COROLLA '03 HEADLIGHTS COMES ON WHEN IT IS VERY COLD

tech · 2006-02-24T15:21:21+00:00

I have a 2003 Corolla and the head lights comes on by themselves whenit is very cold. I took it to the dealership and they could notidentify the problem ! Does anyone know of any TSB from Toyota to fixthis problem. I realise that there a few other people with the sameproblem. I wonder why Toyota is not placing a recall to resolve thisproblem to avoid people being stranded in cold perhaps in the middle ofnowhere. Thanks for the Cell phone.Some one told me that the problem may be with the headlight switch,another person told me that it may be with the headlight relay, someother person told me to snip a wire to Day Light Running relay and puta switch to enable or disable DRL probably to resolve this issue .Before I try any one of these, I need some reliable advice from someonewho fixed it of having previous experience of resolving this weirdstrange advice on this matter and it will be greatlyappreciated.Thanks.Tech

Feb 24, 2006 23 Replies

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tech 20 years ago

Oh... no ! I am very serious to resolve this issue. I think I might have found out the problem ! I didn't put a sleeve on the stalk switch. I geared it to the high beam position and that did it. Its always nice to see bulbs are coming on day and night as I was thinking of DRL relay problem. It seems that the plastic or rubber used on the stalk switch may be either too small or it has a coefficient of contraction unsuitable to make short circuits or so. I will be monitoring the condition today when the temperature dips well below zero.

Thanks for helpful remarks and pointing to the right direction.

Tech

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tech 20 years ago

I think that Toyota must do a recall on this condition as it could make people stranded in the bitter cold causing saftey issues. What could one do when a battery is drained with this condition in a deserted place when the temperature is very cold. Toyota doesn't provide mobile phone service inside their vehicles neither does it have a spare battery. This may be a serious safty issue and I already mentioned it to the Toyota Head quarters in CA. They told me that the engineers may look into it and make a decsion if there are too many instances of this nature.

Why can't someone from Toyota simply spell out the remedy in simple words when the dealerships say that they never heard of it. It really amazes me as I am a first time Toyota owner. I used to own Pontiacs most of the time till I begin to have so many problems with my previous Pontiac Grand Am.

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tech 20 years ago

This may make sense as I moved the stalk swtich for the headlight into the high beam position and the light didn't come on yesterday for some reason. I do not know whether the temperature was not cold enough to make this defect to happen or it was the switch of the low beam short-circuiting when it gets cold because of the shrinkage of the plastic cover of the headlight switch stalk. I am not really sure of the problem yet. Just experimenting to isolate and indentify the problem.

Thanks for all the feed backs.

Tech

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Ray O 20 years ago

Actually, Toyota did spell out the remedy for dealerships. Unfortunately, not everyone at the dealerships read every TSB or remember all of them.

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