Audible alarm when lights left on

[Tamago]

Originally Posted by dobsona

When my 'little reminders', like the piece of pipecleaner on the doorhandle, work... but then there is always the time when someone distracts me when I am in the middle of my 'turning everything off' ritual...

i've left my lights on before..

my trick is to always glance back at my car when walking away (and who wouldn't, it's so freakin AWESOME LOOKING) and double check that i turned off my lights....

i disabled the audible warning the first week i had the car. no door ding, no headlight reminder, no ignition reminder, nothing... 5 years later and i can count the number of times i've left my lights on... well.. using my hands and feet

[dobsona]

Originally Posted by Tamago

you'd need a latching relay but it should be able to be done pretty easily..

that or grab the signal IN wire for the parking/headlights, and have it tie into the IGN circuit instead of the BATT circuit.

Thanks for replies. Like the idea of teeing into the ignition circuit rather than using the battery. This could solve two problems, 1. leaving the lights on, 2. as we drive in Italy and it is obligatory to have lights on day and night, it would then be possible to leave them switched on.

As I do not have a wiring diagram at present, could you please indicate which wires need to be changed (which colour are they?) and where they are located.
Thanks agin for your help.

[firemachine69]

The only time I've ever had an issue was when I installed an aftermarket deck on my Sunfire (thus deleting any audible alarms). Did it once and learned my lesson, then did it one last time after rushing my girlfriend to the hospital.


Apparently I misunderstood the original "offender". If it's your car, you typically learn after a rather bad incident - like in minus fourty degrees weather... In any case it all revolves around PAYING ATTENTION to your surroundings. If you know you have a hearing problem, shouldn't you be more inclined to double-check visually?

Sorry, someone posting they have a very bad hearing problem, and looking for a louder buzzer, is like telling the ambulance to get a louder siren...

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by dobsona

Thanks for replies. Like the idea of teeing into the ignition circuit rather than using the battery. This could solve two problems, 1. leaving the lights on, 2. as we drive in Italy and it is obligatory to have lights on day and night, it would then be possible to leave them switched on.

As I do not have a wiring diagram at present, could you please indicate which wires need to be changed (which colour are they?) and where they are located.
Thanks agin for your help.

I did some experimentation last night with the headlights off with the ignition. The headlight dimmer switch connector is shown below:



ED is the common for the headlight switch (which actually provides power to the headlight relay's coil). I thought that opening it would turn off the headlights, and it does, but the parking lights remain on and the light reminder buzzer still buzzes. There is another circuit which also needs to be opened as well:

T1 is the common for the parking lights and the feed to the light reminder circuit for the instrument cluster. It also needs to be opened.

With a dual pole (DPST or DPDT) relay (12 VDC coil, 10A rated contacts) this can be accomplished:

The coil gets connected between the white wire on the ignition switch connector and a ground.

One set of normally opened contacts gets connected in between the headlight dimmer switch connector and the ED wire (wire gets clipped and the relay contacts are inserted in-line).

The other set of normally opened contacts gets connected in between the headlight dimmer switch connector and the T1 wire (wire gets clipped and the relay contacts are inserted in-line).


I only had SPDT relays laying around, so once I pick up a dual pole relay I'll do a better write-up with pictures...