Automatic Headlights 2001 Aurora

My 2001 Aurora is convinced that it is always nightime and as such wants the headlights on. I thought I would just use the manual controls but the car insists on reminding me every time with "headlights suggested" warning on the info console. The light sensor on the dash seems to work fine as I tested by covering with my hand and get the dash lights to switch back and forth from bright daytime to dimmer nightime. Is there a different sensor for the headlights or some other mechanism that I could check?

One other thing. . . does anyone know how to get to the light bulbs for the instrument cluster? The one that lights up the area around the fuel guage is burned out.

No ideas from anyone?

Sounds to me like your DRL's are working fine, I can't speak for the 2nd gen, but with DRL's the headlights come on whenever the car is in gear regardless of time of day or ambient light levels.

As for the dash lights, you would have to pull the dash

According to the owners manual, during the daytime, the high beam bulbs are supposed to be on but at a lower brightness and serve as the drl's. At night the normal headlights are supposed to switch on and the high beams shut off (unless you want high beams, in which case they are full brightness). If I manually shut off the headlights, the high beams do come on (when the car is in gear) at the lower brightness, as I believe is correct. When in auto mode, the regular headlights are always on (as well as the tail lights and all of the light bulbs under the switches and knobs), which should not be the case.

Ok...well thats definitely 2001+ specific, I am not really 100% familiar with the nuances of the 2nd gen.

The instrument cluster lights are led style and include changing out the odometer! Needs to be done by authorized dealer. (sorry) Had mine changed about 6 months ago ...got tired of not being able to see how fast i was going.

The led style issue also came up when I replaced the burned out bulbs on the steering wheel buttons. They were not actually led's but were soldered directly to the circuit board. I bought new bulbs at radio shack for about $1.00 and soldered them on. I have to say, that I was a bit irritated to see that gm had no intention of replacing these bulbs, only the whole part. . .at I am sure a nice profit to themselves. I'll probably start pulling things apart and see what I find.

I figured it out.

When in auto mode, the headlights turn on when you turn on the windshield wipers. Since the Aurora has automatic windshield wipers I had them in the position for auto, which is the slowest delay mode position. Seems the computer thinks that in that position the wipers are actually on, not just in "standby". I guess this means that I either get automatic windshield wipers or automatic headlights, but not both.

I'm confused - what do you mean by "standby mode"?

Are you saying that the wipers only come on when it rains? Is there some sort of moisture sensor?

When in the delay mode - don't the wipers cycle evey 30 seconds or so (if in the slowest mode)? That being the case - I can understand why your headlights are on - because the wiper circuit is turned on...

I can't remember if this was standard or part of one of the option packages, but my 2001 has a sensor that detects rain drops on the windshield. It uses some sort of optical system and attaches to the inside of the windshield behind the rear view mirror. It actually works very well. If you leave the wipers in interval mode, they only come on when the sensor detects drops on the windshield. The more drops, the faster the blades go.

I can't remember if this was standard or part of one of the option packages, but my 2001 has a sensor that detects rain drops on the windshield. It uses some sort of optical system and attaches to the inside of the windshield behind the rear view mirror.

GM had this out on the Luxury cars back in '98. My father has the Auto Wiper (as described above) as a standard on his Buick Park Avenue. The first generation ('95 - '99) Aurora's didn't have this.