Turn off all interior lights with door or tailgate open?

[Ed1]

For camping, beach or similar situations, I’d like to know if all interior lighting can be off for extended time with the doors and/or tailgate open. On my FE there is a dome light on the ceiling that eventually (1/2 hour or so) goes off. But there are also 2 small lights on the inside of the tailgate (to light up the cargo area when the tailgate is open) that never go off.

I’ve tried the rotary dial for dash light dimming, but that doesn’t have a setting to disable all interior lights.

 

[EOD Guy]

If you have skills, I'd put a switch in to disconnect the lights.

or

You might try fabbing a small plate that'll keep the switch pushed in when needed. Two strong magnets would hold it in place and be easily removable. I use one on the doors when I'm working with the key on, door open to keep that dang dinger from driving me crazy.

I'd attach a brightly colored, highly visible ribbon to it so you don't forget it's there and try and shut the hatch.

(edit) I ended up putting in a switch (search for "EOD Guy's Ride")

 

[chris_in_phx]

For camping, beach or similar situations, I’d like to know if all interior lighting can be off for extended time with the doors and/or tailgate open. On my FE there is a dome light on the ceiling that eventually (1/2 hour or so) goes off. But there are also 2 small lights on the inside of the tailgate (to light up the cargo area when the tailgate is open) that never go off.

I’ve tried the rotary dial for dash light dimming, but that doesn’t have a setting to disable all interior lights.

Does the button on the roof console not do that for you? I havent played around with it enough.

 

[cvx5832LC]

Curious they'd install an interior light without a cut-off. If they're LED though, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Ed1]

They are LEDs. At the beach, the tailgate is typically open for several hours.

 

[crashpadsncontrails]

This was an issue this evening at a drivein movie theatre. Hatch lights and interior center roof light stayed on and there is no way to turn this off. The solution: I had a small carabiner and pushed it into the hatch locking mechanism. It locked and the carabiner dangled down. All the lights went off. When I was ready to go, I pressed the buttons on the hatch handle and it unlocked.

 

[andialpha]

I wish there was an option to open and close the car doors or even unlock and lock without any lights or sounds. If you are at a campground and sleep in the car or if you just need to get something from the car you usually wake up the entire neighborhood. So far I haven't seen a car that has a setting to go completely quiet and dark in those circumstances.

 

[ahochste]

For camping, beach or similar situations, I’d like to know if all interior lighting can be off for extended time with the doors and/or tailgate open. On my FE there is a dome light on the ceiling that eventually (1/2 hour or so) goes off. But there are also 2 small lights on the inside of the tailgate (to light up the cargo area when the tailgate is open) that never go off.

I’ve tried the rotary dial for dash light dimming, but that doesn’t have a setting to disable all interior lights.

Mine has a button up by the sunroof controls. I can turn off the option for them to turn on when the doors open and use the other button to turn them off and on manually.

 

[mountaindesert]

I wish there was an option to open and close the car doors or even unlock and lock without any lights or sounds. If you are at a campground and sleep in the car or if you just need to get something from the car you usually wake up the entire neighborhood. So far I haven't seen a car that has a setting to go completely quiet and dark in those circumstances.

Totally agree. These are small but very important features to have. If someone in this community figure something out I would love to hear it. It makes car camping almost useless when lights and sounds come up.

 

[ultane]

This was an issue this evening at a drivein movie theatre. Hatch lights and interior center roof light stayed on and there is no way to turn this off. The solution: I had a small carabiner and pushed it into the hatch locking mechanism. It locked and the carabiner dangled down. All the lights went off. When I was ready to go, I pressed the buttons on the hatch handle and it unlocked.

Picture of the carabiner in your hand or next to a ruler (for size).. pretty please!

 

[Ed1]

This was an issue this evening at a drivein movie theatre. Hatch lights and interior center roof light stayed on and there is no way to turn this off. The solution: I had a small carabiner and pushed it into the hatch locking mechanism. It locked and the carabiner dangled down. All the lights went off. When I was ready to go, I pressed the buttons on the hatch handle and it unlocked.

I can confirm that the carabiner trick works to turn of the dome light and the FE hatch lights. I didn't check whether it has any effect on any passenger door lights.

I used one about 1 inch wide and 2 and 1/2 inches long.

 

[mav]

Carabiner works to turn off lights in the tailgate (the buttons by the rear view mirror don’t). But having a time getting the latch to unlock and release carabiner out once I’m done. Pressing the unlock button on back of tailgate repeatedly doesn’t work. Eventually it releases when I try various combinations but I never know why.

 

[mobin_ch]

Carabiner works to turn off lights in the tailgate (the buttons by the rear view mirror don’t). But having a time getting the latch to unlock and release carabiner out once I’m done. Pressing the unlock button on back of tailgate repeatedly doesn’t work. Eventually it releases when I try various combinations but I never know why.

Which buttons are you trying when the Carabiner is locked in? The buttons on the inside of the rear door or the external rear door button above the license plate?

(Not sure if the interior buttons get disabled when the rear door lock is in the locked state (closed position with the carabiner and only the external rear door open/close button is active...maybe. I have seen a video of that being the case in the Toyota RAV4, when the hatch is open external button gets disabled and inside buttons work and vice versa as per my understanding)

 

[mav]

Thanks, that did the trick. I lowered the hatch enough to reach the outside buttons by the license plate and clicked the left button once and it immediately released the carabiner. I was trying to use the buttons on the inside bottom of the hatch earlier and that was the problem. But the hatch still doesn’t move. I had to manually close the hatch to activate the automatic latch locking and then everything worked again (ie I could push the button and the hatch automatically raised and lowered after that). Thanks again.