HELP! 2001 Impala Headlights

You can cut the lights by engaging the emergency brake. works like a charm.

The only thing I have programmable via the radio for lights is the
amount of time the headlights stay on when exiting the car after it is
turned off.

The headlight "switch" or decoration as I now call it, does NOTHING at
night.

The daytime running lights (DRL High beams at lower intensity) turn
off when the vehicle is shifted into park.

Anyways, MY solution after fiddling with it was fairly simple
I went to radio shack and bought a tiny white LED lamp, a 680 ohm
resistor and some small gauge wire. Ran the wires from on top of the
dash to under the dash where they can't be seen, the LED sits on top
of the DRL sensor covered by a black rubber bicycle tire repair patch.
Hooked it all up to ignition switched power through a 1/4 amp fuse.

Now when the the car is turned on it enters DRL mode very quickly
regardless of the time of day or night. When in PARK at night, the
lights are off. Shift out of park, DRL's come on, then I can turn on
the headlights via the headlight switch, just like a real car!!!

If it were easy to access the wiring to the DRL sensor, which is
basically a light sensitive resistor, one could play with increasing
or decreasing the resistance to simulate DRL mode all the time, with
the headlight switch as an override... they way GM SHOULD have
designed it.

BB

You're not doing anything wrong. Maddening as hell isn't it!? But you
won't get one bit of sympathy from the GM Lemmings that hang out in this
news group. They think the lighting idiocy GM forces on it's paying
customer is just as wonderful as apple pie (even if it is certainly NOT as
"American" as apple pie!)! They'll say that you're some kind of nut case
for wanting to turn you lights out when it's dark (even though there are
clearly some situations when you may want to...you example being one of
many). They don't think you have any right to have control over the
lighting systems (even though every state law I know of is very clear in
stating that it's the operator's responsibility...not the manufacturers, or
anyone else's). I've been down this road on this topic with GM...all the
way up to letters to Bob Lutz. A few other people I know have also. They
don't even write back...just a black hole. The dealer won't disable the
auto systems either! So, good luck. Next time buy a Ford or a Chrysler
product...they are normal cars that function like normal cars... Imagine
that!? Now, here come the flames!!!


| Ok, what am I doing wrong? Went to the drive-in the other night, it
| was hot, had to leave the car running for air conditioning. Had to
| leave very embarassed, could NOT turn off the headlights!!
| During the day, when the DRL are on, shifting into park kills the
| DRL's. But at night, when all the lamps are on, shifting into park
| the headlights stay on if the car is running. I tried applying the
| parking brake, turning the engine off and on, damm lights keep comming
| on. Any suggestions other than take a hammer to the headlights?
|
| Thanks in advance,
| BB

I don't know about base model Impalas, but my 2000 LS has the capability to
turn off the auto headlight feature through the radio panel. Personally, I
don't see the problem. If the headlights MUST be off with the engine
running, turn on the park lights manually, that should turn the headlights
off.
Roy

Yes, maddening as hell, but your rant wasn't helpful in the least.

BB

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|
| | | | as
| | | | | | or
| | They
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| Yes, maddening as hell, but your rant wasn't helpful in the least.
|
| BB

You didn't like my suggestion to buy a different manufacturers car? That is
what I'm going to do! But hopefully it relayed that you aren't alone, at
least. :-) Your LED solution sounds like it worked out fairly well. Too
bad you had to go through the trouble to make the car work the way it should
in the 1st place.

One solution I've read some have done is to actually _replace_ the ambient
light sensor circuit with a fixed resistor at the proper resistance rating
that tells the BCM that it's daytime all the time. That way the headlights
never come on at all by sensor...basically making the lights function
manually at night (well except for the DRL portion). You might want to try
that one out sometime as well...once the warranty has expired, that is! :-)

Try engaging the emergency brake. It works on my Astro van

Simple, turn car off, set parking brake, leave car in park, restart car, head lights will be off. head lights will not come on, unless you put them on with the switch or you put car in drive and release parking brake too. I do security work, and it's a pain to restart for a complete "blackout," if you don't mind parking lights, you can just pull out head light switch 1/2 way and this will kill head lights only, leaving only parking lights.....Have fun!

Mine will go off at night if you turn on the parking lights,auto headlights will stay off. Park lights are still on tho.

Buy a headlight switch at the junk yard because it sounds like something is burnt out in the switch or night time sensor module, I had a similar problem. start at the easiest thing to do, the switch, and then if that does not work go through the wiring or bring to a professional mechanic for diagnostics.

Easy solution, instead of wasting money and time with that LED trick just open the hood and find the fuses labeled ALC. There should be two, remove both of them. ALC stands for automated light control.

Note:Removing these fuses will cause the service car soon light to turn on

Fix is simple...It is not the daytime running lights that are the problem, its the automatic lights....
When you want to turn off the headlights with the car running at night simply turn the parking lights on with the switch. I don't know of any way to kill the parking lights, but this will definitely kill the headlights...

Turn off the car. Engage parking brake. Turn car back on. On my 2001 and 2002 Imapala's, the headlights won't turn back on until I disengage the parking brake.

I would have just disconected the headlight fuse in the panel box for the movie and then popped it back in after. Yes it's ridiculous what lengths us Chevy drivers have to go to in order to get the lights to go out in park.

Actually, at the bottom of my LED solution message, I mentioned that
if I had access to the wires to the DRL sensor without ripping half
the friggin car apart, I would have done that. Apparently to get to
the sensor, the front dash plate must be removed. That involves too
much disassembly of the all the trim starting at the middle of the car
and moving forward. LED works just fine! :-)

BB

BBB

Next time you go to the Drive In Movies and want to run the car with the
air on, drape two bath towels over the front of the car, preferably
black towels..


Harryface


1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE
~_~_~260,000 miles_~_~~_

Whats a drive in?

( Ok, what am I doing wrong? Went to the drive-in the other night, it was
hot,)

I had a 2000 Impala and now have a 2003 Malibu and both vehicles have the
capability to change the lighting controls, alarm controls, oil change
intervals, and a bunch of other features that you can change right through
the radio.

I wish my Malibu LS had that disable feature. I've explained why before, so
I will spare the regulars of this NG that rant again. ;-)

I don't think your suggestion will help this person though. Even if he does
as you suggest (turn the switch to the "parking light" position), drive in
theaters I've known require ALL lights be extinguished which can't be done
on many of the GMs in the situation that the original post describes. And,
if he was able to disable the auto light control through the radio panel as
you think he may be able to, turning the lights off completely would only
cause the DRLs to come on then (which may work if setting the parking brake
turns off the DRL on this model) The Impala's DRLs are based on the
high-beam lamp, the light beam (albeit reduced intensity) would likely have
a even greater apparent brightness level than the regular headlamps due to
the fact that the DRL beam is shining upward into people's eyes if he can't
get them to go off. He's may be basically stuck! Wouldn't is just be
easier if the lights just worked like every other car company design out
there...the light switch that has a position that says all lights "OFF"?

Gm really needs to give the control of the basic functions of the car back
to the operator using simple _industry standard_ controls (for those that
want that control, at least). They are the only car manufacturer out there
that has so bastardized the lighting systems to the point that they don't
even work the same or look the same across their own product lines. The
parking brake will turn lights off on this model and not that one. Putting
the car in Park may do it on this one, but not that one. On the trucks and
large SUVs you can press the dome light button 4 times to turn them off. On
the Impala you do it through the radio panel (apparently). Good lord...put
the damn "lights off" function on the damn light switch where it belongs for
Pete sake! But, I know, I'm the oddball...the heck with having any sort of
normalcy or standard or intuitiveness to a control design. Let the driver
fumble with different standards while trying to operate the car, always a
good idea to do what ever you can to keep the driver as confused as
possible! (oops sorry, said I wouldn't rant, didn't I!) ;-)


| I don't know about base model Impalas, but my 2000 LS has the capability
to
| turn off the auto headlight feature through the radio panel. Personally,
I
| don't see the problem. If the headlights MUST be off with the engine
| running, turn on the park lights manually, that should turn the headlights
| off.
| Roy
|
| | | | as
| case
| | | | | | or
| the
| They
| | | Imagine
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