[dk4500]

I've had my C for over 6 months now and have figured out most everything about how it works inside and out...except, I just discovered something I never noticed before and you may want to check to see if your C does the same thing.


My car is parked in my garage, hence I have no need to lock it at night. When I park it for the evening the lights do their dance whereby after closing the car door they stay on for about 15 seconds and then slowly fade off starting from the rear to the front both exterior and interior. About 15 minutes after leaving the car I stepped into the garage while it was pitch black and noticed a very small glow of light from the interior.


The glow was coming from the tiny lights around the 2 radio knobs and the fast forward, seek, rewind and CD entrance lights, and they all remained on for about 15 minutes. This has probably been going on ever since I bought the car but it was the first time I went into the garage when it was totally dark. I had simply missed the light switch when entering the garage and that's what caused me to discover that the inside of the car still had these lights on. I cannot find any controls that will take care of just these radio related items and although it's probably not hurting the car, I find it a waste of battery power, not to mention that 15 minutes is a long time for these to stay on when all other lights have been off for at least 15 minutes. One caveat, if you lock your car, all the lights including the 3 radio lights mentioned above, do go out in about 15 seconds. Check yours out and please let me know if it's just my C that does this.

 

[mmoretti]

I've had my C for over 6 months now and have figured out most everything about how it works inside and out...except, I just discovered something I never noticed before and you may want to check to see if your C does the same thing.


My car is parked in my garage, hence I have no need to lock it at night. When I park it for the evening the lights do their dance whereby after closing the car door they stay on for about 15 seconds and then slowly fade off starting from the rear to the front both exterior and interior. About 15 minutes after leaving the car I stepped into the garage while it was pitch black and noticed a very small glow of light from the interior.


The glow was coming from the tiny lights around the 2 radio knobs and the fast forward, seek, rewind and CD entrance lights, and they all remained on for about 15 minutes. This has probably been going on ever since I bought the car but it was the first time I went into the garage when it was totally dark. I had simply missed the light switch when entering the garage and that's what caused me to discover that the inside of the car still had these lights on. I cannot find any controls that will take care of just these radio related items and although it's probably not hurting the car, I find it a waste of battery power, not to mention that 15 minutes is a long time for these to stay on when all other lights have been off for at least 15 minutes. One caveat, if you lock your car, all the lights including the 3 radio lights mentioned above, do go out in about 15 seconds. Check yours out and please let me know if it's just my C that does this.

I haven't noticed this myself but then again at this point I try not to "look" for anything else LOL. I will check it out later when it gets dark.

I do however (I'm not sure) think I may or may not have a problem with my welcome mat lighting.

About 2 months ago my family walked out to our car from a relatives house on a pitch black street (new development and no lights) My son LOVES the welcome mat, he's 6. Every time he sees it he would stop me from opening the door so he could look at it until it shut off. Well when we walked out the lights came on then as we started walking toward the car it seemed to abruptly shut off before we even got close to the car. Later timing it all the welcome lighting was shutting off in about 10 seconds. Now I never timed it or cared before but when it shut off so obviously quickly that we had previously experienced I looked into the manual to see if it was a setting or something. It says its supposed to stay on 25 seconds or until you open the door physically which was the operation we were used to; thus why it stood out to me shutting off in less than half the time.

It doesn't always shut off quickly. It seemed it would work properly (stay on the whole 25 seconds) after I drove the car. Intermittent. Could be coincidence? So I bring it up to the dealer. They take it in first time (now with all the other problems with my car and an 2 hour roundtrip to my dealer I wouldn't have bothered about it had I not had other problems already so I took it in and asked them to look at it) They could not duplicate problem they say. My car goes back in a second time for my other remote issues so I bring it up again. They duplicate it this time and tell me it was a door sensor they fixed and all is good. I go to pick up my car and when they go to show me it works its completely dead LOL (no lighting or response when I approach the car at all)

I take it home anyway and when I get home now its magically working again. Seemed good a few days (I'm not really checking or conscious of it all the time, its not a huge deal to me again in the scheme of everything else wrong with my car, I just thought important to note in case of future problems that might be related to it all)) But still back to randomly shutting off abruptly sometimes again.

Everyone: How does your welcome lighting function? Does it shut off after 10 seconds or does it stay on until you open the doors? Does it sometimes shut down early? Maybe its just some type of normal operation. I was never conscious of it until that one night when it so obviously left us in the dark

 

[dk4500]

Thanks a lot Moretti!!! Last time I noticed my Welcome Mat it worked fine upon my approach to the car. Now, due to your post, I go into the garage to check it out so I can provide you with an answer, and - nothing...it willnot turn on upon approach like it used to. It only turns on when I press the unlock button on the fob. Back to the dealership again. I think you are spreading your C's virus through this forum Hope you know I'm just kidding.

 

[ColdH2O]

We too have noticed the light that you've mentioned but only one time and never since. We also leave our MKC unlocked in the garage.

 

[mmoretti]

I've had my C for over 6 months now and have figured out most everything about how it works inside and out...except, I just discovered something I never noticed before and you may want to check to see if your C does the same thing.


My car is parked in my garage, hence I have no need to lock it at night. When I park it for the evening the lights do their dance whereby after closing the car door they stay on for about 15 seconds and then slowly fade off starting from the rear to the front both exterior and interior. About 15 minutes after leaving the car I stepped into the garage while it was pitch black and noticed a very small glow of light from the interior.


The glow was coming from the tiny lights around the 2 radio knobs and the fast forward, seek, rewind and CD entrance lights, and they all remained on for about 15 minutes. This has probably been going on ever since I bought the car but it was the first time I went into the garage when it was totally dark. I had simply missed the light switch when entering the garage and that's what caused me to discover that the inside of the car still had these lights on. I cannot find any controls that will take care of just these radio related items and although it's probably not hurting the car, I find it a waste of battery power, not to mention that 15 minutes is a long time for these to stay on when all other lights have been off for at least 15 minutes. One caveat, if you lock your car, all the lights including the 3 radio lights mentioned above, do go out in about 15 seconds. Check yours out and please let me know if it's just my C that does this.

When you posted it kind of sounded familiar to me what you described but when I tested my results seemed opposite.

When I got out of my car and shut door I see the lights stay on for a few seconds. The Lincoln splash screen and the radio knobs as you describe along with some interior lighting stays on. It eventually fades and all goes off if I do not lock and touch key fob. When I do hit the lock button my outside mirror lights go on briefly, fold in and at the same time all of my lighting inside goes dark immediately when I hit the button including those knobs..

Ill give it another few tests to confirm its consistent but I thought I recalled a time when those knobs stayed on longer for some reason..

There's a lot of tech and quirkiness to this car it seems...I honestly don't think even the service people know it all yet.

 

[mmoretti]

Thanks a lot Moretti!!! Last time I noticed my Welcome Mat it worked fine upon my approach to the car. Now, due to your post, I go into the garage to check it out so I can provide you with an answer, and - nothing...it willnot turn on upon approach like it used to. It only turns on when I press the unlock button on the fob. Back to the dealership again. I think you are spreading your C's virus through this forum Hope you know I'm just kidding.

The welcome mat is also a little quirky in that if you open your hatch after locking with the fob the welcome mat won't work. There is an "order" to the way you lock and activate it. I'm always trying to distinguish what may be abnormal or normal for some of this tech before going to dealer to see if it's not working properly. They are learning too and often don't have the answer or are unsure of what's normal operation either. I don't think they "use" the cars like we do to see the differences/problems as we do.

I was conscious of the short shut down time only because of all the other problems I've been having. It really could have been happening this way before my problems too, I don't drive much at night at all and again maybe it's just something quirky about the operation.

If we all experience this (intermittent or occasional abrupt shut down) then perhaps it is normal or there is a condition (such as with opening hatch after locking the car) that is causing it that we are unaware of yet...

Again I have bigger issues right now so I just have it noted in my service records so if it becomes another issue down the road it's documented.

If anyone else gets a chance to test theirs and chime in so we have more input on the timing (how long does your welcome lighting/welcome mat stay on once you approach the car and it recognizes your key) that would be great. Manual says supposed to stay on until you open your door or 25 seconds. Mine intermittently shuts down in about 10 seconds -welcome mat and all lighting. Wondering if we all do that and no one ever noticed?

 

[countryguy]

I keep my car in the garage and thus do not lock the doors so I can't comment on the welcome mat issue. This morning I did check the issue with the lights on the radio control knobs staying on after all the other lights have turned off and sure enough...they remained on. I would never have noticed this either. I am taking the car back to the Ford dealer on Tues. to have the heated seats fixed so I am going to mention this issue as well. For a car in this price range, there sure seems to be a lot of odd ball problems with it.

 

[countryguy]

I asked the Ford dealer about the lights staying on inside. They contacted Lincoln and were told that is the way they are supposed to work. I still find it odd that those couple of lights stay on for 15 minutes when all the others shut off after 25 seconds.

 

[dk4500]

After 6 months of reading the various posts on this forum, the only conclusion I can come to is that our C's are strange indeed. There is little consistency as so many posts note such different issues. It really shouldn't be this way.

 

[mmoretti]

After 6 months of reading the various posts on this forum, the only conclusion I can come to is that our C's are strange indeed. There is little consistency as so many posts note such different issues. It really shouldn't be this way.

Yup, and strange how we all seem to get different answers on some of this quirkiness as normal or not normal. Again in their defense I believe this is the first car service departments are dealing with that has all this tech and they are learning and just don't know a lot of it yet. Think they are learning as they go. Gotta start somewhere I guess. I know my dealership does contact Lincoln engineers (according to what they say at least) about a lot of things and they might be getting different information.

On another note with my problems..Lincoln did call again to see "was I still having problems?" Which I always find a little funny because our last conversations are always "ok, we are going to give this info to engineering and they will call you back with the fix" - as if in between the problem fixed itself LOL. I don't keep calling back everytime to report its still happening (like this morning, I would be calling several times a week), I feel it pretty much understood that they need to intervene in some way to fix it

So now my problems go to R & D (research and dev) and they will call me back...and on it goes...