Headlights turning on and off by themselves

[nalbertasr5]

Hi everyone. NalbertaSR5 here with a 2000 4runner. My headlights will turn themselves on and off randomly when the vehicle is off. Sometimes overnight for hours. Today I discovered that my battery is completely dead! Its kind of spooky, this hasn't happened to me in over two months. Is my 4runner haunted?

I am guessing that it needs a new headlight relay? I know that the switch in the turn signal stalk can also be a culprit but I just installed a new one to hook up fog lights. I thought that fixed the issue but now I know it didn't! It has been doing this since last summer before I put it in the new stalk so that couldn't be the issue.

Any thoughts?

 

[spruce]

Do you have the auto-off headlight switch ?

Mine does so I often leave the lights on when I park and the fancy switch shuts them off. But it seems to stop working when the battery is low ( for some reason..) and then the lights will come on and finish off the battery.

It's happened 3 times when my truck was just parked and not ran.

Sorry it's not an answer…. hope someone has a cure.

 

[nalbertasr5]

Do you have the auto-off headlight switch ?

Mine does so I often leave the lights on when I park and the fancy switch shuts them off. But it seems to stop working when the battery is low ( for some reason..) and then the lights will come on and finish off the battery.

It's happened 3 times when my truck was just parked and not ran.

Sorry it's not an answer…. hope someone has a cure.

Hmmm I'm not sure if I have that or not. I have a Canadian truck with the daytime running lights so mine might be different

I will try replacing the relay and I'll see if there is any difference. Hard to tell because it seems to happen so sporadically!

 

[rmlamp]

Have you tried the relay? It could also be a short somewhere. I'm having a ton of electrical problems on my runner right now. Do you have a lot of rust/corrosion?

 

[nalbertasr5]

Have you tried the relay? It could also be a short somewhere. I'm having a ton of electrical problems on my runner right now. Do you have a lot of rust/corrosion?

The wires in the Runner seem to be in good shape, overall. I ordered a new relay from Napa and will try it out tomorrow. Hopefully it works. I'll update this thread after I try it.

 

[FrankieJoe14]

EDIT - saw you replaced the switch. Was the switch new that you put in?



My wife's 03 corolla was having this same issue. Does it happen only at night when the temps drop?

Turns out our issue was the headlight switch. There are copper contacts that contract with the cold weather and were turning on the lights.

 

[rallypoint_1]

Could be the turn signal stalk? My trucks lights turn off briefly when I make a left hand turn. If I move the stalk during the turn the lights come back on. Read that the stalks go bad.

 

[nalbertasr5]

EDIT - saw you replaced the switch. Was the switch new that you put in?



My wife's 03 corolla was having this same issue. Does it happen only at night when the temps drop?

Turns out our issue was the headlight switch. There are copper contacts that contract with the cold weather and were turning on the lights.

It's a new switch. I've had the same problem with the old switch as well. I am not exactly sure when it happens, but it mostly seems to happen at night so it may have something to do with the colder temp