Dome Light Problem

[matty427]

2002 4.6L Explorer XLT

I've had this problem since I bought the truck 4 years ago. Basically, when the car is running, everything works fine.

When I turn the engine off and remove my keys, my interior dome lights never turn themselves off. I've let them run for 15 minutes and they don't turn off.

No big deal in the long run, I just turn the dimmer switch off evertime I leave the car and turn it back on whenever I get in the car, but hoping there's an easy fix to the problem. It gets pretty annoying - especially when it's dark out and I open my doors and no lights come on.

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

 

[my1zamboni]

A few questions about this.
When you get in the car and with doors closed, key in ignition does chime sound?
Does your radio shut off as soon as you turn ignition off?
If so, you may have this problem.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270081&highlight=door+ajar+boot
It seems to be very common in our cars and is a very easy fix.
My personal experience with it was I had 2 broken wires in there. A small brownish black one, then the famous black ground wire. Look carefully through all the wires so you don't have to open this back up.
Good luck.

 

[matty427]

The radio does stay on with the keys out of the ignition until I open a door. If my headlights are on when I turn off the engine, I get the friendly reminder chime to turn off my headlights.

I honestly don't know off the top of my head if I get a chime when I close the doors and put in the key, but I'll check today at lunch.

I saw that post right after I posted mine, and am planning on looking into it this weekend, but didn't think it showed all the same symptoms that mine does. I'm wondering if it is my battery saver relay that needs to be replaced. I checked fuse 17 when I first noticed the problem and the fuse was OK, but I plan on checking it again when I look at the wires in the boot.

 

[my1zamboni]

Good luck and keep us informed.
The first thing I noticed with mine was the lights staying on, I had gone back outside after being home for roughly 20 minutes and the lights were still on, then I started to notice all the other things after reading up on it. Never really noticed them before until I started looking.
If you are looking into the boot issue, one thing that helped me is I took the speaker out of the door, and used the magnet to just stick it to the door out of the way, then used a flashlight through the speaker opening to look into the boot. That is actually how I found the broken black wire, I was looking right at the broken strands.
Good luck.

 

[matty427]

HOLY CRAP!

Opened it up - patched up a black wire - and everything is working for the first time since we bought the truck!

Thanks!

 

[BigRondo]

HOLY CRAP!

Opened it up - patched up a black wire - and everything is working for the first time since we bought the truck!

Thanks!

Good freakin' deal!! A lot of us have repaired the broken wire(s) and it is sweet to have everything working correctly again!! :biggthump

Thanks for the update.