My cousin complained about this too, and it turns out that it only works after certain events. You need to have just turned off your engine after driving, open a door, then close the door. If the door is opened before the engine is turned off, it won't work. If a door is opened for the second time, it won't work, etc. There might be other scenarios where it also works, but the bottom line is it doesn't work all the time. If this doesn't turn out to be the problem, I'm not sure what it might be. The only door switch pin is the child protection lock, and I don't think it's related in anyway to this. Or maybe they are referring to the sensor that lets you know if a door is open or not? But I guess you'd easily see this in the speedometer cluster.

 

t^3, thanks for the info. The other thing though is that double clicking the Lock button on remote also doesn't turn off the lights as expected.

 

On my gen 3.5, if your headlights are on after turning off the engine and you open a door, it'll turn off. What did your friend do? In ten years, not once have the headlights been left on thanks to the auto-off feature. Unless you have a different routine from put the car in park, engine off, open door - it should work reliably.

 

t^3, thanks for the info. The other thing though is that double clicking the Lock button on remote also doesn't turn off the lights as expected.

Double-clicking the Lock button doesn't work for turning off my headlights too. But my auto-shutoff works fine... just as t^3 said, it has to be a specific order of events.

 

Double clicking "lock" on my remote turns off my headlights. I think this feature is specific to XLE models? i dunno for sure.

But regarding the auto-off feature... the car designers must expect that the driver must exit the car via the driver's door after turning off the engine. If the driver exits via a different door, this auto-off won't work. Also, if you exit the car via the driver's door, then turn you headlights back on, then they will stay on indefinitely. I found it best to just leave the light settings in "AUTO" mode and let the car take care of all that.

 

You said it is a 03 camry. may still be under warranty take it to the dealer and let them deal with it unless it has more than 36k miles on it anyway. My 94 LE V6 will work whether I open the door before turning off the engine or not. If I open the door and have not turned the engine off as soon as the key is in the off position the lights will turn off. My Sienna is the same way as long as the key is on the lights are on but once the door is opne and the key is in the off position the lights turn off.

 

Thanks for the replies. I tested it today doing the sequence of events as you guys suggested: Start with engine running and headlights and park lights on-> turn engine off -> remove key -> open and close driver's door. And about 30 seconds later the headlights turned off by themselves. :clap:

My friend must have done something out of the ordinary or absent mindedly turned them on after the car was already off. So no trip to the dealer is necessary.

My car is a Toyota Matrix that has the always on driving lights and the automatic on and off headlights and park lights (I never have to turn the lights on or off day or night) so this feature on the Camry is new to me.

 

For my SE.........if you turn the lights on after turning your engine off......it won't shut off with lock button x2

Here's how it should work.....Turn on headlights.....drive drive......turn car off, open door, close.....lock x2.....lights are off.

 

My grandmother drives a '98 Camry LE. If you turn the engine off with the headlights still on and open the drivers side door the lights will turn off immediately. In my 2002 Camry LE (and I love this) Toyota has a 30-second auto-delay programmed into the headlights. Its suppose to benefit people who have driveways in front of their homes and the headlights act as both security and lighting for the front of your house at night to see the door and such. If you turn off the car and open the drivers side door with the headlights "ON" they should turn off automatically in about 30 seconds. I noticed that you have to close all doors (including the trunk if its open) before the Auto-Delay timer begins to countdown. This seems like sort of a precautionary system. Once all doors are closed and if you have keyless entry and you press the "Lock" botton ONCE your headlights should turn off in about 30 seconds. As other members have said (and I found this out by accident) if you press the "Lock" bottom TWICE your headlight will turn off immediately. I take advantage of my Auto-Off feature daily and have never experienced a problem such as your friends so he didn't do something right.



Auto-Off occurs only when your LOW-BEAMS are turned on. For Gen 5 owners you can have your DRLs & Yellow Turn lights on at the same time. When you turn your engine off the DRLS have an Auto-Off feature and turn off automatically but the yellow turn-signal lights WILL REMAIN ON until you either turn them off manually or open your car door at which point the Turn Lights will turn off immediately.

 

this isn't really helpful, but if you can't seem to figure out hte problem, and you want a semi-long term solution, you can get your friend to go out and get an optima yellow-top battery....then even if he leaves his lights on by accident, it won't drain his battery :

 

I didn't know the 2002-2004 camrys had auto headlights. Hmmmm, strange though, it doesn't work on my dad's gen 5. And I did the 2x alarm and all.

 

learn to turn off your headlights

 

That's pretty much what I've done. Every time I step out of the car I check the headlight switch stalk to make sure they're off... Only took one time of the auto-off feature not working for me to abandon my reliance on it

Kinda wish I could wire up an alert buzzer if they're on when the door opens, but oh well.