3rd Gen - Dome lights don't turn on when any door is opened

There is a tiny footwell bulb under the left dash. I have the wires temporarily disconnected and may have blown a fuse because my multimeter is not picking up a voltage. There is no light when I reconnect the wires to the footwell bulb or my footwell LED strips.

The dome lights work in the ON position but not in the DOOR position when the door opens which happens to be the same circuit that turns on the footwell briefly.

I’ve already checked various fuses under the hood and under the dash. Anyone know which fuse that is or is it something else?

 

You missed it. It is under the dash and is a 10amp fuse. I tied into the footwell bull for my step lights.

 

Hmm, both my 10A’s here are good. Do you remember what it’s called?



Definitely in there somewhere because if I connect a 9V battery to the footwell bulb or strip, they light up.

 

Try the 7.5amo cargo light fuse

 

I checked all the mini fuses yesterday, I’ll look at that one again thanks. If it’s not the switch either and maybe at worst the ECM, I’ll fuse tap a relay and a separate switch to the footwell LEDs. I only use the dome on demand anyway, it’s too bright on door entry.

Usually I disconnect the battery before electricals but the footwell bulb wire was already frayed off and made contact somewhere.

 

Thanks Ron, that one’s good. I took it out yesterday and had no dome at all. Put it back in and dome works when switch is set to ON.

Looks like I’m pulling the lower dash to take a quick look at the wiring and voltage test the switch at the DOOR setting. I guess I could also tap the footwell LED strips there for on demand power.

 

After work yesterday I added wire to the disconnected footwell bulb holder combined with the wires tied to the LED strips for the 4 footwells, tunneled and tapped it to the cargo power wire inside the loom under the driver’s side kick plate beneath the door, works with the cargo switch in DOOR position, any door, and how I was using the interior lights before at night, dome off anyway.

Fuses above are intact, oddly if I ground the actual footwell negative wire to a screw, all the interior lights turn on with the dome switch in DOOR position, but they don’t turn off with the doors closed nor ignition on.

Assuming the door buttons are fine as all 4 doors work with the cargo setup above, I’m not sure what to check in the dome switch. Or where the problem might be if I want to continue problem solving. Any ideas?

 

Do the dome lights still work when you use the switches at each of the dome lights? The dome lights receive constant 12V+ and the switch at each of the lights connects the ground to complete the circuit. Same for the Off/ Door/ ON switch by driver's left knee. Look at jawjatek's Post #2 in this thread. He did a better job than I am doing explaining. As for why your dome lights won't work with the driver's left knee switch in the DOOR position, but seem to work in the ON position, I have no clue, but I'd be taking a hard look at the actual switch. I know i accidentally took mine apart by unhooking the wrong tabs when I was attempting ot remove the switch housing from the switch blank (hole), and it's an older style switch. I could easily see something in there getting boogered.

 

Your android radio setting might have changed. My dome lights stoped working when the doors open, but still worked when the switch was moved to On.

 

Thanks. All four dome switches work when individually pressed. It all began with the footwell bulb wire frayed off from the holder, I didn't touch anything else. When I took off the lower dash, I followed the footwell wires up and they don't seem to have any issues up into the main branch.

 

Did same as you:



No dice BUT thanks! Changed a couple of other settings to a better preference

 

Did you resolve this? I’m having the same problem after a damn led frayed while trying to install in the footwell.

 

No, I left it tapped into the cargo power wire (post 9). I actually doubled up and added another set of 4 footwell LED strips, they all light up when I open the door in conjunction with the cargo light.

I still don't miss the dome lights when opening the door, it's either ON or OFF using the switch. Oddly if I leave it on DOOR, the dome lights sometimes flicker when I'm driving, maybe that's a clue, I don't know.

 

Thank you for the quick reply. I’ll have to try and find a service manual to see if I can get to the bottom of it.

 

OP, do you have the inspection procedure for the dome light switch? Just like you did for the cargo light switch above?