Wife's 2018 NX just started having some sort of weird issue. I think this started about a month or so ago and she said her lights would flick on/off at times. Figuring it was the battery since it was 7 years old I swapped that out for a new one.

Then the last couple weeks my wife tells me that when the headlights are in the Auto position at night when they turn on, after a short time they will flicker on/off,..etc. When you turn them to the ON they no longer turn on/off...etc. They stay on the entire time,

Process of deduction tells me that this would indicate the light sensor on the top of the dash is either faulty or going bad but I've never seen/heard this before...

Has anyone experienced this with their headlights?

I've adjusted the sentivity of the headlight sensor and that has no affect at all. It can be pitch black outside and they will come on, then you can hear them click off and click on again shortly after.

Tonight when I drove the car. The stalk was in Auto, it got dark, lights turned on fine. Then 10 minutes into driving they turned off/on.... wait 20 seconds then off/on... I put the stalk to the on mode for the lights and they didn't do that again for the rest of the 40 minute drive.

*To clarify this is NOT auto high beams. This is just the stalk is in AUTO, and when it gets dark the headlights turn on... then they turn off, turn back on... turn off turn back on.,..etc. Can happen a couple times as soon as they turn on. Then won't happen for a few minutes. Almost like if someone was manually turning the stalk on and off quickly.

Thanks much,
-Nigel

 

This is a very interesting dilemma, so I copied and pasted your whole text and below came up — see first pic.

Sounds like you thought of every possible option to help resolve the issue.

I noticed at bottom of first pic a link (circled in yellow) and clicked on that and saw the yellow highlighted portion at bottom of second pic that also advises same as first pic.

Hopefully, someone will chime in that has or had same issue and how it was resolved or you’re able to resolve on your own.

Either way, please update this post on what happens / happened next and if you were able to fix the issue.

 

It could also be the automatic headlight sensor failing or being obscured.

 

I forgot to update. I ended up purchasing a automatic headlight sensor from a 22' NX used on eBay for $40 because I was NOT going to buy a new sensor for $200+ without knowing 100% if that was even going to fix the issue. What's even crazier to me is why the light sensor is even that expensive?!

I swapped it out which was insanely easy to do since it's right on the front speaker panel grill (much easier than my CT/RCF location). My wife has driven now several times at night, and the headlights haven't exhibited that behavior so far (knock on wood).

I've never seen one of these sensors go bad before and Tech Stream wasn't even showing it as bad which is odd. My 2007 Solara has the same senor, and it's been fine for 19 years...lol.




I'll update again if anything happens.

-Nigel

 

Well my wife just told me today when she was driving at night within auto mode she wondered why it was so dark at one point and then she realized the headlights were off.

When she turns to headlights on the stalk to the on position they were find the rest of the time.
But it seems like when it's set to the auto mode for whatever reason something isn't happy...

It makes me wonder if it's the actual stalk itself? I'll have to look to see if it is part of the clock spring or if I can just get the stalk by itself.

Super annoying though I'll run it through tect stream and see what happens.
I hate electrical gremlins, It's super annoying.

-Nigel

 

It does sound like your headlight switch is intermittent in the auto mode. This can be confirmed with an ohmmeter at the connector to the headlight dimmer switch assembly in the steering column and checking for intermittent high resistance in Auto when moving the switch between Auto and Off. The pins to check between on the switch connector would be pins ‘EL’ (ground) and ‘A’. Techstream can also read the On/Off value in Auto mode so you might try slightly wiggling the switch while in auto mode and if you see it flipping between the two values intermittently, then that’s a clue. If it is indeed a bad switch, then you’d have to buy the whole headlight dimmer switch assembly:

https://www.lexuspartsnow.com/parts/...140-33280.html

 

Aweome thank you! I will check with tech stream once my laptop battery is charged.
What's weird to me is that my wife has NEVER turned the stalk off of Auto... so I wonder what might have caused it to go bad. On the other end I have been switching the solara's 17 year old stalk from off to Auto at least twice a day and never had issues.

I'll update to see what the values are.

Appreciate the help!

-Nigel

 

I'm not seeing exactly where in text trim you can see the voltage or the high resistance I can only see if the switch is on or off I'll post pictures below.

One interesting thing is there's a current code for communication accessory gateway. I've tried searching and I can't really find much on it seems like a generic thing or very specific depending on what people are talking about.


Then this is the screen shots of the auto switch on/off.






Thanks much,
-Nigel

 

Yes -Tech Stream only reads the switch as either On or Off. You’d have to ohm out the switch to see if there is any resistance (>1 ohm) with the switch in the AUTO position.