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Headlight up/down: is this normal?

Joined
9 September 2001
Messages
2,277
Location
Long Island, NY, US
Turning the headlight switch from "off" to the middle position turns on the marker lights and leaves the headlights in the down position, yet, turning the switch from full "on" back to the middle position turns the headlights off but leaves them in the upright position. Is this normal, and is so, what's the rationale behind this?

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Russ
'91 black/black
 
Perfectly normal. Mine operate in the same fashion.

I'm thinking that the engineers designed it this way since they didn't want two switches to bring the headlights down (middle and off). They just went with OFF.

Another reason may be the need to turn your headlights back on after turning them off (keeping the swith in parking light mode). An example would be when your valet parking your car at night and kill the lights (parking lights on) only to have the valet driver flipping them up again to turn on the headlights. This would prevent the headlight motors from wear and tear but then again, how often do you do this?

[This message has been edited by Vytas (edited 17 November 2002).]
 
The reason is if you are driving in freezing weather that is wet you may want to leave the lights up so that they don't freze in the down position.
 
But you can keep the headlights up with the dash button. If you relied upon the headlight switch to leave the headlights up, you'd have to leave the marker lights on too. Then when you parked the car, you'd either have to leave the marker lights on (bad idea in ice storm season) or turn the lights off completely, in which case you'd have to use the button to put them up again so they wouldn't freeze in the down position.

I suppose it would cut down on wear & tear when valet parking the car... if I ever let someone valet park it I'll know for sure:
smile.gif




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Russ
'91 black/black
 
Originally posted by Russ:
But you can keep the headlights up with the dash button. so they wouldn't freeze in the down position.

What dash button are you referring to? Wouldn't the parking lights go off when you turn the ignition off?
 
Originally posted by Tony Montoya:
What dash button are you referring to?

It's the leftmost button under the instrument cluster, left of the steering column. Pressing it raises the headlights without turning them on.

Wouldn't the parking lights go off when you turn the ignition off?

Nope, they stay on and the little bell goes ding-ding-ding...


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Russ
'91 black/black

[This message has been edited by Russ (edited 18 November 2002).]
 
Originally posted by Tony Montoya:
There's a button on the dash that operates the lights?

Yes.

Most cars with pop-up lights have a dash button to raise the lights, so that you can do so when you're washing the car, without the lights actually going on.
 
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