Turning off headlights at night?

[DeClerq]

I did a quick search but didn't find anything...Is there a way to turn off the headlights at night (not while driving of course)? For example, I'm waiting outside of a store for my wife earlier tonight and I had the car running because it's 20 outside and I wanted the heater on. The whole time I'm sitting there the headlights/tailights are on. I would have rather not sat there for 15 minutes with all my lights blazing. I was hoping it would have a set-up similar to my Subaru where if the parking brake is applied, the DRL's turn off, then turn back on when you release the brake. I yanked up on the parking brake and the lights remained on.So any ideas? I'm sure there's a simple solution that I'm too blind to notice.

[Kari]

Try starting the car with the parking brake engaged rather than applying it after the car is started...I know my lights stay off when the parking brake is on but I always have it on when I start the car. As far as I know that's not something that changed in later model years...

[DeClerq]

Thanks, I'll give that a try. It's an auto, so we just put it in park and don't use the hand brake at all.That could be why I haven't figured out how to turn them off yet.

[Kari]

Mine's an automatic too, I'm just paranoid. That should work for you though. Just be glad you don't have an '03 and don't have to wait for 15 seconds after you take the parking brake off before the headlights come on at night...heh.

[northvibe]

i have a 04 and when i start the car with and w/o the parking break engaged the lights are ALWAYS on..uh driving me nuts! cant warm the car up with out lights shinning in my eyes while i wait inthe house theres a way to "hack" the wiring somewhere on this site i thought.....

[ragingfish]

if all you want to do is disable automatic light sensing, just disconnect the remote sensor on the dash.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »theres a way to "hack" the wiring somewhere on this site i thought.....There are a lot of threads about disabling the DRLs and the auto headlights. I could point them out for you, but it is now your homework assignment to use the search feature to find them.The easiest thing for the situations discussed in this thread so far are put the parking brake on before starting the car. If the car is running and you are parked and want to turn them off, put the parking brake on, turn the key to off, wait a moment or two and restart the car.

[the_nite_owl]

In my 05 setting the parking brake before starting only disables the DRLs. If it is dark out the headlights are on and cannot be switched off without modification.

[DeClerq]

Starting the car with the parking brake on doesn't work - the lights still come on.

[ColonelPanic]

So you've got an automatic, right? That's strange, starting with the parking brake on should disable the automatic light control. On an automatics at least. I've heard that newer manual-equipped cars won't disable the automatic lights when using the parking brake...