Headlights Staying On

[maddywork]

i have a 2001 lexus is200

a couple of nights ago i turned car off and went inside...a few hours later someone knocked on ma door and said my lights were still switched on...so i went outside and tried to swicth them off but they wouldnt switch off(they werent on auto but they were set to off)....ignition key was out and they were still on..they just wouldnt switch off....so i ended up disconnecting the Battery terminal as it would have drained the Battery by the morning....

next day i connected Battery terminal and still same...when car is running they work fine....swicth off and on fine.....but it's just when u turn ignition off and take the key out that they just switch bck on again and stay on!!!!!!

so i ended up taking the relay block out for the headlamps everytime i had to park the car!!!! annoying i know

so i took it to lexus manchester and they said that it needs a new "alarm ecu" and a new "offside front junction block" and they quoted me £645 (labour and including parts and vat) for the whole job!!!!

has anyone heard of this before and are they ripping me off.....coz the impression that i had (btw im no mechanic) was that it would probably be a new relay block for the headlamps!!!!!!

help

maddy

[DEMO]

what if you leave the switch on the 'auto' then switch off engine, take key out and open driver door... do they still stay on?

or have you tried cleaning the sensors on the front right corner of the dash (could be covered so lights stay on .... but then agen, should still go off when driver door opened...

puzzling that one... cant help you any further ...sorry mate

[andymull]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem. and it only started yesterday. RAC bloke said he has re-booted the system, he thinks its some brain that tells the auto lights to come on. i'll give lexus chester a bell on monday morning to book it in. glad its under a 12 month warranty.

[Rob]

its norm the headlight relay that needs replacing - to the first poster _ did u have a windscreen replaced before the headlights stopped working??

[Nel]

I am having the same problem with my is200. Lights stay on no matter what and have to take the light relay out every time the cars not in use. Why do you say has the windscreen been replaced as i know that the windscreen was replaced in mine a few days before i took possesion. Have had the light relay replaced once which stopped the problem for about six months but is has started again. Booked into lexus this week to hopefully get sorted, so am i looking at a bill of £600 then to get sorted for once and all?

its norm the headlight relay that needs replacing - to the first poster _ did u have a windscreen replaced before the headlights stopped working??

[Rob]

because sometimes the screen is not sealed properly and water can run down to the relay board and cause this - from what i remember it happened to a member on here

[Granite]

Thats right, water/moisture runs down wiring from multiplug at O/S of windscreen, and gets into fuse/relay block at drivers kick panel. Just needs a good blow out and reseal screen at wiring.

[andrewward2001]

I had the same problem some time ago which fixed under warranty. When picked the car up I was told that it was a wiring problem in the LH column stalk - they replaced it from another car they had in stock. Apparently took a while to work out what was wrong and involved much studying of wiring diagrams. I'd get someone to check the wiring to the stalk first if I were you.

[Chris.S]

we've had a couple of instances where there has been water ingress into the fuse box in the driverside footwell

a replacement fusebox was needed in both instances

[MAPLEXUS]

i've got same issue, will be thoroughly examining car on friday, will post results.... whether good or bad, looks like fuse box from this and other forums, let you know if curable without changing fuse box.

[LeeM]

I've got the same issue too. Recently after rain the lights wouldn't go off. I left the car with them on for 10mins. When I drove home and parked they went off so I left it.

I woke up in the morning and went to get in the car, there was a buzzing. The relay had been on all night buzzing and drained the Battery.

I had grief but basically Lexus Wolverhampton had it to look at. They blamed the in-car mobile phone charger for draining the Battery (which I didn't agree with but couldn't do much about).

They also said that a modification they now do to stop this issue is to grease a hole on the bulkhead to stop water ingress. They found some moisure in this area and carried this out.

Anyway, it rained again 2 days ago and it happened again so I'm driving around with the relay out at the moment waiting for them to re-open so they can have it back. Great eh!

[Rossi_IS200]

Yep it happened to me ages ago cost me £200 to have the water removed and the fuse box cleaned now after the heavy rain its happened again and im gutted.

Seein more people have the same problem with many ways of fixin it is disheartening as its so expensive goin to Lexus and even they dont know half the time.

[andymull]

HI,

Had the same problem last year, took the car to lexus chester, they replaced the relay. The same night it was the same, lights coming on and going off intermidently. so took the car back. 2 days later they phoned to say the had fixed it again, then asked for £250ish for a new boot seal they had fitted, i told them to run and jump for the cash as the car was still under warranty and they never asked if i would be ok to pay for the seal.

But the seal did work. they said water had leaked into the wireing at the inner quarter and started to rust causing the lights to fuse.

hope this helps.

[LeeM]

Just to let you know I haven't had the problem for month despite the downpours of rain.

Last thing that happened after Lexus changed the relay (which did nothing) was that Autoglass took the bulkhead cover off under the rear of the bonnet. Couldn't see anything wrong and refitted it. Maybe it was slightly leaking water in somehow. . .

[kev dood]

Gulp, am worried now, as I have recently had windscreen replaced - wonder if I can expect this to happen soon too!

If so, will be straight back to Autoglass and they can pay to fix it!

[LeeM]

Had issue again due to excessive rain last night.

When I came to my car, the alarm went off and then over-rode it with the key.

Had to take the relay out to stop the Battery draining.

As it happened, I bought a new car the night before so no problems anymore for me.

Good luck finding the root cause of this problem. (I'm an engineer and I couldn't).

Maybe the car was just being temperamental.

Cheers

Lee

[Rabster]

Hi Guys

I to have this problem yet again it happened at the start of the year when in winter season headlights on everything else off very annoying it fixed it self after a few days

HOWEVER

it has returned again but with a bigger bite now the relay in the engine bay for the headlights is vibrating so much you can hear it a meter from the car so i assume this has gone faulty, but i have just had a windscreen replaced by RAC, can i expect to find its not sealed propperly if this is the case where do i look to find this possible problem i know its likely to be on drivers side near the sensors, any advice greatly appreciated

Cheers Guys

[VVProtocolVV]

OMG...i had my windscreen replaced like 3 months ago by autoglass and upon reading this im getting worried (plus the fact i replaced my bonnet with a carbon one and its been raining a few days on a trot), so does anyone know how to prevent this from happening? and maybe take a few pictures and naming a few things to look out for and do to prevent this from happening...£200+ for repair would kill me over towards xmas!!

[andywebb]

hi,

My '99 IS200 has just developed this fault too - a neighbour came round (twice - good man!) to tell me my lights were on...

The behaviour is rather intermittent - sometimes it all works as usual, but more often the headlights can only be turned off when the ignition key is in, and they come back on when I take the key out. And even when it appears to have worked fine, the lights might come back on a few minutes later!

I've pulled out the light blue relay with 'Light Control Relay' printed on the side, so now the headlights won't come on at all (the sidelights still work). I've a nasty feeling though that the fault doesn't lie with the relay itself - with the ignition key in, the relay still works.

Does this sound like the same behaviour anyone else has seen? Is it the fuse box in the driver's-side foot well I should be inspecting next? I've had more than my fair share of new windscreens over the last few years...

thanks,

Andy

[Monster-Mat]

if anyone needs the complete fuse box i have 2 in my big box of bits

[Chris.S]

And what a big box of bits it is, thanks for the headlamp washer actuator mate. It works perfectly now and i mananged to change it without removing the bumper

[kev dood]

well, low and behold I have just developed this issue.

Been no problems up until now (had windscreen replaced by autoglass in september and all been fine - and I am sure we have had bad rain since then!

But, after todays downpoor, it seens something has gone amiss as neighbour kindly told me my headlights were left on!

As soon as I heard that, and saw that the rear lights were off, I knew it was this issue.

So, I have removed the headlight control relay (light blue one) until I can get it sorted. (I guess I could have removed the 2 fuses and that way keep at least side lights)?

My question is this, how and where should I look for water damage? The fusebox in the engine bay seems fine and I cannot see how water from near the screen would get into this.

I have had a quick look around the windscreen and cannot see any issues, so, I presume the issue is that water is running down from poor screen seal onto cabling and shorting wire/switch out somewhere else - possibly if harness goes through front bulkhead??

As others say though, once ignition is on, all light switching (including off) work fine, so I think the relay is probably OK.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[kev dood]

Just spoke to Lexus and they say a new relay is......wait for it........£52.38!!! How much!! for a relay - you have to be joking!!

So, before I replace it, I would like to know for certain if thats the issue. So any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

I am still a little confused as surely if the relay was at fault, then the lights wouldn't work properly when the ignition was turned on?

[andywebb]

I took mine to Lexus Reading and one of the workshop staff had seen the problem before - he just had to clean the contacts on one of the plugs connecting to the fuse box in the driver's side foot well - I think it was the middle one (of five). Touch wood the problem has gone away!

If you can turn the lights on and off when the ignition is on, it means the relay is working fine and doesn't need replacing.

Andy

[kev dood]

ummm, interesting, thanks.

I too spoke to Reading and the had seen it before.

I do NOT want to have to replace the relay board in the footwell as thats 200!!

The problem I think I will have is how to prove the windscreen is not sealing properly! Then to get autoglass to pay up!

Think I might have to take the seat out to have a good look at this connector, as its soo tight down there!