Automatic headlights - Stalk & sensor transplant into an S

[akkord64]

I was working on this in parallel with you and have had my glove box removed for over 3 months while I struggle getting this working! I also tried the Leaf Spy option, but I still am unable to get auto to function. I did purchase a rogue stalk and bought a maxima sensor (which may be an issue for me, not sure yet) and everything seems to function normally except the auto-on functionality. Carefully reading your posts it seems to indicate there was something else in addition to the LeafSpy pro enablement that you needed to do. Can you share your detailed steps beyond the hardware and Leafspy pro steps?

Your comment - But I did get the Auto Headlights feature to work with the help of Jim the "LeafSpy" guy. He helped me "activate" the option in my car with a little program and the ODBII bluetooth connector that I use with LeafSpy Pro.

What is this little program?

[gshepherd]

Wow great work!

After your mod, do you now have auto dimming of the cluster/touchscreen as well? I believe auto headlights also enables auto brightness of the dash as ambient lighting changes.

One of my peeves is having to manually adjust the instrument lights when driving at sunset or on a wet day with the headlights on. On the LEAF it means pressing the instrument lighting button many times to cycle through the levels.y

I don't know. The wife drives the car mostly, so I'll ask her and report back.

Ok, she says the instrument lights dim like it normally does when the headlights are turned on. Whatever setting it's set to. Doesn't appear to have "active" / varying dimming like with some other cars.

Thanks for updating... just saw your message. Looks like a tempting upgrade anyway... but then I'd start wanting auto wipers, too.

[tk1971]

I was working on this in parallel with you and have had my glove box removed for over 3 months while I struggle getting this working! I also tried the Leaf Spy option, but I still am unable to get auto to function. I did purchase a rogue stalk and bought a maxima sensor (which may be an issue for me, not sure yet) and everything seems to function normally except the auto-on functionality. Carefully reading your posts it seems to indicate there was something else in addition to the LeafSpy pro enablement that you needed to do. Can you share your detailed steps beyond the hardware and Leafspy pro steps?

Your comment - But I did get the Auto Headlights feature to work with the help of Jim the "LeafSpy" guy. He helped me "activate" the option in my car with a little program and the ODBII bluetooth connector that I use with LeafSpy Pro.

What is this little program?

If you have LeafSpy Pro already, go to the support links and contact the creator of the app. He said he would incorporate the final Auto switch function in the next rev of the program. He may work it out with you to beta test the program with this feature.

[tk1971]

I was working on this in parallel with you and have had my glove box removed for over 3 months while I struggle getting this working! I also tried the Leaf Spy option, but I still am unable to get auto to function. I did purchase a rogue stalk and bought a maxima sensor (which may be an issue for me, not sure yet) and everything seems to function normally except the auto-on functionality. Carefully reading your posts it seems to indicate there was something else in addition to the LeafSpy pro enablement that you needed to do. Can you share your detailed steps beyond the hardware and Leafspy pro steps?

Your comment - But I did get the Auto Headlights feature to work with the help of Jim the "LeafSpy" guy. He helped me "activate" the option in my car with a little program and the ODBII bluetooth connector that I use with LeafSpy Pro.

What is this little program?

In one of the posts on page 1, I stated that I found another software switch. The description of this is under page BCS-59 of the service manual.

Jim, who wrote LeafSpy Pro helped me by having him test various subroutines in an attempt to activate auto lights.

So, even with all the hardware installed correctly, there are 2 different software settings to activate auto lights. Only one of them is covered in LeafSpy Pro beta with the screen that has all the settings (on/off with wipers, sensitivity settings, etc). That second software switch is not accessible yet in LeafSpy Pro. Jim did a one-off for me to get it working. You'll have to contact him.

[gary65536]

Thanks for sharing these instructions tk1971. I was able to upgrade my 2017 Leaf SV to have auto lights based on these instructions. There were some differences in my case. Here are the steps, calling out any differences for my car.

Parts used:
28576-1HH0A: light sensor (no difference here)
25560-3KA1B: combination switch stalk used in the 2017 Leaf SL

1) Light sensor installation: Fortunately my 2017 Leaf SV already had the light sensor wiring in place. The wiring for the AC sensor had the wire harness for the light sensor tucked away in its cloth. So I just needed to cut out a similar space to mount the light sensor in the plastic piece holding the AC sensor then connect the light sensor to the existing wire harness.

2) Combination switch stalk installation: No difference here except I used the part 25560-3KA1B. It has both auto light selector and fog light selector.

3) Enable auto light feature: No difference but I also want thank turbo3 author of Leaf Spy for his personal help to enable the feature in the BCM.

Since the 25560-3KA1B stalk has the fog light selector I might add fog lights one day.

[brotherjethro]

Re the "tap for lane change" feature: I have this on two of my cars and I HATE HATE HATE it! When I want to signal, I will engage the signal, either by holding it part-way manually, or by clicking it fully into position. And when I realize there's a car next to me AFTER I've started signalling, I don't want to look like an idiot by continuing to signal. But with this feature, I have no choice other than to wait for lots of blinks, or signal the other direction. Like an idiot.

Hate it.

Did I mention I hate it? Currently my Leaf is the only car I own which doesn't have this feature, and that makes me happy.

[Turbo3]

I was working on this in parallel with you and have had my glove box removed for over 3 months while I struggle getting this working! I also tried the Leaf Spy option, but I still am unable to get auto to function. I did purchase a rogue stalk and bought a maxima sensor (which may be an issue for me, not sure yet) and everything seems to function normally except the auto-on functionality. Carefully reading your posts it seems to indicate there was something else in addition to the LeafSpy pro enablement that you needed to do. Can you share your detailed steps beyond the hardware and Leafspy pro steps?

Your comment - But I did get the Auto Headlights feature to work with the help of Jim the "LeafSpy" guy. He helped me "activate" the option in my car with a little program and the ODBII bluetooth connector that I use with LeafSpy Pro.

What is this little program?

If you have LeafSpy Pro already, go to the support links and contact the creator of the app. He said he would incorporate the final Auto switch function in the next rev of the program. He may work it out with you to beta test the program with this feature.

Test version 0.40.105 now includes the ability to detect if Auto Headlights is not enabled and give you the option to enable. Of course you must have the necessary hardware installed for this to actually do anything. Don't know what happens if you enable but did not install the hardware. Maybe nothing or maybe you get a DTC.

[shadowofbob]

Thanks for sharing these instructions tk1971. I was able to upgrade my 2017 Leaf SV to have auto lights based on these instructions. There were some differences in my case. Here are the steps, calling out any differences for my car.

Parts used:
28576-1HH0A: light sensor (no difference here)
25560-3KA1B: combination switch stalk used in the 2017 Leaf SL

1) Light sensor installation: Fortunately my 2017 Leaf SV already had the light sensor wiring in place. The wiring for the AC sensor had the wire harness for the light sensor tucked away in its cloth. So I just needed to cut out a similar space to mount the light sensor in the plastic piece holding the AC sensor then connect the light sensor to the existing wire harness.

2) Combination switch stalk installation: No difference here except I used the part 25560-3KA1B. It has both auto light selector and fog light selector.

3) Enable auto light feature: No difference but I also want thank turbo3 author of Leaf Spy for his personal help to enable the feature in the BCM.

Since the 25560-3KA1B stalk has the fog light selector I might add fog lights one day.

Thanks,
Just wanted to confirm another success on a 2017 Leaf. Easily installed the above parts and enabled auto headlights with LeafSpy Pro.

[grnbrg]

Another report of success.

I recently bought a '15 Leaf SV, which did not come with the auto-headlight option, which was a disappointment. However, after reading through this thread, I moved the combination switch and ambient light sensor from my '09 Cube (which had auto headlights and fog lamps), changed the appropriate settings in Leaf Spy, and the headlights now come on when the light dims. Very happy.

For those who come next... Having tried combination switches from 3 different vehicles, I'm fairly comfortable saying that if the style of stalk matches, the switch will fit and be recognized. I swapped the switches in both directions between the '09 Cube and the '15 Leaf. I also tried the switch from an older (07? 08?) Sentra or Altima that was at a local wrecker -- It fit and was recognized in the Leaf as well.

Which brings up my other discovery to report. While the fit of the switch, and it's pinout appear to be standard, the internals are not. The junkyard switch does function, but the vehicle it came off does not have a rear window wiper, so that function is of course missing on the stalk. When I disassembled the original Leaf switch and the junked switched, with hopes of swapping the wiper stalk, I found less standardization than I hoped for. The circuit boards were different, and the junk switch (which supported auto headlights) did not have unused contacts for the rear wiper. Disassembly and reassembly were straightforward, though.

The final word being that if you're looking for the right switch, don't worry too much about the specific part number. Just make sure it has the functions needed. From what I can tell, it will work. Extra functions that don't exist on the target Leaf will be ignored. Functions on the target Leaf that are unsupported by the combo switch will be unavailable. And building a frankenswitch won't work.

So for now I'm living without the rear wiper function, and will troll the local junkyards for the unicorn switch with auto lights, no fog lamps and a rear wiper.



grnbrg.

[jbeuree]

Just wanted to add another thank you to those who did all the original work tracking this down, including getting the necessary settings added to LeafSpy. Just did this on our 2015 Leaf SV - checked the wiring in the top of the dash next to the other sensor, and was also lucky that it had the headlight sensor connector folded back into some tape like another previous poster. Becomes a very simple procedure. Hardest part was locating the right parts for a reasonable price. The combination switch with auto headlights but without fog isn't very common.