Noticed last night in our darkened garage, wifes 2007 530 that all the ambient lighting (orange glow) was on, including the light on the steptronic showing the car was in park, as well as all the door/window switches (front and rear), and had never seen this before.....but had not been looking either. And the car had not been driven all day. I was really puzzled. Of course, I get in a panic about battery drain, etc,, look in the manual, search all the message boards I could think of......found nothing........then went to bed hoping that all would be well in the morning.....so first thing, I go to the garage.....all those same lights still on with the orange glow. grrrrr

So, finallly started fiddling with the lighting intensity dial to the left of the headlight switch, and to my suprise, I found that the mid position so to speak turns all lights dark, including speedometer, when the dial is down, all light stay on (forever I guess), and if the dial is "rolled" to the up position, when you remove the fob, the ambient lighting turns off, and the steptronic light goes out in 15-30 minutes or so.

So I guess wife or myself must have moved this lighting dial and created our own problem.

I guess, my question to all of you.......Have I resolved the issue? Because I could not find a thing in the book about this.

Thanks again for your help.

 

Thats odd... so you're saying when in the "low" position the ambient lighting and such stay on?

 

I thought it was strange as well......like I mentioned....there is a "mid position", where all lighting (including dash lights) are out, and in the "low position", the ambient lights stay on, as well as the steptronic light indicator, but in the "upper position", the ambient lights work as I feel they were designed to work, and go off when you shut the car down, remove the fob, and open the door.

I was hoping this was the design of operation, and save a trip to the dealer.........

 

Do you have comfort access?

 

Do you lock or leave the car unlocked when parked in the garage? I've noticed that when I leave it unlocked the orange glow from the Start/Stop button remains on for 10-15 minutes. But when I lock the car it goes out immediately. I'll have to play around with the dashboard lighting dimmer switch and see if it makes a difference.

 

no, do not have comfort access........and typically do not lock the car in the garage.......

 

That is an interesting discovery. I always leave the lighting intensity dial in the rolled up position and have not noticed anything unusual about the the ambient lighting. After locking car, the P (green indicator) and the push start button (amber) stays on for a while and goes off on its own.

 

just went out to try: in any position all lights go off completely. only the red flash from the inside mirror.

red glow turns of together with the mirror outside puddle lamps and the white interior lights.

forgot to look at the shifter.

'll be back.

Ok, so the stick stays on a while and the ambient light smoothly turns off when i lock the car.

 

BM Diesel, thanks for going out and trying your vehicle. I just did the same thing just now.....my ambient lights still only go out when the lighting "adjustment" is rolled all the way up. When I roll it down, close the door, the ambient lighting stays on, and then when I lock the car....they still stay on, and then of course the red light below the mirror begins flashing as well.
I was really hoping to avoid a trip to the dealer....but looks like I might need to at some point in the future.