Ok here it goes, I can find things here and there about twilight sentinel, but never the exact answers I want.

#1. When I turn this feature on, the only way it turns the headlamps off is when there'* direct sunlight on the sensor, what is causing this? Bad sensor?

#2. If the device turns the headlights on and i'm in drive, even turning the twilight sentinel to "off" will not shut it off unless I go into park after that, is this normal?

#3 I heard there is a recall on this for overload and melting switches and such? Not sure... Is there a way I can tell if there is an issue here, and how do I fix it?


My 95 Bonne also goes against what i read in a thread, clockwise goes to max, counterclockwise goes to off.

have you pulled the switch out? im betting it looks like this http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...=switch+melted

95'* are known for this...get a new switch from billboost37 if its bad

Is it just the switch that goes wrong or something else does it?

Anyone else that can answer the other questions too, would be great

when you get the replacement switch, IF its bad, you will want to replace the wiring that is burnt also, so cut up about 6 inches of the wiring when removing from donor car and replacing

What exactly causes this burning/melting, I am wondering, I read there was some NHTSA recall on these cars for the twilight sentinel turning on out of nowhere in the night with the car in park possibly, the headlights shutting off while in the middle of the night driving with sentinel on...is any of this related? That recall was only supposed to effect a certain set of vin'*..mine checked out as not effected by it. I am wondering what drives this to melt down

You have to turn the sentinel ring off to turn the automatic headlights off.

However..the moment you put the car in drive, the headlights are turned back on as they system knows it'* night and that the car is in gear. Hence..it decides that you need light to drive.

I recently pulled a dash on a 95 SSEi and found the switch and connector started melting. In one year I believe there were 3-4 of us that had the problem. Update to a 96-99 switch and if necessary connector/wiring and you will be all set.

No one has found out why the switch gets hot enough to melt the connector, we haven't looked into it. Best I could see, the switches between 95 and 96-99 look extremely similar.

Mine is starting to do the same thing on my 95. And I expect it'* fried. It doesn't cause a hazard, but it does cause damage. For now, I just don't use TS on that car. It'* the winter beater.

When I do fix it, I'll replace the switch with one from a 96 or 97, and a new harness.

When switching to a 96/97 switch, what do I have to do exactly? I know about cutting the wires from the harness, but do all the colors match up exactly, what does the switch look like in comparison, etc?

Hang on..I'll dig out my old pics of it.

What does it do? Dunno, the switch was redesigned. It'* not the same heat generating switch.

Switches with pigtails, as you can see they look alike. Honestly I don't know which is which


Here'* the differences visible from the outside. Switch on right is 96-99, left is 95. The apparent change is the plastic collar instead of metal for the twilight sentinel. This means the actual twilight ring that goes on is different as well.


In taking them apart..they look very similar. Something is obviously different since the 96-99 do not heat up and have issues.