Why 2016 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS owners are bugged by problems with the interior lights

The new owner of a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS says the cool interior lights aren't working properly. You are supposed to be able to switch the colors of the ambient lights to personalize the car, but a bug in the system apparently makes them disappear.

The owner of a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS reached out to members of a Chevrolet Camaro forum about a problem with his new car’s interior lights. Ty asks “Has anyone else experienced any issues with the interior spectrum lighting? It will only work for me when it goes through the show mode when the car is parked. It will cycle through the different colors. When you are driving the interior lighting is not visible, or is off even when you change the modes of driving. Also when you get into the lighting system on the radio it does not display any of the icons to change modes or lighting pattern. It is a blank screen when you enter the lighting setting. I turned the car off multiple times to see if it would reset. I also did the factory reset on the radio and it did not change anything. Today was the first time I drove the car.”

It is a cool feature. The Camaro owners are able to choose from several colors so that they can personalize their vehicle. At first, other owners just thought that Ty had it set incorrectly. Al, from Las Vegas, says, “You have it set to show mode, so it only shows when parked. You need to click on the 'link to drive mode' or select a color. “

But Ty has already run through those options. He says the the lights appear to go dead. “No, nothing is showing inside the lighting option. It's a blank screen when you click the lighting icon. The show mode will come on automatically when the car is in park. None of the interior ambient lighting works when the car is in drive. It is like the lighting feature is turned off.”

Speed, from Indiana, says it has happened to him as well. “Mine did this same thing last night. The 4 lighting options (turn lighting off, show mode, led strips and driving mode) were not available, and just the bottom menu item to select colors was available but gave an error when selected. I stopped to fuel up and when I restarted it, everything was back.” It sounds like Speed was lucky that his system restarted so quickly.

Super, from North Carolina, says he has had a similar problem with his 2017 Chevrolet Camaro. “Sounds like the disappearing Driving Mode menu issue. Did you notice it starting after a remote start? My Driving Mode menu disappeared today after a remote start.”

Ty says that his interior spectrum lighting finally reset and started working correctly. “Mine after a few starts starting working fine again. I'm going to chalk this up to just a software glitch.”

Little, from California, says it has been a persistent problem for him, with his 50th Anniversary SS. “This has happened to me several times within the first week of owning this car. Not cool for how much this car costs...Anyone know of a fix yet?”

Nate, from Charlotte, also has the 2017 50th Anniversary Camaro and he is not happy. “Mine does the same thing when I use remote start feature. Click on lighting menu and nothing pops up. Can't change color or put into show mode or anything. If I shut off car for 15 mins and start up using push start it works. Sometimes I'll have to turn on/ off 2-3 times. Hopefully yours starts working again, and hopefully GM will fix these software issues!!”

Little posted on the forum asking for help, because the car worked just fine when he went to dealership to have it fixed. “Anyone have the best way to replicate this issue, service center is asking me to show them what's going on.”

Several drivers mentioned that the bug appears most often after the driver uses the remote start feature. A Virginia driver made this suggestion. “The nature of bugs... sometimes they are hard to replicate. For me, the only time it has ever shown up is when I have used the remote start, and then it only pops up every so often.”

I haven’t seen anything else written about this particular flaw in the Camaro system. Hopefully, Chevrolet will have a fix for the fault fairly soon. If you see a TSB or repair fix posted, please let me know.