Lights out EOC

[wagonman76]

Good point about not turning the key too far back. That would be good practice anyway, since you don't want to accidentally turn it back to lock position and lock your steering wheel.

[some_other_dave]

A kill switch, if it just cut power to the injectors or the ignition, should prevent that behavior. Since you never switch the key out of "run", the lights should stay on. You may be able to test that by causing the engine to stall without touching the key. (E.g, brake to a stop with the car in gear in a manual transmission vehicle.)

-soD

[theunchosen]

Definitely safest bet to avoid tampering with the Aveo's standard wiring(and risking warranty voiding when something else goes wrong or more importantly short-circuiting something on accident) would be to pop on small fog lights at the very bottom of the grill. Grill block and an independent switch would allow you to run them without the split second switch.

My guess is its probably switching from running off the alt to avoid burning the battery life and then its programmed to shunt unnecessary functions. I kinda doubt the switching is causing much of that because most cars do that unnoticeably, but I'm not sure why there would be any interruption with the lights being on otherwise. The systems that shunt off "unnecessary" functions would be nearly instant(like air bags in my car that are instantly off but nothing else shows any cessation).

Wiring to the battery itself with a separate switch would avoid any "smart" tech it has to smooth that transition(the cause for the park lights to be off and then on after a short break) and it would avoid the car "outsmarting" you and trying to keep you from leaving your lights on.

Its also incredibly simple.

[cottonfox]

yeah, that could be a fun project...and probably much easier than a kill switch

[3dplane]

Or even simpler,get a strong neodymium magnet and place it on top of the
headlamp relay before you start your trip. (it will trip the relay to ON)
I am a mechanic at a GM dealership and use a 7/8" cylinder shaped neo.magnet pretty much every day for turning on various circuits like that when diagnosing electrical crap. Ofcourse it will be useless on solid state relays,and I'm not sure what your car has, so there is one more option for you with this issue. It is extremely annoying on these newer vehicles that EVERYTHING is out of control on them. We have a headlamp switch....why?
Just imagine the possibilities...headlamp switch on,headlamps on.Headlamp switch off, headlamps off NOOO! That would make sence and let you control something.We can't have that.
Sorry just had to bi*ch a little bit. I'm burning out from dealing with this all day.(maybe not for much longer)

[theunchosen]

I more or less despise when my car does something that I didn't tell it to. . .like turn the AC on because it thinks I might want that. For instance if I switch from hot to cold and then change the vent direction to anywhere but my feet it kicks the ac on. Not that it matters because its not installed anymore, but still. . .the little green light glares and laughs at me.

Also Mercedes advertised that their car was smart enough to turn the windshield wipers on when it starts raining. . .what if I had rainX and can see better without mucking up my fine coating of wax? If I am not smart enough to flip the switch when I need them I ought not be driving.

[99LeCouch]

Wow. That royally sucks. Even my auto-headlight Buick has enough sense to keep the lights on when I hit the switch.

My mom's Subaru and my old Hyundai used to kill the lights on anything but "run". Even with the switch on. It might be an Asian car thing. It was annoying when wanting to use the headlights and not power on the rest of the electrical system.