Random lights (cabin and rear) questions.

ehalverson said:

First question - When I open the doors, the cabin lights for the rear of the car tun on but not the front. They only turn on if I do it manually. Is this normal? Is there an easy way to make it so they turn on when the doors are open? Could this just be a fuse or maybe a switch that I haven't discovered yet?

Second question - There is a switch on top of the steering column that seems to do nothing but turn on the brake lights. Does it do anything else? I'm guessing this just a safety thing in addition to the emergency flashing lights but it took me forever to figure out what the heck it did.

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First question... you are 100% sure you have the domelights set to "door"? There should be a switch on the light assemblies themselves that say "Off" "On" and "Door".

Second question... that switch turns on the parking lights. It is meant to be used when you are sitting in a parking lot and want to have the lights on but not have the engine running (as the key needs to be turned to "run" to turn the headlights on under normal circumstances).

Where is this door/on/off switch? I'm used to that in most cars and found it for the rear lights (right where it should have been) but this car only has the sunroof switch between the front lights. I feel like I must be missing something very obvious...

Hmm. I've never had to deal with a sunroof car, so I'm not sure.

EDIT: Unless you are confusing the front dome lights with the map lights. The actual dome light (at least in my car) is in the center of the passenger area, kind of directly above and maybe a little bit behind the center console. My car has maplights in an overhead console right over the center stack. Those do not turn on automatically.

SE95 said:

EDIT: Unless you are confusing the front dome lights with the map lights. The actual dome light (at least in my car) is in the center of the passenger area, kind of directly above and maybe a little bit behind the center console. My car has maplights in an overhead console right over the center stack. Those do not turn on automatically.

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Ahh, that would be it. All of the other cars I've owned had those turn on when the door was open as well. The ones at the center of the car really only light up the rear, which is why I was calling them the rear lights.

So new question - Is there a way to get the map lights to turn on when I open the doors?

I noticed my best friend's 2013 Outback does have map lights that come on with the dome light.

a relay, some wiring, .......?

ehalverson said:

Ahh, that would be it. All of the other cars I've owned had those turn on when the door was open as well. The ones at the center of the car really only light up the rear, which is why I was calling them the rear lights.

So new question - Is there a way to get the map lights to turn on when I open the doors?

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I'm not sure, I've never bothered to check. Mine lights up the front okay but I think that is because I don't have a sunroof. Both of my Grand Prixs lit up the map lights with the doors (my old '95 GP had maplights on the mirror as the only front dome lights since there was a sunroof where the dome lights usually go).

ehalverson said:

First question - When I open the doors, the cabin lights for the rear of the car tun on but not the front. They only turn on if I do it manually. Is this normal? Is there an easy way to make it so they turn on when the doors are open? Could this just be a fuse or maybe a switch that I haven't discovered yet?

Second question - There is a switch on top of the steering column that seems to do nothing but turn on the brake lights. Does it do anything else? I'm guessing this just a safety thing in addition to the emergency flashing lights but it took me forever to figure out what the heck it did.

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First: We need to establish one thing.. What year Gen3 do you have..???

Two: If you have a 2005 like I do, the front dome lights do not come on when you open the door. Not something I'm happy with Subaru over, however, they only made those front dome lights push button on/off..

To be honest, I'm not sure if this changed in 2006-2007 or not, but only the rear seat and rear hatch dome lights can be selected on/off/auto when the door/hatch is opened..

Steve
Bethlehem, Pa.

It's an '06 xt. I live in the city and there's enough light pollution that it's not typically a problem as I'm usually right under a streetlight. It sure would be nice though, it just seems unusual.

Ok, I didn't thing they changed they way they worked..

I have a '05 XT.. Just remember the lights over the driver compartment are considered Map lights and don't go off automatically after time passes.. Don't forget to turn them off or you will run the battery down..

Also, that switch on the steering column is some safety feature required in Europe.. just make sure it is off at all times or it will drain your battery.. It turns on the parking lights.. One of the most famed issues ever.. Someone is always just discovering it for the first time.. I've rescued many from this problem.. Even my wife the other day accidentally hit the swich and couldn't figure out how to turn the parking lights off until a co worker who has a subie told her how to turn them off..

Steve..

There is a write-up on this mod somewhere on the lgt board. Map light activation was combined with dome lights in later years, but the 05 & 06 cars have poor front seat illumination unless you mod the map lights.

I haven't done it to my car yet but one of these days...

Here is the link to the Map Light Mod.
http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/map-lights-dome-light-mod-23139.html
I've had my '06 OBXT since last summer, and all winter I've wished I had already done this!

Boreas said:

Here is the link to the Map Light Mod.
Map Lights on with Dome light Mod - Subaru Legacy Forums
I've had my '06 OBXT since last summer, and all winter I've wished I had already done this!

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Thanks! I'll have to try this sometime.

They light up in my 08