04 Sienna FRUSTRATION w/interior lights draining battery!

[kjohnsonusa]

I have an 04 Sienna (LOVE IT). Why on earth did they not have the interior lights automatically turn off if left on for a long period of time? I'm a former Caravan and T&C owner and they have that wonderful feature that if an interior light is left on by accident, it will automatically shut off after a certain amount of time (20-30 min) to save the battery. In the almost 2 years I've owned my Sienna, I've come out to a dead battery AT LEAST a dozen times now (no joke). I have 3 boys and once in a while they will click the back overhead interior light and it will accidently get left on. The times I don't catch it is when it's daytime, obviously, so by the next day I go out to a dead battery.

The 'unhelpful' dealership told me to either leave the lights turned off (via main dash control) or remove the bulbs from the back lights so they can't be left on. Hmmmm, that's what a woman wants to hear - remove the light bulbs from your interior lights and/or just leave the courtesy lights off so that when you go to your car at night in a dark parking-lot (alone) you'll enter a pitch-black van. I don't think so.

Anyway, after complaining to three different dealerships, one Manager finally agreed with me and felt there must be some type of programming they can set to the interior lights to automatically go off if left on. So next week I'm going to see him and they're gonna hook up to the programming computer and see what options they get.

I'd LOVE to hear from anyone who has been able to get this 'automatic shut-off' feature added on to their Sienna. I"M DESPERATE to solve this problem.

Regardless, this is a VERY POOR feature on the Siennas that was overlooked. Well, I'm off to re-charge my dead battery...... again.

[jzchen]

Have you tried leaving one of the lights on, and then turning off the light switch, (main dash control,) and then turning it back to the door setting, to see if it disables the light? I'm sorry I haven't been able to try yet because I haven't used the van in a while.

[cityboy]

I have a 98 and 04 Sienna and have had the same problem.
The way to get around this is to lock the van once you get out.
Once locked, it automatically turns off the lights.
I live in Canada, so I don't know if this was a U.S. feature as well.