Tail light stay one after tinting window

Any chance it's an auto-light function? Maybe try deactivating auto if you currently have it on.

 

This is from page 246 of owners manual. Says after 20 minutes all lights should turn off. Looks like the 20 minute timer starts over again if you open a door, etc. At least if it can't be figured out, it shouldn't leave you with a dead 12v.

246 PRIUS_OM_OM47B54U_(U) 4-3. Operating the lights and wipers
■12-volt battery-saving function In order to prevent the 12-volt battery of the vehicle from discharging, if the headlights and/or tail lights are on when the power switch is turned off, the 12-volt battery saving function will operate and automatically turn off all the lights after approximately 20 minutes. When any of the following are performed, the 12-volt battery-saving function is canceled once and then reactivated. All the lights will turn off automatically 20 minutes after the 12-volt battery-saving function has been reactivated: ●When the headlight switch is operated ●When a door is opened or closed ■If “Headlight System Malfunction Visit Your Dealer” is displayed on the multi-information display The system may be malfunctioning. Have the vehicle inspected by your Toyota dealer. ■Customization Settings (e.g. light sensor sensitivity) can be changed. (Customizable features: →P. 748)

 

That stinks. I am at a loss.

 

Yha mine does that too (NOt for an hour) It's for "Safety" (I think) r ur auto lights on the stock?, If ur worried just turn the lights off then put them back on auto

 

Did you try locking the car?

 

Sometimes disconnecting the negative terminal on the 12V battery for a few minutes corrects some glitches. After reconnecting, you may have to reset radio presets and auto up/down windows. Simple enough to try and see if it fixes your issue...

 

They probably unplugged the 12v while working on your car. I suspect that there is some huge capacitor in the car to act as a current regulator , protection and a buffer for the 12V battery so when you turn off your car ... the power for the lights that stays on for 30 sec or so comes from the capacitor and not the 12V battery. When they reconnected the 12V .. perhaps a glitch happened and when you parked your car , instead of turning off , the LED stayed on and slowly discharged the capacitor .. since LED are low consumption lights it can last for hours. A big capacitor can hold a charge for days .... i saw someone who had replaced his regular 12V battery with 6 huge capacitors just for fun and it totally worked as long as his started the car at least once a day to charge them .. but this is another story. This is what i can think off if the problem went away and your regular 12V was not drained.

 

Did you have this warning on the display “Headlight System Malfunction"?

 

During the process of windows tinting, they keep the car running because they need to open partially/close the windows from time to time. I don't see why they would need to unplug the 12v battery or any battery at all.

 

Next option could be to drive it to the dealership.

 

I would guess that the metalized tint has shorted out the light causing it to stay on?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The exact same thing happened to my new 2020 PP with only 5 miles on it last night.
I came home back from the window tint shop around 6 PM and the tail light (Toyota calls side marker ) stayed on brightly for a few hours and then it was dimming and flickering and then suddenly becomes a little brighter for hour and hours. Sometimes it would turn off by itself for a little while. When I checked again next morning 6 AM, it was still on! I took it to work (40 miles away) and the light did NOT come on when I parked. I will check it again in a few hours.

 

Since last Friday morning, 3 days later Monday/today, it has NOT happened again. I don't think it's the main 12V (starting) battery draining issue that happened during the tinting at the shop. However, originally I thought so because the doors were all open (causing the dome lights to come on) and for whatever reason the shop guy turn on the windshield wiper in the air (not on the glass) for 20-130 mins. That was a very strange scene. When the tail light was staying on that night at home, I even measured the battery voltage and it was at 12.5 VDC. I hooked up a 3-amp battery charger and brought it up to 13+ VDC in an attempt to shut off the tail light after reading similar posts. However, the tail light did NOT shut off even when the main 12-V battery was fully charged to 12.8+ VDC. Oh well, it's all good now.

 

Chazman62 - can you confirm whether you had metalized tint installed or not? Would help to confirm or deny that theory.

We have ceramic tint and haven't had an issue.

 

When they install tint they typically spray the inside of the glass with copious amounts of soapy water. Something shorted out??