do all light switch off automatically when parked?

No, I have tried it and you can too. Unfortunately, Toyota has not yet incorporated this into the Prius (don't know about other models). The dome light switches are hard switches and once on, will stay on. Turn on a dome light with the vehicle off, walk away, and check it in an hour and the light will be on.

 

All the lights switch off automatically when the battery dies.

Tom

 

Sheesh. Surprising info in this thread. I figured all cars would do that by now.

 

The Prius is surprisingly advanced in some areas, and and bit behind in others. The lack of consistency is sometimes hard to figure.

Tom

 

Tideland -

Normally I can figure out everything in your concise writings... but today, I was left scratching my head. Where are the Map Lights, as opposed to the Dome/Personal Lights located in the car?

I get the Cargo light, and vanity mirror ones, its the other ones you mentioned that I think may be one and the same. Please advise?

 

Ok, that makes it crystal clear. Thank you. I was wondering if I was missing some extra lights, or something???

 

From the manual:

To prevent 12 volt battery discharge
If the interior lights and personal lights on when the door is not fully closed or the interior light switch in door position, the lights will go off automatically after 20 minutes.

 

I have had two occasions when my husband has come into the garage and told me I left my dome lights (interior lights above my head) on. This weekend we went away in our RV and when I went to go to work the next morning I had no power. I had the car towed to the dealer, they told me the interior lights had been left on. They replaced the battery (under warranty) the service guy and I walked out to the car, I'm apologizing for leaving the lights on and as we approached the car I looked inside and the interior lights were on. He unlocked the door and said "Oh they must have left them in the on position". Today when I got to work I waited and checked to make sure the lights went out, which they did. 3 hours later something made me go check the car, the interior lights were on. I got in the car slid the lights switch to the OFF position and came in and called the dealer. I have an appt. to have it looked at next week so till then I am keeping it in the off position. As for them going off automatically that is false at least on my car.........

 

ouch indeed! yours seem to actually turn ON after 20 minutes! i hope they solve that problem for you.

i have never tested leaving lights on, but i did forget to turn off my head light (it was foggy enough that the auto sensor wouldn't turn the lights on, so i did it manually. however it was also bright enough that i forgot to turn them off!) and when i got back to the car at the end of the day, i noticed the lights were off. I was scared that the car wouldn't start, but everything worked without a glitch!

 

I have made a copy of the page in the manual about the lights going off after 20 min. What I'm a little nervous about is the fact that the dealer didn't know that. That should have been the first indication that there was a problem. Instead they said it was my fault the battery was drained because I had left them on. Also just curious but why would it be necessary to replace a brand new battery (only 6 months old) with another one, not just re-charge it. We have done that for years.

 

Maybe they did just charge it, how do you know they replaced it ?

 

Obviously, I only have their word that they relaced it.
I also have my car back from the dealer and they said they could find wrong nothing wrong with it.
Soooo I am just suppose to wait till it happens again and then bring it back. So much for a fix.
Hopefully it was all "just my imagination", which is what I felt like at the service dept. "Maybe you did this, maybe you did that, maybe you just thought you saw the lights on."
Well thanks for letting me vent......I still love my car and pray that this whole thing was a fluke.hwell:

 

Replacing the -fully- drained battery is a good practice. When you fully discharge -any- lead acid battery it will shorten its' life. Once, perhaps shorten it by 10% (if it is only left fully discharged overnight - if you leave it for a week or more it's going to be much worse). If you do this (overnight fully discharged) several times you could loose as much as 40% of the batteries capacity. This is what shortens its' life. Batteries loose capacity with time and number of discharges/charges and the depth thereof. Eventually it will get to a low enough capacity it won't hold overnight with -nothing- on. At that point it will be ballast. If you don't abuse the battery with full discharges or even large discharges it should last 4-6 years. If you do abuse the battery good luck getting 3 years out of it.

 

The SKS turns on the lights as you approach the car. Perhaps this is why the lights were on when you checked.

Tom