LOL

Hey Matt..
Your lights are on and car won't start. OMG..I'm crying here. If it'* not a fridge, freezer or dishwasher..it'* the car.

Look up under the dash slightly.. you were very close on that connector.

Hey all -

Sorry for the disappearance. After having the engine swapped twice, etc, etc, and then getting rear ended by a no insurance girl, I pretty much just decided to use my Bonnie for a beater, and left the courtesy lights fuse pulled.

But looking at it now it' * not so bad, and 32MPG is pretty hard to beat. Still runs great, oil pressure is a bit hig for my liking, but I'll worry about that next.

Anyway...

After a year of small claims court attendance, and the garnishment process... I finally got the $2200 out of the girl..... about 2 weeks ago.

So now I'm back onto restoring as I can. First step is the interior lights statying on.

I found the RAC, 2 blue conectors and a white one. Pulled the white one, lights stay lit.

Any pointers? I searched the forums to see if anyone else had a similar problem in the last year, but didn't find anything.

Again, sorry for dropping ya 'all. Long depressing year, but things are on the upswing again.

Also if I should have started a new post, my apologies, this one just had all the history in it.

Thanks
Matt

LOL...here we are right where we left off.

Good news Matt.. I've learned much since this thread started and I think the starting point should be the pulling the drivers door panel and unplugging the switch to the door handle. This switch is for illumination. The only time it works is when the door is locked and someone grabs the handle.

Most with key fobs to lock and unlock the car never realize the switch is bad, only that the light won't turn off.

Heya Bill!!!!!

For once, (I think) I'm ahead of ya. Already pulled the drivers side panel, and disconnected the switch. No change in behavior (I'm assuuming you mean the 2 wire micro switch (as you said, to the door handle), I think it had tan and black wires. I also tested out the switch with a VOM, it'* working properly.

I noticed a number of other wires going over to the latch area, pulled all those as well (one at a time with no change either.

One thing, as I was thinking that the RAC module thought a door was open, and so was keeping the lights on. Having said that the in dash info display shows when a door (door ajar) is open. Dunno which switch it depends on for that info though.

One thing is for sure - they really needed to put some more wires in the door. There simply are not enough!!!!

Good to see you are still here....

Any other ideas are much appreciated (Maybe I need to pull the passenger door panel)?

Thanks!
Matt

I'm trying to think of the diagnostics on the system. In 96+ you could run the "bong" test and find it. Could be RAC or Body control modules.

I was looking for info on the body control module, I saw some references to it - can you tell me what it looks like / where it is?

Thanks -
Matt

All, I found the problem .... the previous owner had put new speakers in the door panel, and... well let'* just say some of the lamp leads were not exactly put back as they should have been. THis one was the passenger side door lamp that you have to pull to get the door panel off.

Can't get too upset, total cost to repair: .00, and the help of y'all.

Thanks all -
Matt

Just a quick follow up, in the hope it helps someone else out.

On the passegnger door, I removed the armrest lamp assy in order to remove the door panel (my next step was to check each latch switch).

Upon doing so, I saw the one wire was not connected to the lamp assembly. I don't know if it was hot or ground, but I believe it was orange in color.

I'm assuming it was touching ground, and therefore, was the lamp ground lead. I would think if it was the hot lead I'd of had a blown fuse. The only thing I can think of that would make this lead cause the lamps to stay on is if all the other lamps are isolated from ground, and make their connection when a door latch is pulled, and then ground is fed to the lamps. With this lead in constant ground contact, the lamps would therefore stay lit. This is just a guess though.

Anyway, I made sure the lead wasn't touching anything, and then everything worked normally.

I guess the moral if you're having a problem with your courtesy lamps staying on is:

1) Check for blown RAC fuses
2) Unplug the RAC
3) Check each latch switch
4) Check each bulb/socket.

I have absolutely no idea how I would have ever found a ground short if I hadn't stumbled across it, assuming that was the problem.


Many kudos to Bill and all on this forum. I also called LKQ to order a RAC module. We chatted quite bit, I described the symptoms and he told me if I'd unplugged the RAC, and the lights stayed lit - the RAC was not the problem, but was being caused by a short to ground somewhere. He also said it couldn't be the BCM. So many thanks to them as well, very knowledgeable and helpful folks.

Thanks all -

Matt

Awesome to hear you found it.