Deansdream

Weird. Happened in my 05 Boxster S and is now happening in my '06 C2S. When parking in certain spots, I get a Parking light on warning, and sure enough, the left side parking light is on, and I can't turn it off. Seems like interference from a security system in the building I'm parked in front of?

Anyone have this problem? and a solution? (other than moving the car?)

no big deal. just strange and annoying.

Likemystoppie?

you're hitting the blinker stalk when you're getting out of the car; activating a european feature of the car.


make sure the stalk is level before you get out.

Deansdream

I purposely hit the blinker before turning off the car, and all lights remained off as they should have. Sometimes the problem occurs in the morning when it's dark, and when i turn off the lights, a parking light stays on. Sometimes, a parking light goes on even if i'm not driving with the lights.

daddyscar

like likemystoppie mentioned, are you sure it's not the parking light feature? i regularly accidently trigger it when i use my blinker to turn into a tight parking spot and don't straighten the steering wheel out before turning the car off. i than walk out and notice the turn signal lamp in the direction i turned is still on. flipping the turn signal back to neutral turns it off.

petery

I've seen this on MBs and Porsches and I thought it was some sort of an electrical glitch, but I guess it's the blinker... It makes sense though...

Minok

Its a good design for European towns, where the roads can be narrow and when parking on the roads (parallel) you want the traffic side of the car to be slighly light up at night to prevent someone from running into it. Its not so useful in the US where the roads are very wide and drivers generally to dumb to avoid the car if it were an issue.

KeninBlaine

I would prefer if they disabled this feature for North American cars, as it is almost never used (if you use it, everyone tells you that one of your lights is on). The first few times it happened to me I was puzzled why I was getting the warning when opening the door, then finally remembered to check the stock being in the neutral position. To me it is more of a nuisance than a benefit.

boolala

So the Germans have suceeded in making an electrical glitch into a feature.

Won't this run down the battery?

KeninBlaine

It isn't a glitch. It is designed to do that. It has been around for years on many German and perhaps other European cars for the reason cited earlier: protection on narrow streets and parking areas. It isn't too hard on the battery since it just operated parking light(s) on one side at a time. Also, it is assumed that one would temporarily activate it for limited periods of time while parked in a vulnerable position. I expect that Europeans think more about what they are doing in their cars than many north Americans. Hence the reluctance to provide daytime running lights, automatic headlights, etc. They assume: if you want your lights on, turn them on.

Le Chef

It's a useful feature for street parking where there are no streetlights. You could of course always make the enormous effort of putting the indicator stalk back to neutral before switching off if you;re worried about battery life...

Likemystoppie?

Porsche and MB have been doing it for YEARS guys.

Glad your sales people are bring you up to speed that you're buying a EUROPEAN CAR!

sheeesh!

Minok

And by 'years', I can attest that this sort of feature has been on some German cars in Germany since the early 1980's if I remember correctly. So its been a feature for decades is probably a better statement.

However, did we ever find out if the OP solved their problem on his 06?