headlights on and off with ignition.

My mother has a '97 Mitsubishi Diamante that she has been driving for years, she can leave the headlights in the on position and never turn them off. They come on when the car is started and off when the vehicle is off. She has gotten used to this. She has a new car that does not have this wonderful feature. So she keeps leaving the headlights on, haha. I want to duplicate this on the new car. So, it's a '93 Nissan Altima. I know this can be done, as I'm certain I've done it before for a customer, but my memory isn't what it used to be.

How about a DEI 545t Nite light system

-------------
When all else fails, Read the Instructions
Support the12volt.com Make a Donation

hi,
three relays. at headlight switch find red, RED / white, and GREEN/ red.
those should be headlight power feed(l & r), and parking light power feed wires. cut each wire and connect connect car side to term 30, switch side to term 87. connect all term 86 together and connect to ignition power. connect all term 85 together and ground.
mark

Sounds great, will the tail lights be on as well like the Diamante?

I think the night light kit would be the better way trouble go. I have it on my 86 suburban and I just leave the switch off and it turns my lights on for me.

-------------

In the event she does forget and turns the light switch on, the night light system will not compensate and turn them off when she leaves the car. It could leave her with a dead battery if she doesn't see them on in the daytime. I would also agree with Mark and have the relays take over the manual light switch. The tail lights should also come on automatically with this setup since the relays would also engage the parking light wire.

If the beam switch or relays' power cable can be reconnected to IGN +12V easy enough (without effecting parkers)...

Else if the +12V headlamp lamp supply can be moved to IGN +12V (maybe to the injector else CPU or an added relay if nothing suitable exists)...


Rather than go to solutions that involve breaking existing circuits, why not a buzzer? (eg, from beam +12V via door switch to GND)

the fused circuits are already in place, they're just being turned into ignition controlled ones. if the lighting switch is left in the on position, the parking/marker lights will also be on, necessitating ignition control for them as well. accessing the power for the lights, at say the fusebox under the hood may work. however, if the vehicle has an alarm that flashes the headlights (factory setup), this wouldn't be able without relocating the feed side of the headlight relay to battery power. figure headlights, 55W x 2 plus markers and dash lights another 50W?. you'd need a switched circuit of at least 20A, more even better. then individual fuses for each of the three circuits. i think you see where this is headed.

How's about a kiss answer to this.
There should be a lights-on door ajar buzzer on this vehicle. Teach her to listen or add a very large LED to the circuit.
There's no way to mishear the buzzer on my Nissan.
Or even disable the lock trigger with the lights on, i.e. switched ground to door trigger opens a 5 pin relay across the lock motor or feed wire.
Every time I think about re-routing the feed to the lights I worry about safety issues and in some circumstances won't you want to leave the parking lights on?
UK Fords used to be like this, but only on the headlights, it drove me mad.

-------------
Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

So there's no simple solution to this? Wish I knew the way that Mitsubishi did it so I could copy that setup.

Mits like every other manufacturer has the side (park or running whatever they are called) on a constant feed and the headlights are ignition controlled.
That part is easy.

-------------
Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.