Stereo & Electronics - "dark switch" for headlights

i have a 98 camaro that will not allow the lights to be turned off while the car is on. im tired of having to turn the car off so i can kill the lights. can i make a switch so that i can bypass the "always on feature"?

I dunno about the cars, but in the trucks you can push the Dome Override button 4 times to switch off the automatic lights. I'd be surprised if there isn't something like that in your car. Check the owner's manual.

dome override button? ill have to expirament with the buttons on the dash, maybe something will work out

dome override button? ill have to expirament with the buttons on the dash, maybe something will work out

On my truck, its by the headlight switch and cabin light dimmer.

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281500

pull the e-brake just enough to make the "brake" light come on while your car is OFF.....then start your car. no headlights

pull the e-brake just enough to make the "brake" light come on while your car is OFF.....then start your car. no headlights

does that little trick require pulling the ebrake up a notch, and then starting the car? so no turning the lights off without turning the car off first?

OK, you're headlights aren't always on, they're automatic - they go on when it's dark enough and off when it gets light. You can disable this by bypassing the light sensor that's mounted in the dash next to the defroster vent. Pull up the dash panel so you can get under it, unplug the wires from the sensor, and use a small piece of wire to connect the two wires together (sort of a "jumper" across the connector). This will make the system think it's daylight all the time so the lights won't come on automatically. Your headlight switch will still work normally so you'll have full manual control of the lights.

Take your left side vent out. Take the two screws holding your light switch out. Find the orange/redish and put a switch on it. When the switch is on, your headlights will work like normal. When the switch is off, your headlights will be turned off

Careful - there are two red wires and an orange wire on the switch. The red wire you want is in pin G of the switch. Cut the wrong one and you won't have headlights at all. Also, all three of those wires have battery supplied voltage so be sure to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery before cutting.

All in all, the sensor bypass is safer and easier to restore to stock later (since there's no cutting involved). You could always add a switch across the sensor bypass wire to allow for turning the automatic function back on but why bother when you can just turn on the headlights manually when you need them.

All in all, the sensor bypass is safer and easier to restore to stock later (since there's no cutting involved). You could always add a switch across the sensor bypass wire to allow for turning the automatic function back on but why bother when you can just turn on the headlights manually when you need them.

Second this...

Here's a few pics of the sensor. This is my 98 Z28. I DID NOT have to pull off the drivers side a-pillar cover to get to it, only removed the passenger side and popped up the dash panel from that side, you'll be able to get your hand under there very easily to turn it 1/4 turn and pull it out. As you can see in the second pic, plenty of slack! This is the easiest way to disable the auto headlights as was mentioned above. Took me about 3 minutes to simply cut each wire on either side of the sensor, and butt-splice them together. Now the headlights never come on unless I make them! Hopefully this helps...

http://www.bayareastereo.com/camaro/sensor.jpg

http://www.bayareastereo.com/camaro/sensor2.jpg

All in all, the sensor bypass is safer and easier to restore to stock later (since there's no cutting involved).

Took me about 3 minutes to simply cut each wire on either side of the sensor, and butt-splice them together.

Hmmm... :confused:

Saudekeep if you dont want to do the wiring stuff.....or until you do it

1. car OFF
2. pull brake one notch just to get light on
3. start car - no headlights

If you drop the brake back down while the car is on the lights pop on

Hmmm... :confused:

Well, I didn't see he mentioned no cutting. I assumed he was talking about this sensor because it is definitely the easiest way to do it, but I can't figure out how to do it without cutting the wires?

If you ever wanted to back to stock, all you'd have to do is re-solder them together...

Hold on. I saw a post or a Web site were this was discussed. The 3rd option is to go behind the radio and do the wiring. Let me find it.

Here it is.

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263803&highlight=Headlight+switch

And never mind. I'll vote for the shorting wire. WhiteBird00. You are still the "Monsoon Expert"

What are the Wiring colors for the 2 wires comming off the Light sensor? If I have time, I'll try to dig around behind the Radio to see if I can find them.

Careful - there are two red wires and an orange wire on the switch. The red wire you want is in pin G of the switch. Cut the wrong one and you won't have headlights at all. Also, all three of those wires have battery supplied voltage so be sure to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery before cutting.


You have to be careful when you cut ANY wires on your car.
There are several ways to do this. I suggest this way because he said he wanted it on a switch. All of them will work and all of them can be done with a switch if needed.

i have a 98 camaro that will not allow the lights to be turned off while the car is on. im tired of having to turn the car off so i can kill the lights. can i make a switch so that i can bypass the "always on feature"?


Saude

My advice. Several ways have been suggested. Pick a way that you feel most comfortable with and go do it. We will be around to help if you run into any problems :)

What are the Wiring colors for the 2 wires comming off the Light sensor? If I have time, I'll try to dig around behind the Radio to see if I can find them.
Both wires are dark green with a black stripe.

I have a T/A which doesn't come with automatic headlights in the US but does in Canada. I wanted to add the automatic headlight function (I have since changed my mind and gone back to stock) so I bought the sensor from the dealer for about $20. The wires were already under the dash so I just had to plug the wires into the sensor and plug the sensor into the dash socket. That's why I said no cutting was involved - the wires unplug from the back of the sensor. Now, perhaps the Camaro is different but I haven't heard of anyone needing to cut wires in all the discussions about it either here or on the other board.

i have a 1998 camaro and all i had to do want remove the bezel around the radio, undscrew the radio just enough to reach behind to find a black box with two lines running to it, its to the right of the removed radio, pull one of the two plugs out and check to see if your turnsignals work, and if they dont plug that one back in and pull the other one and put some electrical tape over it, and bam you have no more automatic headlights. only come on when you use the light switches

i have a 1998 camaro and all i had to do want remove the bezel around the radio, undscrew the radio just enough to reach behind to find a black box with two lines running to it, its to the right of the removed radio, pull one of the two plugs out and check to see if your turnsignals work, and if they dont plug that one back in and pull the other one and put some electrical tape over it, and bam you have no more automatic headlights. only come on when you use the light switches
NOT A GOOD IDEA! There are other circuits in that connector that also get disabled that way such as the brake warning light. Granted, a lot of people don't care if the parking brake indicator doesn't work (hell, a lot of people never use their parking brake) but for those who do it means you could burn up your brakes by not releasing the parking brake completely and you'd never know it (not to mention the affect dragging brakes have on performance and gas mileage).

Never do a modification that affects more than is absolutely necessary!

its an automatic so i rarely use the parking brake, so i have no use for it.

Even in an automatic you should use the parking brake all the time. When you put an automatic in Park, the only thing holding the entire weight of the car is the parking pawl in the transmission - a gear about an inch in diameter. Also, how often have you parked on a hill, let the car roll that few inches when you put it in Park, and then had a difficult time getting the car out of Park when you leave? Using the parking brake eliminates that problem.

Anyways, my point was that a modification should always be done with as few side effects as possible. I'm not saying that the way you did it is necessarily wrong but the extra ten minutes to put a jumper on the sensor leads would have disabled the automatic headlights without affecting any other system. Besides, he also asked about adding a switch to allow re-enabling the automatic headlights (which is easy to add to the sensor leads).

this is the method i used: http://www.xse.com/leres/ss/drl.html

Anyways, my point was that a modification should always be done with as few side effects as possible. I'm not saying that the way you did it is necessarily wrong but the extra ten minutes to put a jumper on the sensor leads would have disabled the automatic headlights without affecting any other system. Besides, he also asked about adding a switch to allow re-enabling the automatic headlights (which is easy to add to the sensor leads).

well my way takes two seconds and all you have to do is make sure your turnsignals work, plus any dumbass who drives with there ebrake on is retarded. my car wont move if i have the ebrake on all the way anyways. but which ever way he does the job is up to him all of them work.