Footwell Light Always On? (Doors Locked & Closed)

Has anyone noticed if their driver side footwell light is always on even when the truck is off, doors locked and closed?
I tried flipping all the light switches on and off etc. with no change to the light, it seems to be on regardless of what any of the other lights are doing.

A few months ago I put all new LEDs for the interior lights (originals were previously burnt out) so that may be a related issue. On the other hand I tend to glance into the truck from time to time and never noticed the light being on until now.

One other weird thing was the other day the interior dome lights did not dim after remotely locking the truck (I'm 100% certain I did). I remotely locked the truck, walked away, came back a few mins later, lights were still on, I locked the truck again, dome lights dimmed.

 

Is there any evidence of an aftermarket or dealer-installed alarm under your dash? Any unusual boxes, any clear evidence wires were tapped or spliced?

Have you ever had the windshield replaced, does the windshield have any cracks?

The former could explain why that circuit is staying hot, aftermarket alarms tend to flake out or die after 10-15 years, and some dealers quietly installed one in their vehicles as an upsell item.

The latter is covered in the ‘electrical issues” part of this thread; regarding the semi-common water leak into the fusebox inside the cab/dash (pics & pics & pics, it happened to quite a few). Often when you have an issue where random circuits are staying on, or glitches across multiple circuits, this is the issue.

However, it could simply be that your door plunger switch on one side of the truck is failing. Likely the driver side. You can try unplugging and bypassing the door switch to see if that’s the problem. The replacement switch is pretty cheap.

 

Hmm okay thanks for the response, confirmed it isn't a normal behavior then.

It did have a Viper alarm from back in the day that I recently disconnected (the back up battery leaked), did that at the same time I updated the lights.
I do also have a dashcam and small trickle charge solar panel installed.
So yes its possible I ended up crossing some wires somehow along the way.

I have seen the fuse box leak threads before, but i haven't looked behind mine yet, we barely get rain in my area and the truck doesn't get wet often, but who knows that very likely is it.
I'll take a look at the door plunger as well, the lights on the door itself turn on when the door is opened and turn off when it is closed, so it seems to be working at the moment.

Looks like its called the "STEP LIGHT" part number 81360B, I have the wiring diagram for it, if anyone could help with reading it that would help a bunch, mostly what its linked to or where the power is coming from?
Diagram

 

Leave a flashlight down there? Mine doesnt have that.

 

haha no, I recently put an LED bulb in there so its stupid bright.
You might have it but they're commonly burnt out, the light is extremely small.

 

I'd check the door switches. Dunno if your fuse panel is hooked up for rear doors, but my drivers door switch is disconnected, and opening the driver side rear door will light up my interior. Maybe you have an extra fuse you dont need.

Do the '03+ trucks have footwell lights? Both sides? I dont remember that on moms '04 sequoia.

since its just the driver side i suspect a short. But if its an add-on i'd suspect some sorta bootlegging.

 

Put the incandescent bulb back and see if it still does it.

 

My 01 has it, (driver side only) are you sure you don't have it? Maybe just a burned out bulb?

 

First. Thank you for posting the relevant EWD page.

Second. I really hate reading the EWD on these trucks, I find them difficult a lot of the time, and I accept that I may very well be wrong with my take on this.

That said.

From the pic you posted, there's only two possible circuits of interest:

• 10A "GAUGE" fuse/circuit in the dash, or
• 10A "DOME" fuse/circuit in the dash

I believe both are included for a reason. 10A Gauge is here because any time the door plunger is activated, the dash light for 'door ajar' must turn on. 10A Dome is on here because it's the power source for the lights when the door plunger is open/closed.

From what I'm reading in this, which I may be reading wrong, I've boxed the power source (10A DOME) in red, and your ground source (LH/Left Hand/Driver door plunger switch) in black. Anyway, I traced what I believe is the power flow in orange. My main issue is, I can't tell if that first junction is forking the power out to the left/right door courtesy light junction [and] the footwell light, respectively, or doing something else. But the ground point here, black box, is clearly the door plunger switch.

Notice that door plunger switch at ground end is also feeding into a circuit for the 'combination meter' (aka gauge cluster), which gives another clue to look at to diagnose if it's the switch or not: Is the 'door open' light on in the dash when the footwell light is on? If so, you have a bad door plunger, I'd guess. If not, then you have something somehow early-grounding or shorting the specific line that feeds/grounds the S3/Step Light circuit, the long U-shape leading up to and just past the short black stretch between step light and its diode.

Let's hang out on that for a minute. Stand outside the truck, look at the gauge cluster. Is the 'door ajar' light on in the dash? In my '06, which uses a different cluster, that door ajar dummy light is at the bottom of the RPM circle, not sure on your '04, our clusters are different. Anyway, keep looking at the gauge cluster if the door ajar light isn't on, and open the driver side door. When you open the door, does the 'door ajar' light come on in the gauge cluster? Does it turn off when you close the door? If so, the door plunger is behaving normally.

Do the same when your floor light is on, by itself. When the floor light is on when it shouldn't be, and you look in the dash from outside the truck, is the door light on? If not, that's a big clue right there, because this makes it look like you need a couple of things for the kick step light to go hot:

• Power incoming from junction J23/J24 Junction
• Ground passed from the door plunger, via J4 Junction (which btw also appears to feed the door courtesy lights, another thing to check.

What's interesting to me here is J9 Junction. Clearly the left/right door courtesy lights (the little lights on the interior door panel) are getting power from 10A DOME, and also grounding out via J4. Are they on at the same time as the footwell step light? If those other two lights aren't kicking in, there must be something to explain why or how that could be. You may've nailed it: Aftermarket alarm.

Best I can do here. Hope I'm not leading you the wrong way. Wish @BubbaW was here, suspect he could've figured this out about 2x a fast.

 

Thanks so much, you're awesome. I'll look into it further and do some testing as soon as I can. Will report back.

For certain right now only the step light remains on (always on), no other lights in the truck or in the dash. I moved around all the light switches, opened and closed doors, locked the truck, nothing changed.