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Interior Lights Are Staying On

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mark67ss

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
My interior lights always worked flawlessly. Yesterday I got my front end aligned. When I got the car back, I noticed (after about two hours of driving) that my interior lights were on. I have a convertible and the top was down so it was hard to see at first until I got into the garage. I double checked the door switches by pressing them in by hand and also made sure the headlight switch was not in the on position for the interior lights. Could it be a bad ground? One of the door switches? How do I check the switches and how do they work? Also where should I start to look for a ground problem? Not very electrically inclined so baby steps would be appreciated. For now I have disconnected the two bulbs under the dash and the console ash tray light bulb(that sucker gets wicked hot!!!)

Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance

Mark
TOOFUN
 
#3 ·
The courtesy lights run off the orange and white wires. Orange is powered all the time thru the CLK-CTY-LTR fuse. The switches control the lights by grounding the white wire. There are 3 switches, the 2 doors and the headlight switch.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
No the headlight switch is NOT in the ON position. I removed the two wires from the drivers side door and they did not go out. The passenger side door only has one wire connected to it but it seems like it is part of the switch itself. So I have three questions...

1. How do I remove that wire to see if it goes out?

2. How do the door switches work. I am assuming that the switch breaks the connection when the door is closed causing the lights to go out or do it make the connection allowing them to go out. Either way when testing the door switches what do I do. Do I just disconnect them or do I tie them together? How can I test this??

3. Also if the lights still stay on when the switches are disconnected then what next should I look for?

Thanks Again for all the help

Mark
TOOFUN
 
#5 ·
What you have is an unwanted "ground" on the white wire. Could be a problem by or near a switch, could be a nick in the wire somewhere that's touching the dash.

The switched work thru a simple plunger. the wire is attached to the spring loaded plunger, which makes contact with the "body" of the switch and ground the wire when the switch is not pushed.

The drivers side switch is different than pass, it has 2 connections. The one that's not white is for the key buzzer circuit and is unrelated to the courtesy lights. There should be an instulator on the switch to keep the 2 wires from touching eachother.

The pass side switch is just a pin and socket connection. The wire should pull right off. Most times, there is enuf wire to just unscrew the switch to get at it.

If you have a console, it has a courtesy light in the back on the same circuit.

Problem could be anywhere on that white wire. There is a connector just above the drivers side kick panel that ties the circuit into the ragtop under dash lights as well as the pass side door switch. If you disconnect that conneector, that will remove everything from the circuit except for the drivers side door switch, headlight switch, and console light. You can break the circuit in half and narrow it down some..
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
OK so If I understand this correctly this is what I should do.

Disconnect the wires from both switches(pass and drivers side) and see if the light goes out. If it does then I know one of the switches is bad. If it does not, then it has to be somewhere else. Guess my next course of action would be to trace the white wires back and see if it is grounding out somewhere along the route. If it is then I have found my problem if not then I will have to search the other white wire that goes to the courtesy light.

So It can only be one of those three white wires? or is anything else attached to it as well? What about the two lights that light up the shifter on an auto? I have recently converted to a manual tranny and have cut and taped off the two lights that use to light up the shifter indicator. Do those work on the same circuit as well or no?

Mark
TOOFUN
 
#7 ·
I doubt that it has anything to do with the conversion from Auto to Manual transmission. If the console light sockets were to ground out, then it would create a short, blowing the fuse. Do like Jim said and check the door switches first by removing the wires and seeing if that has any affect on the lights. Somewhere along the line there is a break in the line (wire insulation) causing a ground. It's just a matter of tracing the wires and finding the problem.
 
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#8 ·
The white wire (on a vert) goes to:
headlight switch (turns lights on when you rotate it)
Drivers side door switch
Console connector
Console courtesy light

Connector above drivers side kick panel, vert specific harness connects here

2 under dash bulbs
pass side door switch
 
#11 ·
Do the dash lights actually dim when the headlight knob is rotated? Sometimes the rheostat on the headlight switch goes bad. IF the switch fails, interior light problems like the one listed are possible......Jb
 
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Johnny B
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