ABSTRAKCT

My headlights and fog lights will flicker periodically and come on all by their selves when the car is off. They flicker while pushing in the clutch pedal, pulling up the hand brake or turning the wheel while parked. When driving with the high beams on they flicker when turning the wheel left and the intensity of the lights will vary wildly while driving from very dim to normal brightness and it seems that the fog lights turn on and off while the high beams are on as well. One night I had the lights come on and they would not turn off no matter what I tried and I finally disconnected the battery. The only consistant thing that turns off the lights, except for that night I mentioned, is tapping the clutch pedal. In other words when I tap the pedal when the lights have turned on by themselves they turn off. I should also mention that when the lights trun themselves on it is only the headlights and fog lights, none of the other marker lights come on.

Needless to say I am getting tired of this. I have had the car in to the dealer twice, the first time they could not find any fault and the last time they "fixed" it by changing a relay... Anyone have any similar issues???

bB2NER

That's the first time I've ever heard of this sort of thing in 2.5 years of being on here. Hope they get it fixed before it causes a real problem.

koalaty2

I PM'ed you some thoughts.

pooder

I was going to suggest grounding problems somewhere 'cause that can cause these kind of problems.

But please share with the rest of us what *you* think might be going on so we can avail ourselves of your wisdom; ScionLife is about sharing . . . right?

bB2NER

I still think it's possessed or a poltergeist or something.

ABSTRAKCT

Update:

It was completely dead today. I couldn't jump it or charge it for a few minutes with the jumper cables. The dash lights came on slowly then faded out, then came on bright and strong but all I got was a click when I tried to start it. Thus it was towed to the nearest dealer today, on their dime thankfully.

BTW, my co-workers agree with the possetion idea!

brambling

Maybe you have a bad battery. Did you ever check the Voltage?

bB2NER

I'd just tell them I want a new vehicle. No car should EVER do this sort of thing. EVER!!! It's a LEMON!!!

brambling

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT!!

Fusion-Ti

Hmm...did you install anything? Who did the foglight install? If you haven't touched the car and it came like this? One more time is all takes, and you should be able to claim the lemon law as long as you're under the specified time/mileage. My dealer took back my SLK230 cause the alarm kept going off by iteself, and they couldn't find the problem (that, and I took it to the dealer 14 times in 18 months).

ABSTRAKCT

The car is stock accept for the wheels and the dealer installed the fog lights. They just called and are replacing the security harness. The car is stock accept for the wheels and the dealer installed the fog lights. They just called and are replacing the security harness. I only hope the also performed an exorcism... I will file a lemon law claim if this happens again. Not sure if I will go for another Xb if it comes to that. Thanks for all your input, I printed this for the dealer since they didn't seem to know what was really wrong.

xBster

That is too weird...I'm steering towards Poltergeists or a loose ground. ...lol. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened when they installed the Fogs...just took a while to start screwing up. I think I would hang a cross on the mirror just in case.

bB2NER

I totally agree !!!

brambling

Well, I suppose you could pull the fuse on the fogs and see if it goes away.

biggs17

I'm not ACE certified or anything, but I'm fairly knowledgable about cars. I don't think a loose ground can cause anything to come on or not be able to be shut off...

But obviously the flickering thing would be an obvious sign of a loose ground...

All I can say is... strange indeed...

ABSTRAKCT

Well a few of you called it: a wire was rubbed through the outter casing and was the root cause. I had the dealer install cruise control when I bought it and they moved a part of the wiring harness to make it all connect up and that move put the offending wire in the wrong place. They replaced the "security harness" and tell me it should all be good to go. I will believe it in a few weeks when nothing happens... Anyway thanks to you all for your input!

koalaty2

Glad to hear that it got it fixed "they believe". Where was the "rubbed bare" wire. Anywhere near your clutch workings? Anyway, glad it is fixed, and hope it stays that way, and you can regain confidence in the car again. It is a unique shape, and everything done after stock makes it uniquely yours.