HELP - Orientation lights stay on

I've been through a few batteries over the past few months on my rarely driven 01 C2. Tonight I finally noticed that the interior Orientation Lights (LED's) do not ever shut off, even when the car is locked. I'm guessing that's what is draining the battery over a few weeks. Anyone else ever had this issue? Fixes? Thanks!

The lights will eventually shut off, I don't recall how long it takes but I have had occasion to wander into the garage an hour afterwards and the car is dark inside. Is it possible you have another drain elsewhere? Do you arm the alarm? Do you have a weak or older battery? Those lights drain so little in terms of amps that I cannot imagine they could be the culprit. Thanks, Peter

Peter - Thanks for the quick reply. Just to make sure, I went down to the garage and all of the LED's are still on and it's been a good two hours. I'm sure they don't draw much, but after a week or two I'm sure it's taking a toll on the battery.

Are you talking about the overhead lights by the inside rear view mirror? Have you played with the on/off switches?

C'mon Tim, give me a little credit for trying every thing before I wasted peoples time with a post To be specific, there is one LED on the overhead light cluster, one on both door handles, one by the ignition switch and one down by the luggage compartment switch. There is a small "pin" switch in the overhead light cluster to adust the brightness of these, but I've yet to find anyway to get them to shut off. Thanks for trying to help!

open and close both doors? do both windows drop and rasie when you open and close?

I really wasn't trying to insult your intelligence. I figured you had done this already, but I was wondering if maybe one of the switches was bad and if you moved it back and forth it, may turn the lights off even for a split second. I initially thought you were talking about the dome lights. As for the LED lights, I went out a looked at mine and they stayed on after the overhead dome lights turned off. The pin switch did dim the LED on the dome light but does not (as near as I could tell) dim the door handle LED lights. I'll wait a half hour or so and go check them again (without opening the door) to see if they are still illuminated.

Tim, no insult taken whatsoever. Let me know what you find out. I'm wondering if I have a faulty delay switch that never shuts off. Firehawk, no problem with the doors or windows. Thanks!

it sounds like its not seeing that the doors are closed, does the car lock ?

ga, Sounds like the ignition switch problem. I had mine do the same thing, (once it killed the battery) and finally tracked it back to the switch. I have not replaced mine yet, but did lube and clean it via the key hole. My problem was that I could pull the key out and not hear the mechanical click that indicates the key is removed. If i did not hear that click, all lights stayed on. I would push the key back in and out til I heard the click. After lubing, i don't have to play with it to get it to work. I should go ahead and spend the $30 for the part but have gotten lazy. Hope yours is an easy fix, RB

you should never lube you ign switch via the key hole, all that nasty lube runns in to the colum and makes a mess. replace it and be done with it

agreed, I may have even shortened the life on it, but did cure the one prob. on the lubing, i did clean and lube the key, not the key hole as I was a little fearful. I did use elect. cleanser in the keyhole though. RB

When I bought my car, the radio and some other functions were not turning off - it was draining my battery - it was a problem with my ignition (in the words of a brilliant service tech, "the car didn't know I had turned it off") - once replaced, everything has worked great. Your problems sound a little different, but perhaps the ignition problem, which seems to be pretty common, can result in your symptoms as well?

i've had my 01-c2 since march and i noticed this led light thing right away, seemed as if they never turned off. i don't know how long they stay on but mine do go off when i'm not looking. i drove my car yesterday and parked in the garage and was just reading your post (dark here) so i went out to check, all leds are out. i opened and closed the door and after the overhead and door lights went out (15-20 seconds) the leds stay on, i do not know how long.

ga911 - well, my car has been parked in the garage since 5:30 P.M. (Eastern Time) and it is now 7:35 P.M. I just checked my car and the LEDs are still illuminated. So 2 hours and still "on." I have not had any issues with the battery draining, but my car is a daily driver. My guess would be that something else is draining your battery. I'm not sure the LEDs would pull enough power to drain the battery.

OK, another update. I was going to run an errand and went out to that garage and looked at the LEDs at 7:51 P.M. They are no longer illuminated. They must be on a 2.25 hour (+/-) timer. FYI.

i opened and closed the door at 6 m and left home until 8:30 pm,the lights were out so based on what tim said "two hours and still on" and my observation of 2-1/2 hours and out so between 2 and 2-1/2 hours of on time. i wonder what is normal?

Tim - When I checked the LED's tonight, they were off. I hadn't touched the car since late last night. I'm assuming that the timer is similar to what you've found out - thanks for taking the time to investigate so in depth. You're right, now I need to dig deeper to find the battery drain

Chances are that it's the ignition switch. See: THIS THREAD

You are welcome! I'm glad I could help.

Mine take 2+ hours, perfectly normal and they don't use any sigificant battery current, from memory it is mentioned in the

What year did the LED's appear on 996's?

Mine is a '02 model. Can anyone suggest a practcal use other than we like to watch lights or parking in really dark places Oh that is it

well i doubt the leds themselves are the problem, leds draw almost no current to light, the issue is proably the alarm ecu or cluster staying on and thats the draw. you need to use an ampmeter and check the draw with the car asleep and then start pull ing fuses till it goes away

Is there a way to retrofit the LED's into an older 1999 996? I had them in my Audi and it does help find things at night.

They first came in MY01.

The LED orientation lights stay on in my 996 also (it's an '02). However, a typical LED only draws .3w of power. Your car would need to sit for weeks for the LED's to have any real impact on your battery. I think you are getting a power drain from some other source.

This is a good post. I noticed this phemomena with my 03 Boxster. It was quite annoying; though they do seem to turn off, like the others said, at some time over 2 hours, but I also noticed if I switched on the alarm, they went out immediately. But I have never had a battery problem that correlated with it. But who needs an alarm in the garage right? Another interesting Porsche engineering idea.