opened the door. I fired up the engine and the lights stayed on. Couldn't even shut off the map lights manually. Arrived at the store, shut down the engine, interior lights stayed on. Crap! I just needed to pick up a couple of things, so came back home, parked in the driveway, shut down the engine and the lights stayed on.

So I'm sitting here at my driveway-facing window, looking at my car with its interior lights illuminated, knowing the battery will be dead in the morning.

This car has been dead reliable, so I'm willing to accept an occasional hiccup, but I honestly don't know how to address this tomorrow.

[epaul]

[epaul]

For now, disconnect the battery.

[Village Idiot]

We had a blizzard in January and when that was done my state car, a 2023 Chevy Malibu, started having all kinds of electrical problems and a couple days later it wouldn't even start. Since it is a state car I took it to a Chevy dealer. Several days later (just yesterday) they called an said it was ready to go. By their determination, the genesis of the cause was a mouse that chewed on some wiring.

[david]

Feb 22, 2024 20:38:24 GMT -5 epaul said:

For now, disconnect the battery.

DO NOT DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!

Unplug the light or see which fuse connects it, and pull that fuse.

In modern cars unplugging the battery can reset all sorts of stuff, including ignition timing and radio settings.

[billhammond]

I'm gonna do nothing -- some quickie online research indicates that after 30 minutes, any lights left on in my car automatically are shut off.

Fingers crossed.

[Cosmic Wonder]

David is right. Pull the fuse.

Mike

[billhammond]

Car interior just went dark, so thank you, Infiniti engineers, for building in a battery saver.

[howard lee]

[factorychef]

I've had the mouse problems a few times.

[drlj]

Take out all the bulbs. No more lights. Problem solved. Get one of those hats with a light on it so you can see.
You are welcome.

[howard lee]

Feb 23, 2024 4:48:59 GMT -5 factorychef said:

I've had the mouse problems a few times.

Me too.

[dradtke]

Before lights turned off automatically, whenever I would see a parked car with its lights still on, I would kick in and break all the headlights and taillights in order to save the person's battery. Oddly enough, no one ever thanked me for it. The rudeness of some people.

[billhammond]

Back from the Nissan dealership, which is happy to work on their uppity Infiniti brethren, as well.

Turns out that I am an idiot.

The G37 has two good-sized map lights up high above the dash, one for driver, one for passenger. They go on and off by just pushing the plastic bulb cover. Between those lights is a rocker switch for the sunroof.

But what I didn't know until an hour ago is that adjacent to the sunroof switch, there's a smaller toggle -- which is the on-off switch for all interior lights.

I must have somehow bumped that to the "on" setting three days ago, rendering all four interior lights on at all times, with the safety measure of auto-off after 30 minutes when the engine is not running.

So, no $200 diagnostic charge, no God knows how much labor and parts bill, back on the road carefree after 10 minutes in the parking lot. The car never even made it into the shop.

Stupid, but happy camper here.

[Rob Hanesworth]

Bill, my Buick has the same arrangement. The third position on the rocker switch prevents the interior lights from coming on when you open the door, in case you want to sneak out of the car to pee while you're on surveillance or you find yourself at one of the country's four remaining drive in theaters and don't want to disrupt the viewing of the cars behind you when you slip out to the concession stand for a slice of greasy pizza.

Edit: I'd have stuck you for the diagnostic charge.

[billhammond]

As I think about it, that switch has pretty limited value. Even when in the off position, the four interior lights come on automatically when you open a door, and go off like 10 seconds after the door is closed. Beyond that, while driving you can turn on either or both map lights with a push of the light itself. One more push and it goes off.

So the only function of the on/off switch that I can think of is if rear passengers need overhead lights while the car is in motion. But the problem is that when in the on position, the map lights come on as well as the backseat lights, and I know from recent experience that it makes looking forward to drive a little trickier, although not dangerously so.

In the olden days, there was just a single dome light, which you could switch on by twisting the headlight switch all the way to the left.

Simpler times, but I do love the map lights, so I just needed more education, I guess.

[Rob Hanesworth]

Feb 24, 2024 15:22:38 GMT -5 billhammond said:

As I think about it, that switch has pretty limited value. Even when in the off position, the four interior lights come on automatically when you open a door, and go off like 10 seconds after the door is closed. Beyond that, while driving you can turn on either or both map lights with a push of the light itself. One more push and it goes off.

So the only function of the on/off switch that I can think of is if rear passengers need overhead lights while the car is in motion. But the problem is that when in the on position, the map lights come on as well as the backseat lights, and I know from recent experience that it makes looking forward to drive a little trickier, although not dangerously so.

In the olden days, there was just a single dome light, which you could switch on by twisting the headlight switch all the way to the left.

Simpler times, but I do love the map lights, so I just needed more education, I guess.

Yours work different from mine. My interior lights stay off if open the door in off position.

[Dave Poor]

Feb 22, 2024 20:34:10 GMT -5 billhammond said:

Just got in the car to run to the store, and the interior lights illuminated as usual when I opened the door. I fired up the engine and the lights stayed on. Couldn't even shut off the map lights manually. Arrived at the store, shut down the engine, interior lights stayed on. Crap! I just needed to pick up a couple of things, so came back home, parked in the driveway, shut down the engine and the lights stayed on.

So I'm sitting here at my driveway-facing window, looking at my car with its interior lights illuminated, knowing the battery will be dead in the morning.

This car has been dead reliable, so I'm willing to accept an occasional hiccup, but I honestly don't know how to address this tomorrow.

My daughter has an ancient Prius, with the opposite problem. No lights came on. The entire dashboard was unlit. Blank. No speedo, range remaining, zip. Youtube to the rescue. You'll love it.
It turns out you must 1) open the driver's door, 2) step on the brake pedal (keep your foot on the pedal) 3) turn on the headlights.. wait until the "door open" alert appears.. 4) good to go. She reports the dash was back to normal function.
She has had to repeat the procedure at least once since then.

[millring]

The Jeep has interior lights that stay on for what seems to be about 30 seconds to a minute after exiting the car. I, of course, don't trust that I haven't actually left something on, so I wait outside in the freezing cold until I actually see the dome lights fade and die. I don't trust my Jeep, even though I know that even if they were left on the automatic system would eventually shut them off just as it likewise shuts off headlights if left on. I can't trust these new-fangled machines.

[drlj]

Old guys. When you are young at heart like me these are not things you worry about. You spend your time looking for your glasses and wondering why you went into a room instead.