I have a '91 C2 and according to the owner's manual I am supposed to be able to turn on the parking lights by rotating the headlight switch to the first position. On my car this does nothing other than turn on the little green warning light in the clock cluster. This is the case whether the key is in the on position or not. When I turn the headlight switch to position 2, the green light in the clock cluster goes out and the headlights and parking lights go on (only when the key is "on"). So I have functioning parking lights, I just can't turn them on without the headlights.

Also, I read that there is supposed to be a feature that if your key is out and the turn signal is left in either turning position the parking lights on that side of the car are supposed to light up. On my car if the key is out and the turn signals are in either turn position both parking lights and the headlights come on, along with the warning chime.

Since everything else functions normally I don't really have to look into either of these issues, though I suspect they are related to each other. I don't know if there is a "light module" that might control the functions that could be bad or could it be the headlight switch itself that is bad? Does anyone else's car do these weird things?

 

Hi how often do you drive the car,with that in mind, I had issus with my lights until I drove the car more than my truck.now I just have problems with the alternator, go figure!

 

I've only owned the car since June and we've put maybe 2,000 miles on it but almost none with the lights on. I only noticed this strange behavior today. I was going to look at a wiring diagram to see if I could figure it out, but suspect the problem is in the light switch itself. If it were more of an issue than it is I would just replace the switch (it's only like $85) and see what happens but like I said it is more of an annoyance than a problem. I've had cars that didn't even have a parking light setting and honestly I can't ever remember a time I used only the parking lights alone on any car intentionally, but it would be nice to know what's causing it.

 

I can only tell what I did with mine..ittermittently having lights on one side of the car then switch off and back on to have them on all sides. I would suggest just running like is and maybe look at replacing what bulbs need it. there again mine would do this but the more i ran it the better it would do what it was supposed to do. course mine sat up for a year and a half during a rebuild. Good luck with it.

Dan

 

I checked the function of my 90 Cab and it behaved the way the owners manual says it should. When I turn the parking lights on, they come on and the green light on the dash illuminates. This is independent of the key position. Also, my European parking function works too where you can move the turn signal stalk and light one side only with the key off.

It almost sounds like your light switch has two terminals switched, where the parking lights and head lights are reversed but I would have to double check the wiring schematic to confirm.

 

Thanks for checking yours Rob. While I can't swear under oath, I *think* my parking lights were working normally previously as I would have tested them before buying the car and I think I'd have noticed they were not working at that time.

I've ordered a new headlight switch and will try that out. I know strange things can happen when a headlight switch goes bad (power can be backfed through circuits and cause all sorts of strange happenings like I am seeing with the turn signal switch). My feeling is that it is more likely to be the switch itself so I'll start there and see if it fixes it. If not then I can look more closely at the wiring.