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Parking lights were on instead of the main lights

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by shazcan, Oct 22, 2009.

  1. shazcan

    shazcan New Member

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    I've read threads about lights going off one by one but this seems to be a new one.
    I was driving home last night when I noticed a couple of people flash me. As I'd been travelling in the city and on well-lit roads, the first thing I did was to double check was that the lights were on, which, of course, they were. As a sub-concious thing, I check at the same time to twist the switch all the way, just in case they are simply on the parking lights instead, and check where the switch is visually.
    I presumed that a light was out and that was confirmed on the back roads when my visibilty wasn't as good as normal.
    When I got back I looked to see which light was out. Both lights were on, but something seemed to be up. Not knowing which was which, it seemed to be that the parking lights (the top ones) were on but the bottom ones weren't.
    I switched off and got my partner to come out and have a look. I put the headlights on and this time both sets of lights were on. Switching to parking lights, I saw what I saw before.
    So now my partner thinks I just didn't check properly, which is a fair assumption in the circumstances (and it was a long journey late at night) but I know that I checked!
    So am I going mad and managed to turn them back to parking lights at some point or is this something electrical?
    Sanity at stake here!
     
    #1 shazcan, Oct 22, 2009
  2. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Sorry!
     
    #2 patsparks, Oct 22, 2009
  3. Mike Dimmick

    Mike Dimmick Active Member

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    The parking lights are always on when the tail lights are on - in the 'headlamps on' position the parking lights remain on. It could be a bad contact in the stalk, a bad relay, an intermittent fuse, etc. It's most likely to be the relay or one of the connections before that, though, as I'd expect only one lamp to be out if it were a fuse - the headlights are fused separately.

    Power for the lighting relay doesn't go directly through the stalk, the stalk's position is monitored by the Body ECU which controls various relays (the wiring diagram for North American cars is pretty complex due to the option of HID headlights, which I don't think were ever an option here, and daytime running lights and Auto On/Off for Canada).
     
    #3 Mike Dimmick, Oct 22, 2009
  4. shazcan

    shazcan New Member

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    Thanks for that. I tested what driving with parking lights was like on a dark (and empty) bit of road for a second a couple of days ago. There's no way I could have driven like that- it was pitch black!The lights were dimmer that night though. Maybe I had a temporary problem with one light which resolved itself by the time I got back. There are threads about that, I see.
    Do the lights go into parking light mode automatically when the power is off? That might explain why I saw just the parking lights on when I got out and checked. (unless I knocked the stalk somehow when I got out...not ruling out human error here!)
     
    #4 shazcan, Nov 1, 2009
  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    There are three light positions: 1) Off; 2) Parking lights only; 3) Parking lights and head lights.

    Position #3 with failed head lights looks identical to position #2.

    Tom
     
    #5 qbee42, Nov 1, 2009
  6. BAllanJ

    BAllanJ Active Member

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    I don't know about the UK model, but in Canada we also have an auto position where the lights switch from drl to proper lights when it's dark enough.
     
    #6 BAllanJ, Nov 1, 2009
  7. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Sure, go ahead and rub it in. My ancient POS Ford van had this feature, but not my high tech Prius. :mad::rolleyes::D

    Tom
     
    #7 qbee42, Nov 1, 2009
  8. shazcan

    shazcan New Member

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    As a post script to this, my drivers side headlight failed the other day. A blown bulb. All connected I think! I've already had a tail light blow since getting this car in July.
    Seems that every Toyota I've had is a little flakey when it comes to this type of electric problem, as I have an Avensis which eats bulbs on a regular basis. (still going strong though after 220,000 miles...)
    Thanks for your input guys and I'll keep an eye on how the lights are looking.
     
    #8 shazcan, Nov 22, 2009
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