headlights stay on after car is off

[73nancy]

hey guys have a question for you. have had the car for awhile and everytime i used to shut the car off then turn the headlights off they went out. now within the last week i tunr my car off hit hit the headlight switch and the lights stay on for a few sec then sounds like a relay clicks and kills the lights. im not sure if this is what they are supposed to do orginally because it never did that untill now. let me know if any of you have cars that do the same thing im going on a 1900 mile trip soon and want to make sure everything is working right. thanks ryan

[1990LTD]

autolamp


is yours a 90-91? i haven't had the feature on my 88 or 89 but it's been on every 90-91 i've ever seen. anyway, the thing behind the headlight switch (the switch being the part that pulls out and turns to dim your dash lights) will also turn to the right. this adjusts how long the light stay on after the car has turned off in case you need to see some junk. turn that knob all the way to the left and it'll sort of "click", and just shut the lights off like normal.


EDIT: the feature could very well exist on earlier cars, i just know the ones i've owned.

[87_crown_vic]

i have had auto lights on cars ranging from 1986-1992... somebody probly turned the dial behind the light knob you pull out... turn the dial clock wise to turn that off... or it has a sensor in dash that turns on lights when car is on when it starts getting dark... people always tell me at store and stuff my lights are on... i say they shut off on there own...

[86VickyLX]

hey guys have a question for you. have had the car for awhile and everytime i used to shut the car off then turn the headlights off they went out. now within the last week i tunr my car off hit hit the headlight switch and the lights stay on for a few sec then sounds like a relay clicks and kills the lights. im not sure if this is what they are supposed to do orginally because it never did that untill now. let me know if any of you have cars that do the same thing im going on a 1900 mile trip soon and want to make sure everything is working right. thanks ryan

Congrats, you just found out you have autolamps! It's a nice feature to have! There's a knob behind the pull out switch that controls the delay. Turn it all the way to the left, and it turns off the auto lamps, the more you turn it to the right, the longer the timed delay. I think the longest is 30 seconds.

[gadget73]

yep, autolamp. Cool feature but I always set the delay to the shortest possible so the lights shut off while I'm still near the car.

[87gtVIC]

yep, autolamp. Cool feature but I always set the delay to the shortest possible so the lights shut off while I'm still near the car.

I do the same thing...for what reason...Not really sure as to why but it makes two of us who does it.

[73nancy]

ok thanks guys i must have hit it when i turned them off never knew my car had them. def cool so now i know.

[BerniniCaCO3]

hahaha. I think I had the same confusion when I first got this car...
One time turned the dome lights on by accident and didn't know how to get them off. I spent an hour looking for a faulty door switch!!

[91waggin]

lawl I remember that you posted about it.

[73nancy]

ya i knew the dome light was to the left.i never even looked at the dial behind the pull out knob.

[1990LTD]

I do the same thing...for what reason...Not really sure as to why but it makes two of us who does it.

3 of us

[tjc78]

I liked the little delay you could dial in. It made it nice if you parked somewhere dark the car would light your way for a minute or so. My current ride with all its "technology" shuts the lights off immediately when you shut the car off. I believe Panther's lost the ability to control the delay with the restyle in 03.

[86VickyLX]

I liked the little delay you could dial in. It made it nice if you parked somewhere dark the car would light your way for a minute or so. My current ride with all its "technology" shuts the lights off immediately when you shut the car off. I believe Panther's lost the ability to control the delay with the restyle in 03.

No. It's just changed by different means. Through the computer. Customer Preference stuff. You need a scan tool, but I'm pretty sure only the factory scan tool will do it though. So you might just have to have stealership change it.

[tjc78]

No. It's just changed by different means. Through the computer. Customer Preference stuff. You need a scan tool, but I'm pretty sure only the factory scan tool will do it though. So you might just have to have stealership change it.

Actually, believe this or not the dealer said even with their computer they couldn't change it. I was surprised at that.

On my previous car, the dealer had no problem changing it, like you said.

[gadget73]

requiring a trip to the dealer to plug in a fancy tool to do the same job a simple knob did is not exactly progress in my book.