hawke94

Does anyone know if it is possible to disable the rear reading lights, such that when the buttons are pressed nothing happens? The effect would be similar to disabling the rear window controls with the switch on the driver's side door. My three year plays with the light switch and does not turn it off when we get home. I, of course, do not bother checking and will find out the following day, after the car has been sitting in the parking lot all day. Luckily, the battery did not die each time. I suppose I could always remove the fuse (if such a thing exists), but I was hoping for a more elegant solution, say, with Vagcom.

Thanks!

HaveBullDogWillTravel

You could child-proof the light by removing the bulbs and letting the child wear out the switch trying to get the light to come on. Click, click, click, click...
Or, even better, you could try a form of behavior correction like telling the child to, "LEAVE THE BUTTON ALONE!". If the child fails to comply a smack on the back of the hand will usually get through to them. Repeat as necessary. You must be prepared to deal with about 30-45 seconds worth of crying and the wife asking, Was that really called for? You answer, "Absolutely!"
YW.

The G Man

You can always create a conditioned reflex situation like Pavlov's experiment, hook the light button up to the 12 volt battery and kid will hit it a few time and learn his lesson

manup

Both of the G Man and Bull Dogs tips are great

awryexperiment

Yes,
way too much panty-assing around with kids these days... tell them once, twice, then there should be consequences.

EricSLine

...explosives

Coolieman1220

Child discipline on forums? damn!

how bout wiring the switch to the power source of the light. one touch and ZAP!!!

hawke94

Ok, some of the responses are a bit too disturbing for my tastes. I can't contemplate doing any of that to my own child so I'm going to put the car seat in the cargo area and he can ride there instead. With the cargo cover on.

hmn4858

You could make it even more exciting and get some use out of your roof rack. Of course I don't think you'd get to far before you saw flashing lights but it would be fun for a minute.

jeff968

This is a funny thread to me as I have a related story. We just sold our 2002 MB ML320 that we owned for 9 years and put 140K miles on it. This past July I lost the interior lights!!! (dome and rear reading, glove and visor lights were working) Figures, I knew a 2.0T Q5 was in our immediate future and the sale of the ML was right around the corner and now an electrical problem!!! I checked the fuse, the bulbs, couldn't figure it out so I made an appointment with the dealer. I couldn't sell the ML without those lights working. No sooner do i drop it off then the dealer calls me and says to come back as he knows what the issue is. He points out a switch on the upper roof console that i had never used and never knew what it did in 9 years of ownership. It disables the dome and rear reading lights!!! The reason, in case you have a sleeping child in the rear and you want to open the door and not have the lights go on. Somehow the switch got hit and disabled my interior lights. Hitting the switch had the ML lights back in business. Sounds like you could use a switch like this!