Headlights Randomly Came On

[turtlecow]

Just picked up my 2003 Matrix on Friday, so I haven't even had it for a week. Before I went to sleep last night, I made sure all of the lights in it were off (I'm obsessive about making sure the interior lights & headlights are off because I hate jump starting cars, etc). I got up to get ready for work this morning and looked outside and saw that my headlights were on. I go outside, and check the car. All of the light switches are in the off position, all of the doors are locked & closed tight, and the battery is dead. I brought it to the dealer and they tell me that it was a defective multifunctioner switch or something like that (he mentioned that it controlled all of the lights). He thinks that it shorted out in the night and caused the lights to come on randomly. Anyone else have this problem?

[biggdogg173]

Haven't heard of anything like that happening. Maybe search the forums and someone else had the same problem. If that happened to me I'd be really PO'ed nothing like waking up to a vehicle that doesn't want to start for one reason or another.

[NSimkins]

quote:Anyone else have this problem?I read about this occurring with a few other Matrix owners on one of the other Matrix websites. If I remember correctly, a common denominator was the cold temperatures but could be related to other issues.I will look to see if I can find the post for you.

[NovaResource]

quote:looked outside and saw that my headlights were on. . . and the battery is dead.If the battery was dead, how were the headlights on?

[NSimkins]

Here is the post:http://www.matrixowners.com/modules.php ... ttery+dead

[turtlecow]

Thanks to everybody for their help. I checked out that Matrix link and now have a list of demands to make to my dealer to make sure he fixes it correctly. Don't feel like dealing with this again anytime soon!

[Kent]

Same thing happened to me. Thanks for finding that link at the Matrix site guys. I'll be sure to bring it up to the dealer when I go in for service.Kent

[Sputnik]

Does this happen to Vibes or just Matrices? I wonder if thats what happened to mine? But how would I be able to tell...

[pmh013]

I read a bunch of threads on this ... can't remember which sites though. The workaround is to activate your brites before you turn the car off. What's happening is the cold is making the headlights come on, even though all the switches are off. By activating the brites, it's a different circuit, so the cold weather can't affect the problem circuit.I'd print out the info you find from the other forums (matrixvibe.net or matrixowners.com) and take it to your dealer.Hope you get this fixed soon!!

[Sputnik]

Yes, thanks. I've read the other threads. Problem is I haven't been to my car in 4 days and now its completely dead so I don't know how it ended up that way. I was just speculating at this point.

[MA-VIBE-FAN]

quote:Does this happen to Vibes or just Matrices? I wonder if thats what happened to mine? But how would I be able to tell... One way to tell, would be if your battery dosen't start the car in the morning. Might be a sign the lights came on at night in the cold. The Matrix board has a lot of these stories but no dead batteries. Vibe board has dead batteries but no light problem reports. WOnder if this is the cause of Vibe's cold weather battery issues?

[red]

seemed to be a common problem on trixs (matrix) early on in production, related to the headlight switch, i thought. i havent heard of vibes being afflicted until now but as far as cold starting...thats not lights coming on, thats just the 'AA' battery toyota disguised a car battery that comes std in our vibes and trixs.)lol