04 Malibu/Maxx Automatic Lights

[wpbharry]

Lately, maybe 50% of the time, during bright sunlight, I see that my dash pointers and all exterior lights are illuminated.

Anyone else experience the same thing? I've noticed a few similar age Malibus around town with no DRLs on; I assume the owners have turned off the auto lights, which is what I do when this happens.

I assume the dash top sensor might be going bad. Or, it's yet another Body Control Module issue.

[slls]

Originally Posted by wpbharry

Lately, maybe 50% of the time, during bright sunlight, I see that my dash pointers and all exterior lights are illuminated.

Anyone else experience the same thing? I've noticed a few similar age Malibus around town with no DRLs on; I assume the owners have turned off the auto lights, which is what I do when this happens.

I assume the dash top sensor might be going bad. Or, it's yet another Body Control Module issue.

I have noticed that with my 04 Malibu, but the sensor is still in a shadow. I never turn them off, I like the DRL to be on. So I leave them on or go to the park setting, less strain on the generator.

[wpbharry]

In these cases, the sensor isn't in any shadows. I have another theory about the late-model Malibus I see w/o DRLs on. Maybe the dashtop sensor finally gives out altogether (and then the automatic lighting function quits completely)? Mine also refuses to shut the lights off after a period when exiting a parking garage.

e2helper?

I'll mention this when my Maxx goes in for routine service next month.

[e2helper]

I am not aware of any issues with sensor. As you might have noticed the sensor is designed to look straight up and so it follows overhead sky conditions and is not as affected by horizon which is why in early morning or late afternoon system will be in "nighttime mode" a little longer than you might light - especially on a very clear day. Overcast skys to sensor actually look more bright then you might expect.

System is designed to delay coming out of nighttime mode so will notice lights staying on for a good 20-30 seconds I think when you do a quick transition like when exiting a parking garage - I don't know if they try to anticipate stuff like this to shorten that time - that is something I could look into a little further. Lights will more quickly transition to nightime mode when entering a parking garage/tunnel (maybe only 10 seconds or so).

Service Technician can pretty easily use scan tool to read whether system is in Day or Night mode and the "raw" value of sensor in volts.

Truthfully I always get a little confused trying to interprete the state of a vehicle's exterior lighting by looking at the cluster/needle backlighting. More and more are lighting them up at all times so gets a little tricky. I would always rotate the "dimmer" switch to see if intensity changes - that tells me on most vehicles that the system is really in nightime mode.

I know I didn't help much but thanks for the question.