I am hoping someone here can help me with this problem on my 2010 Camry LE. My headlights are randomly turning on when the headlight switch is in the Auto position, well after the car has been turned off and locked for the night. This has been happening in the middle of the night, and I have woken up to a dead battery a few times in the past couple weeks.

I figured this out because my neighbor called in the middle of the night, and said my headlights were on. I went outside, and sure enough, my headlights were on, even though the switch was in the Auto position (and the car turned off and locked). I am 100% sure the headlights were off after shutting down and locking the car. I had to turn the switch to the Off position to get them to turn off.

I took the car to my Toyota local dealer, but of course they could not duplicate the problem. I took the car home, and wouldn't you know it, the very next morning my battery was dead again. The headlight switch again was in the Auto position.

The next night, I left the headlights in the Off position, and the car started right up the next morning. The following night, I again left the switch in the Auto position, and guess what. The battery was dead again. My headlights are randomly turning on after the car has been sitting for a while, well after being locked up, in the middle of the night.

I called the dealer back, and they supposedly checked with Toyota national service advisor. My dealer said that the national guy said they have never heard of this before. Out of thousands and thousands of cars, mine is the only one (so I must be crazy). They said to take the car back to them and they will try to replicate my problem, but can't guarantee they will be successful.

If anyone has any idea why this is happening, I would really appreciate your advice. I don't believe I am crazy, because my wife and my son are witnessing the same thing. I really don't think my car is being occupied by a ghost. Thanks in advance.

 

It's not unheard for something like this to happen. Some years ago there was another issue on Camry with headlights coming on, Toyota started replacing the module that controlled the lights.

Toyota also had an issue where the remote door lock computer was draining the battery overnight, the fix was a replacement computer.

Are you closing all the doors, trunk, etc. Leaving the switch on all the time, not changing position once the engine is off?

You might be the only one with the problem but not untypical of dealers to put you off.

Make sure the dealer has documented the problem in the cars service log at the dealer.

Continue to monitor the car, is there some condition when the lights come on, perhaps when raining.

If unsure about being able to catch the lights being on before a dead battery (such as overnight) turn the lights to off.

Thus it could very well be a problem with the electronics, Toyota never heard of it, is not interested at this time in pursuing it, not enough people have complained, etc, etc.

 

I've just started having the same problem. For three mornings in a row the battery in my 2011 Camry Hybrid has been dead and I've had to jump it to get it started. I brought it to my dealer today, who tested the battery and said that it was okay and he said that he noticed the lights coming on while the car was shut down. He beleives as well that it is because we had the headlights in the AUTO position so we're trying leaving the headlights selected OFF tonight and see what happens. I've got to say that we have never noticed the lights being on at night but maybe we just missed it. I'll find out tomorrow.

 

Thank you !!!!

 

Sounds exactly like the problem I had. The dealer was unable to duplicate the problem while the car was in the dealership. The problem was that they were only checking during the day time, so the auto lights would not come on with the daylight.

Someone suggested that I put electrical tape on the light sensor on the front of the dash. I did that, and sure enough, the lights came on during the day (with the power off, and the light switch on Auto). I took the car back to the dealer, and they were finally able to duplicate the problem.

Bottom line is, the dealer kept the car for nearly a month trying to figure out what was causing the problem. They kept testing, ordering parts, replacing parts (relays, controllers, light switches, etc, etc), testing again, etc. Each time they tried something, the problem would continue. I refused to pick up the car until the problem was fixed. At least they let me keep a loaner.

Finally, after all that time, they thought they finally fixed the problem. However, I was not satisfied with the uncertainty. Toyota agreed to work out a favorable trade on the car, so I dumped it and purchased a different Toyota model. I was not going to trust another Camry. Don't know what is going on with the Camry model, but it is not the same quality as previous versions.

I hope you get your problem fixed, and would be interested to know what the dealer determined was actually caused the lights to mysteriously turn on. It was a huge headache in the case of our 2010 LE.

 

Hi,
Turning my headlights to Off rather leaving them in
Auto did not help. The battery was still dead in the morning. The electronics unit (GPS, Audio, Backup camera) in the consol began acting up a couple of weeks ago and a replacement is on order. The Toyota service manager explained that the lights the mechanic was refering to in this case was the lights on the electronics unit coming on not the headlights and they beleive that it is this electronics unit draining down the battery. I sure hope so. I'm not sure why he thought having the headlights switch in Auto has to do with it. Nothing I guess. I took my multimeter and found the battery had been drawn down to 5.8 V by morning. I'm half tempted to take my multimeter and read the amps through different fuse slots and track it down myself.

 

Hi again,
Here's an update. Yesterday I figured out how to turn the touch screen off. I pressed the "DISP" button and then touched the "Screen Off" button on the touch screen. The back up camera image still appeared when the cars gear was in reverse and it still would show the temporary messages for bluetooth connected and audio control changes but was blank other than that. I turned the display off last night before turning the car off for the night and the battery was not dead this morning. It could be a coincidence but I doubt it since the battery has been dead every morning for a week. We're having a replacement electronics unit (Radio/ backup camera/GPS etc.) installed today so I'll have to wait to see but I'm planning to leave the display off unless I'm using the GPS.

 

My 6-month old, 5,000mi 2015 Camry XLE Hybrid has a remote starter, LoJack, and dash cam all installed by Toyota. After finding the battery drained numerous times, The local dealer replaced the battery and advised me to turn off the auto headlight switch at night. The Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) warning light also comes on at random times. The dealer traced it to a short in the driver side BSM, and ordered a part to fix it. It has been a month, and the car died last night after not having been driven 4 days (was home sick). AAA restarted car, and I drove it 2 miles to school. Dealer says car must be driven on highway every day to keep battery charged. Also, the BSM part is not in stock anywhere in the United States. Overall, the local dealer has been supportive, but I am having second thoughts about this high-tech car and the need to be driven to keep it charged.