I'm having trouble with my 2003 Altima. Its the 2.5L S model. The "parking lights" wont go off, unless the key in is in the "on" position. If you take the key out of the ignition, these lights come on and stay on until they run the battery down. Nobody wants to buy a car where the battery runs down every night.

To clarify, I'm talking about the tail lights, and those orange lights that are built into the headlights of modern cars. They also serve as the turn signals, when you use the turn signal. Some people may call them "daytime running lights, or "driving lights", but nissan refers to them as "Parking lights". So you get out of the car, take your keys with you, lock the car up, and you're going to come back to a dead battery. You can see where this would be a big problem.

In an effort to fix this, I have replaced the headlight switch itself, and the BCM (aka body control module). There was a change in the problem, but its not fixed. Before I replaced those two items (with used parts off ebay) these parking lights would stay on all the time, no matter what. Key or no key. If you left the battery hooked up, it was going to be run down the next day. Now, as long as the key is in the on position, as though you were driving the car, these parking lights go off. Weird. I can't explain it.

I pulled the IPDM (another relay and fuse block under the hood) in an effort to see if I could see anything that went wrong inside, and I couldn't find anything. Although with the IPDM out of the car, the problem vanishes. I don't think that's helpful though, because IIRC, the lights have to have that thing to work anyway.

Hope there might be some fellow automotive techs out there, who have run into this type of thing before. Or maybe someone might have an idea for a bypass. Like I said it was a long shot, but you never know.

 

Seems like there is a short somewhere. A multi meter would helpful to find it.

 

Another thing the ajar may not be working properly.