I was telling a co-worker of mine, about my driving habits. I told him that I left my head lights on all the time. He told me that it would burn my alternator out. Never thought about that, Is that truth ,or myth?

 

Maybe that's why toyota didn't put daytime running lights in it ?????

 

Hmmmmmmm...

I personally have run with 'lights on' since 1967 in a number of vehicles, and only one of them ever had an alternator with any problems at all (that one was a new vehicle and the alternator failed within the first 90 days).

Three different outfits I worked for required 'Lights On' for all their fleet vehicles. One, that I worked at for 25 years, had a total fleet of nearly a million cars and trucks. We didn't appear to have an alternator problem - but we did go through a lot of headlights...

In my xB, the headlights go on just before I shift into gear - it's habit.

 

I always leave my headlights on wit the TC. Haven't had a problem yet.

 

With all the electrical components on cars, headlights are not going to burn out the alternator. Think about all the components running all the time: computer, interior lights, instruments, radio, air conditioning/heating, etc... To prove it further, put a voltmeter on your battery with the engine off, then turn on headlights. Not much drop in volts. In other words, the alternator really doesn't care if the headlights are on or not. Just one dudes opinion.

 

your not goin to burn your alternator with such little power running constantly.. if you drove arround pushing a 1200w+ system (which is the tC's magical number) then I'd worry about it.. until then, don't worry about it.. you could leave your brights on all day and night and nothing would happen.. so like Jeep2Scion said, the alternator won't care about the headlights...