I have never noticed this until today. I jumped a friends car yesterday and today i noticed when i started my car that the lights inside dimmed. Could the jump have done this or could it happen all the time and i just dont see it. BTW the car and batt were cold when i started the car today. Prob in the teens in MA.

 

yeah the other day i noticed this also but lately everything has been going wrong with the car since i got it back from the autoshop because of an accident

 

You mean the cabin/map lights? It's normal that they dim when you are cranking. The starter motor sucks a lot of juice from the battery. It happens on virtually all cars.

 

yea cabin lights.

 

The starter motor imparts the heaviest draw on the battery of all the car's electrical components, so when starting the car, it is normal to see the interior lights dim a little.

 

Just be glad your lights don't flicker constatnly. Toyota has had many problems with this in their last gen avalons, camry, etc. My partner at work has an avalon and it drive him bonkers. The service dept., including Toyota headquarters, do not know of a fix for it.