Headlights stay on?

Gen II auto-off is not on a time delay. With the Gen II Prius, the headlamps stay on until the driver's door is opened. If you turn on the headlamps after opening the driver's door, or exit through another door, the headlamps will stay on until the battery expires.

Tom

 

OP are you saying you powered the car down and the lights stayed on?

Or that you left the lights on and just had the car in park?

If you powered down the lights go off.

If you just had it in park they stay on.

 

Note that the British Prius has different headlamps than the N.A. model.

Tom

 

Tom, I'm not in England. Was what I said wrong? I have a 2009 and if I power down the car but leave the lights on, they do go off.

If I have it in park and leave them on then they will stay on unless I power down or turn them off.

 

My mistake. Your profile shows England.

The OP lists his Prius as a 2006. The 2006 model does not behave in the manner you describe. Obviously the lamps remain lit if the Prius is left running, but they don't turn off when the Prius is powered down. They only go off when you manually turn them off, or open the driver's door.

Tom

 

England, Arkansas, Tom. People make that mistake all the time. No problem. I didn't realize there was a difference in the way the headlights worked between the 2006 and 2009. Sorry.

 

No reason to be sorry. I didn't realize there was a difference either, until I read your post. Do you have HID headlamps?

Tom

 

There are regional differences too. In Canada we have DRLs so we mostly have halogens and we can get the auto position that turns our headlights from drl to headlights when it gets dark enough. I don't think I've moved that switch in months. When I get start up the drls or headlights go on as required. When I shut down the car they go off when I open the door.

 

That's not right. Something is fishy with your headlights.

Tom

 

If your car is not under warranty, then of course the least costly approach is to live with the car the way it is, and turn off the headlight switch manually.

The body ECU is supposed to perform this automatic function. Figuring out why it is not doing this might be a labor-intensive project.

Do your interior cabin lights go on and off automatically, as you open and close the doors? If no, then the potentially simple answer is that the driver's door switch is bad, and its replacement would solve the problem.

If the door switch is working OK, then the body ECU itself may have a problem, and you'll have to consider whether it is worth paying several hundred $$$ to replace it.

 

Further, just to be clear, the Canadian headlamp operation is more complex than posted above.
When you get into the car when the ambient light level is high and put the car in "ready" (or "make the car ready" as many like to say) the DRLs will turn on -UNLESS- the parking brake is on. Then they won't go on until it is released.

If the ambient light level is low and the headlamp switch is in the "auto" position, then the headlamps and instrument lamps will go on when you put the car into "ready". The parking brake has no effect.

When you turn the car off the headlamps -may- go off or may stay on until you open the drivers door. I've seen them react both ways and haven't figured out why yet. BE WARNED! If you sit in the car after turning it off you can drain the battery. The halogen headlamps draw about 10 Amps on low beam and about 14 Amps on high beam. So after a few hours your battery could be in trouble.
Just open and close the drivers door after turning the car off and you'll be fine.

 

Don't know about "programmed".... mine was like that from the dealer. Always go off when I open the door if on when I shut it off. Haven't seen one that didn't work like that. As far as "programming" goes, it only takes a minute or so to do it. They shouldn't charge anything. My son backed into a post and kicked the rear crash sensor so that the airbag light was on........ they wanted to charge me an hour($87), tried a code reader but the only one that would do it was the one Toyota has. Finally agreed to pay them for it, as I told them I knew how long it took to do it, took it in, got it back in 10 minutes. They sheepishly said "Uh... no charge for that". Sometimes telling the dealer that you already know their tricks makes a difference.