On Tuesday I noticed this annoying light outage indicator while I was driving to work. So i stopped by my usual mechanic (Shoji) to have him take a look at it. I turned the car off and walked inside, then when i restarted the car no indicator was on. Regardless he did a quick walk around of my car and none of the lights were out. He said that if it appears again to leave the engine on, so I don't reset the code.

Thursday night the indicator came on again. So I drove home and had my bf inspect the lights, before turning off the engine. Everything was working fine.

Again this morning the light indicator came on. This time I took it to Shoji to look at, again all the lights were working. I then restarted the car and the light didn't appear.

WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH MY STUPID INDICATOR LIGHT?!

Anyone have issues with this before?

 

Had this happen once...it was the license plate light. The idiot light was on and I found the license plate light out. I just tapped the lens and the light popped back on. Figured it wasn't seated very well and corrected that at the first opportunity...haven't had the problem since.

 

Did you check your brake lights? The indicator will reset when the ignition is cycled but will only be triggered when you press the brake pedal. I had this happen a couple of weeks ago.

 

yes i even went so far as the reverse lights... the car is fine. it's driving me nuts! haha.

 

Could be a bulb that is not seated correctly. Also if you have installed any LED bulbs the light will come on.

 

I thought YOU were driving IT ... I digress...

It could also be an 'idiot' light on the instrument cluster. Verify that they are all coming on when you put the key in and turn it to the run position.

I've attached here two illustrations from the owner's manual that shows all of them (I think it does anyway)... just in case you don't have one.

Also there are other lights you can check... cargo and dome lights (probably did check them, I'm just listing for completeness), the passenger side air bag disable light in the middle of the center console between the ash tray and the lighter. I believe it comes on briefly during startup (on/run position).

There are also any number of dash and environment control night time illumination bulbs that could have gone out. You will have to look carefully at night.

Remember to check turn signals while they are flashing (it will report one filament out even if it's not always on).

Last bit only applies if you have replaced any bulbs with LED bulbs... if you didn't have a load resistor installed, the bulb out warning light will stay on because the resistance in the line where the LED bulb is located is no longer the same as a regular bulb and the system thinks it's a blown bulb.

Hope that helps... good luck!

 

Not true I have installed LED bulbs just about everywhere and has not been a problem...

I also suggest checking the license plate lights... its one many forget to check...

 

Your LED Bulbs must be different from mine Sides... I have them in the License plate light location and they cause the bulb out warning light to stay on... superlumination.com sells "load equalizers" (resistors) for just such an event (specifically for newer cars that sense whether a bulb is out).

 

Same here. I replaced all of the interior bulbs/lamps with LEDs over a year ago with no problems and no indicator lights on the dash. And Timelord, all of the bulbs/lamps came from superlumination.com. without requiring any additional resistors. I didn't do any of the exteriors with LEDs like you did, though, and perhaps that is the reason for the different result (???).

 

I changed all of my interior and exterior bulbs to LED's from www.superlumination.com about a year ago also, and had to use load equalizers. The interior bulbs will not trigger the "bulb out" indicator.

 

Grr... I am still having the stupid indicator light come on. It's more frequently now. I have someone check for me everytime I stop the car. Nothing is out! this car is driving me mad!

I am going to have my mechanic check all the connections to make sure everything is good... or just turn the stupid thing off!!

 

You cannot turn it off, you will have to remove the bulb behind the dash.

 

i can't just hook up a code reader and turn it off? i'm pretty sure i could as a duct tape like fix.

 

Strange as this sounds, I had a brakelight go out and of course the "out lite" indicator came on. I saw it was a brake lite and bought one from the dealer. ALL lites worked but the out lite indicator continued to illuminate everytime I hit the brake and then would go off. Then, if you turned on the headlamps, the out lite would come on and stay on until the car was shut off. Also, the cruise control failed to work if the lites were on. As I needed to get my NJ inspection, I began to look closer. I ordered another brake lite from the dealer but since they had none in-house I went to the local Pep boys. They sold them in packs of two. Inspecting the one purchased from the dealer, it had ONE contact on the bottom of the bulb where the Pep Boys where TWO contact bulbs. Once I put in two bulbs that had two contacts, everything worked perfectly. The single contact bulb worked as far as the brake illumination, but left the "out lite" indicator wanting.

Also, the cruise control started working once the correct bulbs were installed

It drove me nuts for awhile but keep looking. Maybe it's something as simple as that.

 

I had the same problem, and In another thread some cool dude suggested I check the license plate lights, never thought of that, so guess what, it was just that so I thank the guy or gal tht suggested that............this Forum is just so cool Ron

 

I had this problem from one of the little eyebrow lights being on its way out. Warning light kept coming on, I'd check, all looked fine. A while later the light actually died, I replaced it and issue no longer happened.

 

Check the license plate lights?