2000 Sunfire Lights flicker on/off while car is turned OFF!

[bodycount316]

Heya. Writing for my sister who's going absolutely nuts. About 2 weeks ago, her car lights started to flicker uncontrollably, when the vehicle is completely turned off. I noticed yesterday, while she had the car door open that the "the door is open" sound would also come on/off at the same rythm as her lights.

Needless to say, her battery died last week. It has since been charged, but she's afraid of going anywhere for fear of the battery dying on her at any time.

I have searched google, and this forum, and found no indication of this problem. The mechanics want to charge her 90$ canadian / hour just for diagnosing the problem, let alone fixing it.

Any help is greately appreciated. Please e-mail me direct at [email protected] (Yes, that is the actual e-mail)

[richtazz]

I would start with the headlight switch. call the dealer, as there was a recall on some of these cars and if her car is under the recall, the repair will be free. The chime you're hearing is the headlights on chime, which would be related to the bad headlight switch also.

[hopeless4life]

Does the car have a remote starter in it? because it sounds like a remote start hood pin problem?

[ponchonutty]

Originally Posted by hopeless4life

Does the car have a remote starter in it? because it sounds like a remote start hood pin problem?

Seriously???? Why would a remote start hood pin switch have anything to do with the lights???? It sounds to me like either the headlight switch, ground, or the intrument cluster going bad. You want to know why I said the cluster??? The lights are controlled through the cluster and are prone to going bad. I had one in about a month ago where the brights wouldn't work so they paid me to bypass the cluster and wire it direct.

[hopeless4life]

The lights will flicker on and off if you have a bad hood pin, the remote start turns the park lights on when the hood is open to show that it is in valet mode, which is why the hood pin is there to protect mechanics from accidental starts while under the hood. So thus when the hood is open the pin sends a ground signal to the remote start, telling it to shut down until that signal is gone which then turns the parklights on as to signify that it has been disabled. I`ve been installing these for years. I`ve seen mechanics replace modules thinking that was the problem, later to find out it was a hood switch. I`ve also seen remote starts with bad hood pins start with the mechanic under the hood because someone was playing with the transmitter. If remote starts are common in your area, by rights you should educate yourself on the functions and how to disable them so that you can protect yourself from injury while working on a vehicle.