Haunted Interior Lights

[Diesel Tom]

Our 2007 Explorer's interior lights have become haunted. Randomly they will come on and go off after a while with no action on our part. It's as if someone has opened a door. The lights gradually come one, then stay on for a while, and then gradually go off.

I thought it might be the manual turn on switch which is coupled with the instrument cluster light control, but that switch causes the lights to come on instantly at full power and go off with out dimming.

Any ideas?

 

[08Exploder]

yup have a strong idea happened to me when i bought my 08 6 months ago now there are 2 causes i started with the easy one that is the ignition switch what happens is the car thinks your removing the key and as if you know when you remove the key the interior lights turn on. the other cause is the lock cylinder is bad thats more of a pain I would try the ignition switch first very cheap like 50 bucks get motorcraft brand and it takes less than 1 hour to do .
Tom

 

[08Exploder]

to do a test while driving at night wiggle your key up down left right in and out see if your lights turn on.

 

[Diesel Tom]

I tried your test tonight with wiggling the key. No luck. However, the interior lights come on one time without any provocation while we were out.

 

[08Exploder]

It may not happen all the time next time your interior lights come on randomly go for the key and move it if the lights turn off after you touch they key I would start with the ignition switch very cheep and easy to do. This exact thing happened to me when I got mine and it happened on day I bought it lol boy was i thrilled but was easy fix

Tom

 

[08Exploder]

I am 90% confident it's the ignition switch because the only time the lights gradually turn on is when you open a door or pull key out and if it was a door switch you would get an ajar message so it's going to be the switch.

Tom

 

[Diesel Tom]

I've made some progress on this problem. I have found that if I turn off the interior lights manually but moving the dash light rheostat to the maximum left position, the interior lights won't come on randomly at all. There is a module in the Smart Junction Box called the Battery Saver module (designated the HSD in the wiring diagrams) which controls the interior lights. I'll check that next.

Any other ideas?

 

[camphead]

It was the ignition switch on our 07, random on and off especially on a bumpy road.

 

[08Exploder]

Before going crazy this was a common problem on these explorers I would try the ignition switch it's 50 bucks get the motorcraft one and if it doesn't fix it we will go through the scematics I have all the electrical diagrams it just takes me time to upload them. Your issue is exactly same as mine I did the same thing turning off the dome lights cause it over rides the function for illumination you will also notice when you remove key no more lights go on etc the issue is more than likely the switch if it's not the switch then you have a bad wire or failing smart junction box easy stuff first.

Tom

 

[Diesel Tom]

A new ignition switch cured the problem. I never could get the lights to come on by wiggling the key up and down or back and forth, but when I wiggled it in and out, the lights came on. You are right - it's a very easy fix. It took me only 24 minutes start to finish to install the switch.

I took the old switch apart to determine the problem. The contacts for the "key inserted" switch are non-wiping which means they are not cleaned during daily use and can easily get dirty. When I first looked at the switch, it looked like there was an adjustment for this switch. There was a small slotted screw visible, but that was just the style of the actuation rod - no adjustment was possible.

Many thanks for your help. That's what makes the forums so helpful.

 

[K9SUV]

Ok, this thread just saved me a ton of anguish (and potentially money). Time to up to a paid subscription!