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No interior lights

tonyroc14

Well-Known Member
Joined
September 11, 2008
Messages
121
Reaction score
1
City, State
LaHabra, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Ford Explorer Sport
I have a new issue that i can't find any info on. My interior lights do not work. I the lights came on with the dimmer switch but the interior lights or the mirror lights do not come on when i open the doors or use the key fob. The dimmer switch was has been kind of erratic, sometime the lights come on and sometimes they don't. When they don't come on the map lights don't work either. I've read a couple things about relays and fuses and things like that, but no one has been able to tell me if a bad dimmer switch can cause this problem. The switch kind of rocks back and fourth, so maybe it's not making a good connection. If it helps I installed some subwoofers so I had to take apart a lot of things to run wires. Any ideas on something I may have messed up? Thanks for any help, tomorrow will be diagnosis day one :)
 






new development!

The map lights do I deed work. The dimmer switch is a little finicky. I can make contact (for all lights to go on) without pushing it all the way up to click. I can push all the way up, before if clicks into the top position and the lights will go on. There is an issue with this switch. I have checked all fuses on the inside panel, and I am going to run some test on the relays in the back to see if they work. The door ajar light comes on when I open the door, but the lights do not come on. Those are the symptoms.
 






Just came back out after lunch and now they work!?!? this is frustrating!

I just checked all the relays in the back, the box with four relays. I unplugged them one by one, and the lights didn't go out. I thought this was supposed to cause the lights to go out.

This is bugging!

Okay, sorry to post so much, but I have discovered that it is the dimmer switch. The switch has to be in the right spot for the lights to come on, so the switch had a bad contact or something inside of it.
 






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