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General Stupidly left internal light on for 9 hours!

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General Stupidly left internal light on for 9 hours!

J

JNAnderson

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Hi All

I’m so angry at myself and in a panic! Got to my car at 8am this morning and I’ve stupidly left my internal light on from 9pm last night!! Thankfully my car started and I got to work, but I’m in a panic in case the battery has started to go flat and it won’t work when I finish work at 5pm tonight.

If leaving light on for these 11 hours had done any damage, would the car have started? Or can it still have caused damage and could I get to my car tonight to find battery has gone flat? I know the alternator charges the battery when you’re driving but my drive to work is only 5 minutes, would this have been enough to recharge any charge lost?

I drive a 2011 and haven’t changed battery in the 19 months I’ve had car.

Also, pushing my light left turns it on, centre position off, abc to the right nothing happens... should it go anything when pushing the right side? Thank you
 
I've left my light on for a similar period with no ill effects. I'm not certain but I believe it will go off after a period of time in any case.

On mine the centre position works on the door switch, pushing the left side up switches the light on and pushing the right side up switches it off so it no longer comes on when you open the door.
 
Last edited:
Piccolo Nero e Bella said:
I've left my light on for a similar period with no ill effects. I'm not certain but I believe it will go off after a period of time in any case.

On mine the centre position works on the door switch, pushing the left side up switches the light on and pushing the right side up switches it off so it no longer comes on when you open the door.
Click to expand...

Did you have any issues with battery later on from leaving it on all night?

Mine is the same, doesn’t work when lights on the right side pushed so that must be it. I thought mine was maybe faulty as I thought they worked on both left and right
 
JNAnderson said:
Did you have any issues with battery later on from leaving it on all night?

Mine is the same, doesn’t work when lights on the right side pushed so that must be it. I thought mine was maybe faulty as I thought they worked on both left and right
Click to expand...

No, no issues whatsoever, and that was over a year ago. What puzzled me at the time was that I'd walked past the car during the night and didn't notice the light on so I suspect it actually switched off after a period and came back on when I started the car next day. I haven't tested to see if that's the case however.
 
Piccolo Nero e Bella said:
No, no issues whatsoever, and that was over a year ago. What puzzled me at the time was that I'd walked past the car during the night and didn't notice the light on so I suspect it actually switched off after a period and came back on when I started the car next day. I haven't tested to see if that's the case however.
Click to expand...

I thought this too as I looked out my window this morning at my car when it was still dark out to see if I’d need to defrost it before work and didn’t notice a light on, so thought that quite strange.

I’ll take it a 20 minute drive up the bypass later after work to hopefully fully charge it.
 
Maybe worth checking if you unlock the car when dark does the interior light come on to aid access to the car before you open the door? As might be what happened and battery fine. Some makes of car are like this, some not. I've had so many Fiat's I wouldn't notice this. I still turn my lights off, even though the car does it.
 
I know its not a 500 but my stilo does this.

I unlock the door and the light comes on inside...

Same when i park up... i turn off the car and as soon as the key is pulled from ignition it lights up the interior... goes off after short while if left unlocked and goes off inmediatley once locked.
 
JNAnderson said:
Hi All

I’m so angry at myself and in a panic! Got to my car at 8am this morning and I’ve stupidly left my internal light on from 9pm last night!! Thankfully my car started and I got to work, but I’m in a panic in case the battery has started to go flat and it won’t work when I finish work at 5pm tonight.

If leaving light on for these 11 hours had done any damage, would the car have started? Or can it still have caused damage and could I get to my car tonight to find battery has gone flat? I know the alternator charges the battery when you’re driving but my drive to work is only 5 minutes, would this have been enough to recharge any charge lost?

I drive a 2011 and haven’t changed battery in the 19 months I’ve had car.

Also, pushing my light left turns it on, centre position off, abc to the right nothing happens... should it go anything when pushing the right side? Thank you
Click to expand...

12 hours would drain 12Ah from the battery approx so only about 1/5 of the battery capacity any good condition battery would be good with this, as long as you drive a reasonable distance to work you'll be fine, IE not 3 miles
 
I drove about 1.5 miles to work this morning, about 2 miles journey to my grandparents after work (10 minutes sat still at traffic lights with engine running) then a 10 minute drive down the bypass to get home. Not sure if I should take it out a quick drive before I habe a glass of wine or not?
 
JNAnderson said:
I drove about 1.5 miles to work this morning, about 2 miles journey to my grandparents after work (10 minutes sat still at traffic lights with engine running) then a 10 minute drive down the bypass to get home. Not sure if I should take it out a quick drive before I habe a glass of wine or not?
Click to expand...

Mmm glass of wine, you should be ok, but a constant diet of extremely short journeys are not good for the battery nor the oil, but if you do longer trips say at the weekend or other times you'll be fine.
 
John202020 said:
Mmm glass of wine, you should be ok, but a constant diet of extremely short journeys are not good for the battery nor the oil, but if you do longer trips say at the weekend or other times you'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Thank You. At least 4 times a week I drive 12 miles a time to my boyfriends and then 12 back the next day, but other than that it’s literlly short journeys to work and back, or a 5 minute drive to Tesco and home. Hopefully that’s ok for it
 
JNAnderson said:
Thank You. At least 4 times a week I drive 12 miles a time to my boyfriends and then 12 back the next day, but other than that it’s literlly short journeys to work and back, or a 5 minute drive to Tesco and home. Hopefully that’s ok for it
Click to expand...
It should be, a keen diy'er would perhaps change the oil every six months under these circumstances but it's not essential, on another note "Mouton Cadet" it is, tonight.
 
JNAnderson said:
I thought this too as I looked out my window this morning at my car when it was still dark out to see if I’d need to defrost it before work and didn’t notice a light on, so thought that quite strange.

I’ll take it a 20 minute drive up the bypass later after work to hopefully fully charge it.
Click to expand...

In the spirit of scientific experimentation I went out this morning and switched my interior light on then came inside, had breakfast and waited 20 minutes on the mobile's timer. Then I went out and had a look - the light was off! It came on again when I opened the door. I suspected 20 minutes was the limit because that's the length of time the radio stays on after the ignition is turned off (if you use that function) so it seemed logical.

So, your battery probably didn't even notice.
 
Piccolo Nero e Bella said:
In the spirit of scientific experimentation I went out this morning and switched my interior light on then came inside, had breakfast and waited 20 minutes on the mobile's timer. Then I went out and had a look - the light was off! It came on again when I opened the door. I suspected 20 minutes was the limit because that's the length of time the radio stays on after the ignition is turned off (if you use that function) so it seemed logical.

So, your battery probably didn't even notice.
Click to expand...
Oh this puts my mind at rest. I don’t use the radio function, don’t see why you’d want your radio on if you’re not in the car haha. Do you use that? If so, maybe why your light went out?
 
JNAnderson said:
Oh this puts my mind at rest. I don’t use the radio function, don’t see why you’d want your radio on if you’re not in the car haha. Do you use that? If so, maybe why your light went out?
Click to expand...

No, I don't use that radio function, but then I don't use the radio at all these days. I imagine it's included because there is no 'ACC' position on the ignition switch.

You could test the interior light yourself and see if yours goes off in the same way. Give it thirty minutes to be on the safe side and see if it's still on.

Sitting in my car looking at these things I realized I neglected to mention that I replaced my interior bulb with an LED board. It has some thirty LED's (spelling out "500") but it probably still uses less power than the bulb - brighter too. I still wouldn't want it on all night though.:eek:

By the way, if you want to make the interior light just a little bit easier to use, prise it out, turn it around and push it back in - that way the 'on' switch is nearest the driver in RHD cars.
 
So,,, I did exactly the same thing last night by accident, manually switched on the interior light looking for something, then go out and locked car parked near street light, got in this morning started no issues just noticed light did not go out, then relised what I'd done, so yes even manually switched on I believe it goes off after some time or 10 hours on in the cold made little difference?
 
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