jayspeedy24

My license plate lights work when I lock/unlock my car, but after a few seconds, the right bulb starts to flicker then both go off. When the car starts, these lights still remain off. No error messages either from inside the car. Would a battery reset fix this? kind of a weird issue where it half works.

RWDlifer

Not sure about the flickering, may be a bad bulb. In my experience license plate lights only come on when unlocking the car AND the light switch is in auto with low ambient light. The turn signals flash once then the parking/tail/license plate lights and the fogs come on. If a door is not opened within a minute all lights go off and the car re-locks.
When locking the car only the turn signal flash 3 times, parking/tail/license plate lights remain off regardless of headlamp switch position or ambient light.
Other than that I have never known the license plate lights to come on during locking or unlocking.

jayspeedy24

thanks...Its been like that for so long that I cant remember if those lights are supposed to be on at night. They work as advertised when unlocking, but I just thought it was weird for it to not come on for night time driving.

RWDlifer

Just went out and checked....outcome as my previous post. The lic plate lights are supposed to come on and stay when the parking or headlights are on, pretty much on any car. Their turning on or off is controlled by headlight switch or light sensor, not locking/unlocking.

Moviela

Flickering means that the SAM has read the wrong current flow in the circuit. It then starts and stops the circuit several times measuring. If the current flow is not in the desired range it turns it off. It can be too low or too high. A lamp defect may be to blame, or the wrong lamp has been installed.

optimusprime m1

Jay are your brake lights working ? or is it just the reg plate lights.

jayspeedy24

that may be it..i did install new light bulbs a while back. I had to switch out my low beams to my stock ones because one of them blew out. I'll probably end up switching back to the original bulbs this weekend. thanks for the info.

jayspeedy24

yeah its just my license plate lights...I check just about everyday to see if all my lights are working as advertised and they all are. It might be that the bulbs have the incorrect wattage and its throwing mixed signals.