Dome Light short?

XDarkMaelstromX · March 1, 2014

Hi guys!

Last night I was replacing my dome light bulbs with LED's. the passenger light I had no problem with but when it came down to the Drivers side it seemed that the copper (?) wiring that Im guessing is the contact point so the bulb could get power was broken, hence the bulb would not turn on. After messing with it for a while I finally got power to the bulb. when I twisted the bulb to lock it in place, there was a small spark and my Dome lights and puddle lights no longer turn on at all. The dome lights & puddle lights would turn on before once I pushed the unlock button on the remote. Now? nothing, they do not turn on manually either.

Ive checked some of the fuses but not all, I will get around to that tomorrow when I have some light (and Im hoping thats all it is)

Any suggestions as to what it could be if it is not a fuse? maybe a relay? or would it just be a burnt wire? ANY help would be greatly appreciated guys

koda2000 · March 1, 2014

you blew a fuse. if you have your owner's manual look up which fuse controls the dome/puddle lights. it's most likely located in the fuse panel on the left side of the dash board (rather than the panel under the hood). the copper tape is really flimsy stuff and is easily damaged. before installing a new fuse be sure no part of the tape is touching anything metal.

XDarkMaelstromX · March 2, 2014

[MENTION=186147]koda2000[/MENTION] - Thanks for the response! Yep, you are right

slow night at work let me check them right now and sure enough Fuse #26 was the culprit. It fixed all 3 interior lamps, power windows (did not mention before because I found out about them after my post), and puddle lamps! Last thing I need to check is that the 4x4 Hi and Lo lights stopped flashing. If so, that one fuse fixed everything!

Thanks Again Koda2000! You're awesome!!!!! :thumbsup:

jimbalaya · March 2, 2014

I was about to post a question about my dome lights and 'map' lights and saw this post. here's my problem:

1) one of my map lights [the overhead lights in center of front seats] burned out and by the time i got around to replacing the other one had burnt out as well; when I inserted the new bulb on one side, i could not get the bulb to turn off, and when i inserted the other new one , i could not get it to turn on. i removed the whole overhead piece and it seemed that flimsy copper 'wire' [it's actually flat like foil] was broken in a few places, so i removed it and soldered it so it has no 'breaks' in it. then when I reinserted the copper piece, it blew the fuse - i tried to insert a new fuse and it blew immediately, indicating a short obviously. did i do a foolish thing and solder the copper wire as one circuit when it is supposed to have breaks in it? Here is a photo of the copper conductor after i soldered it:

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

XDarkMaelstromX · March 3, 2014

Jimbalaya - thats what caused the short with mine. My copper strip is nowhere as nice as yours and I never thought of soldering it, but what I did was simply place it in a position where the copper touched (almost in the exact same place where you soldered yours). Then tried to connect the bulb, which in turn caused the short. The light bulb lit up so i know it was getting power but it wasnt until i turned the bulb to lock it into position was when I got the spark and the short. So im not 100% sure if it was connecting the copper that caused the short (which, from the sounds of it, seems very plausible) or when I locked the bulb it touched something else. Needless to say I wont be able to test that until I either find a new copper strip, fix my current strip, or just purchase a new overhead counsel.

koda2000 · March 3, 2014

i strongly believe your repair caused your short. although i've not studied the copper foil, every circuit requires power and ground and it appears the foil provides both to the light bulb. you've soldered the two together, causing a direct short. as the lights can work independantly of one another, it looks like the top/center of your foil is the ground side.

jimbalaya · March 3, 2014

XDarkMaelstromX said:
Jimbalaya - thats what caused the short with mine. My copper strip is nowhere as nice as yours and I never thought of soldering it, but what I did was simply place it in a position where the copper touched (almost in the exact same place where you soldered yours). Then tried to connect the bulb, which in turn caused the short. The light bulb lit up so i know it was getting power but it wasnt until i turned the bulb to lock it into position was when I got the spark and the short. So im not 100% sure if it was connecting the copper that caused the short (which, from the sounds of it, seems very plausible) or when I locked the bulb it touched something else. Needless to say I wont be able to test that until I either find a new copper strip, fix my current strip, or just purchase a new overhead counsel.

XDark - thanks for your reply. I thought from reading your previous post that replacing the fuse fixed your lights? By the way, when at the Ford dealer to see if they sell the copper ribbon, the parts guy told me that no parts for the console are sold, except light bulbs, and the cost of the replacement console was $625! what a joke.

So your map lights are still not working?

jimbalaya · March 3, 2014

koda2000 said:
i strongly believe your repair caused your short. although i've not studied the copper foil, every circuit requires power and ground and it appears the foil provides both to the light bulb. you've soldered the two together, causing a direct short. as the lights can work independantly of one another, it looks like the top/center of your foil is the ground side.

Koda - thanks for weighing in, i think you are right that my soldering 'repair' is causing the problem. You are also correct that the center band of the ribbon/foil appears to be the common or ground, which starts from the bottom/center, goes straight to the 'top' and then extends to both the right and the left 'circles'. One thing that confuses me though is that if the ribbon had natural gaps or breaks in it [before i 'repaired' it], they appear to have been in different places on the left and right 'circles'.

one thing i know for sure is that i have blown 3 fuses as soon as i install the copper foil, so there is definitely a short.

XDarkMaelstromX · March 4, 2014

jimbalaya said:
XDark - thanks for your reply. I thought from reading your previous post that replacing the fuse fixed your lights? By the way, when at the Ford dealer to see if they sell the copper ribbon, the parts guy told me that no parts for the console are sold, except light bulbs, and the cost of the replacement console was $625! what a joke.

So your map lights are still not working?

The fuse did fix my lights. Sorry, I failed to mentioned that although my map lights do work I dont have them connected, Mainly because I would be in the same boat as before. I still have not fixed the copper foil so I dont want to have it connected and cause yet another short.

625$ FOR THE CONSOLE?!?! You can find another X for that price!
Ive been looking on both this websites' classified section and on Craigslist.
Ive also seen the console run anywhere from 30$ - 100$ on ebay.

XDarkMaelstromX · March 4, 2014

jimbalaya said:
Koda - thanks for weighing in, i think you are right that my soldering 'repair' is causing the problem. You are also correct that the center band of the ribbon/foil appears to be the common or ground, which starts from the bottom/center, goes straight to the 'top' and then extends to both the right and the left 'circles'. One thing that confuses me though is that if the ribbon had natural gaps or breaks in it [before i 'repaired' it], they appear to have been in different places on the left and right 'circles'.

one thing i know for sure is that i have blown 3 fuses as soon as i install the copper foil, so there is definitely a short.

One other thing I wanted to add was after looking through different websites and trying to find anything on the copper film, there is a user (greyphox) that did a write-up on fixing the digital compass/thermometer. Looking at his pictures, he has one of the copper film. It seems that there is a "break" in the film. it is not completely connected so that might be our problem. Ill place a link to his thread and hopefully youll be able to see it, just scroll down the page til you see the pictures.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217008

jimbalaya · March 7, 2014

XDarkMaelstromX said:
One other thing I wanted to add was after looking through different websites and trying to find anything on the copper film, there is a user (greyphox) that did a write-up on fixing the digital compass/thermometer. Looking at his pictures, he has one of the copper film. It seems that there is a "break" in the film. it is not completely connected so that might be our problem. Ill place a link to his thread and hopefully youll be able to see it, just scroll down the page til you see the pictures.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217008

Thanks XDark - those pics are great. i cannot tell exactly where the 'breaks' are - what do you think? i see some dark areas but not sure if that's what you mean.

koda2000 · March 7, 2014

one thing's for sure. there needs to be a break between the ground and power sides of the foil loops. from the supplied photo i can't tell exactly where it used to be, but there must have been 2 breaks on each loop to isolate the 2 halves. if you can't undo your repair, try finding a replacement console on ebay or ask if any if the members here have a spare. there are several forum member that specialize in used parts. check in the FOR SALE area. i don't recall their names, but one is something like "ped5stang" and another is "blueka".

jimbalaya · April 20, 2014

fixed the problem

koda2000 said:
one thing's for sure. there needs to be a break between the ground and power sides of the foil loops. from the supplied photo i can't tell exactly where it used to be, but there must have been 2 breaks on each loop to isolate the 2 halves. if you can't undo your repair, try finding a replacement console on ebay or ask if any if the members here have a spare. there are several forum member that specialize in used parts. check in the FOR SALE area. i don't recall their names, but one is something like "ped5stang" and another is "blueka".

Koda you of course were right that the foil needed two breaks in each loop. I looked carefully at the position of where each lightbulb makes the two points of contact with the foil when installed [about the 2 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions] and made the appropriate breaks on the foil by cutting 1/8" gaps [effectively undoing my misguided soldering job]. everything works fine now.

thanks again to you guys in this thread for helping me troubleshoot this problem.

Jim

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