When is the front dome light supposed to be on?

[Number Twelve]

The title: When is the dome light supposed to be on?
Right after that, when are the lights in the bottom of the side mirrors supposed to be on?
Are those lights on the mirrors called, "puddle" lights?

 

[ROBinGa]

Yes the lights under mirrors are your puddle lights. Those should both come on when you use key fob to unlock doors. If they are not coming on when you do that chances are they are burned out. You need to be careful when trying to remove the lens to get at puddle light bulbs. The best way I've seen is to take a box cutter blade (or something equally as thin as razor blade) and gently pry the edge of the lens down from the plastic mirror trim until you can grab it with fingers and open it. I will search for a good YouTube video showing this technique. Those bulbs are the small 5w glass bulbs that you can switch with LEDs. Again careful with that lens as by now with age it is brittle and fragile

 

[Number Twelve]

I do not intend to fix the puddle lights.
I asked because my wiring diagram (P. 89-1 and P. 89-2) shows the puddle lights are on the same wire as the front dome light (BK/LB) The puddle lights go off a minute after I shut the car down but the dome light never goes off. If they are both connected to the same wire, this is impossible. So I ask again: Do the puddle lights only respond to a keyfob command to unlock and nothing else?

When is the dome light supposed to be on?

 

[ROBinGa]

That's all my puddle lights do, on with key fob unlock. Sorry for the extra info

 

[Number Twelve]

Sorry for the extra info

I don't think you swamped me with extra information. I only wanted to stop that line of thought before you wasted a lot of time on it instead of answering the title of the Thread: When is the front dome light supposed to be on?

To elaborate: When the puddle lights come on in response to the keyfob, when should they turn off? Mine stay on until a minute after I walk away from the car.

Then the dome light: I expect it should come on when I open either of the front doors and turn off when the ignition key is moved to, "start". It never shuts off...ever. Therefore it can not be connected to the puddle light wire as shown in the wiring book. The dome light is connected to the same color wire as the puddle lamps, but it acts very differently.

 

[IIGood]

To elaborate: When the puddle lights come on in response to the keyfob, when should they turn off? Mine stay on until a minute after I walk away from the car.

This is also what mine do. They will turn on when I unlock the vehicle with the fob, or when I open the door to get out of the vehicle.

The puddle lights will stay lit for a short time (I don't know exactly how long but maybe about a minute) after I have walked away, or they will turn off immediately if I lock the vehicle via the keypad or the fob remote.

Then the dome light: I expect it should come on when I open either of the front doors and turn off when the ignition key is moved to, "start". It never shuts off...ever. Therefore it can not be connected to the puddle light wire as shown in the wiring book. The dome light is connected to the same color wire as the puddle lamps, but it acts very differently.

My dome light comes on when I unlock the vehicle with the remote...same as the puddle lights. The dome lights turn off once the engine has started.

But, when I shut the engine off and remove the key from the ignition switch, the dome light comes on then. It does not wait for a door to open like the puddle lights do.

Actually...now that I think about it, the puddle lights may come on when I shut the vehicle off before opening the door too. I'll have to confirm this later.
EDIT 2: I have confirmed that the puddle lights do come on with the dome light when the engine is shut off.

The dome light does shut off at the same time as the puddle lights...they'll either fade out after a minute when walking away from the vehicle, or shut off immediately when locked from the keypad or fob.

EDIT: Something simple just came to mind...is the dome light/dashlight wheel-switch all the way on? Just checking to cover bases...

 

[Number Twelve]

dome light/dashlight wheel-switch

I checked that. It will shut off the dome light, but only after the instrument cluster lights are dimmed to the max. I chose to keep the instrument cluster lights available by taking out the light bulb in the ceiling. This does raise another question: Does the dimmer switch for the instrument cluster turn off the puddle lights or lock them on if turned in the other direction?

 

[IIGood]

Does the dimmer switch for the instrument cluster turn off the puddle lights or lock them on if turned in the other direction?

I just checked this as it made me wonder as well. I do know that the puddle and dome lights will shut off when the dimmer wheel is turned off. But I never noticed when the dimmer wheel is on...

With the vehicle parked and engine off, the puddle lights and dome light do turn on when the dimmer switch is on. I even locked the vehicle with the fob and they stayed on.

I didn't fire the engine to see if the puddles and dome operate the same with the dimmer.

Are your map lights working properly? How about the second row light and rear cargo area light?

 

[Number Twelve]

With the vehicle parked and engine off, the puddle lights and dome light do turn on when the dimmer switch is on. I even locked the vehicle with the fob and they stayed on.

This seems to confirm the puddle lights and the dome light are on the same wire...but the dome light in my car never shuts off and the puddle lights do. Therefore: wiring error. Maybe somebody screwed with this before I bought it. I did find some amateur work under the steering column where somebody installed and removed some after market device.

Previous a-hole also jerked off both sun visors and the ceiling pod and threw them out the window. I assume because the sun visor lights never turned off and the dome light never turned off. The things which I think are map lights are in the ceiling pod and have a personal switch for each side. I haven't checked to see if they automatically go off after I park and walk away.

I think I have a stuck "battery saver relay" plus a wiring error.
Thank you. You have been very helpful by discovering the intended functions of the lights. This is basically impossible to do in a car with two or more errors in the electrical system.

 

[IIGood]

Glad to have helped narrow it down for you. Good luck with the fix! Sorry I can't be of more service as electrical is probably my weakest area...I hate electrical gremlins! That combined with the previous owner's shoddy work just makes things worse.

EDIT: I did confirm this morning that with the engine running, the puddle lights and dome light both turn on when the dimmer switch is turned all the way on.

 

[Number Twelve]

Sorry I can't be of more service as electrical is probably my weakest area.

That's OK. I'm an electronics nerd. I have spent 40 years listening to people tell me how it, "should" work, then figuring out why it doesn't. I merely got you to tell me how the lights should work and that's all I need. I know exactly what I'm looking for and where I'm going to look today. It's in the central fuse block which is accessed like this:

That's why I repaired the power cord on my Sawzall yesterday.

 

[Number Twelve]

Sawzall worked.
Had to remove everything from the drivers knee panel, up the left side, across the instrument cluster to the stereo trim. Three vertical cuts with the Sawzall and nibble the pot metal away from in front of the fuse block with Vise-grips.
Take the end supports off the fuse block and I can now turn it either side up to replace fuses or relays without taking the whole left side and center of the dashboard apart.

The Battery Saver Relay is good, so I'm going to measure voltages on the instrument cluster today and see why the Battery Saver Relay never turns off.

 

[IIGood]

Any further findings from yesterday's adventures?

 

[Number Twelve]

Any further findings from yesterday's adventures?

Yeah...the cruise control quit working.
I hope I merely missed plugging something in.

But I did discover that you can hang the instrument cluster in the dash board hole without the trim pieces and the wires are accessible from the front. I'm gonna get my pointy probe out in a while and inquire as to which wires are doing what.

 

[Number Twelve]

It looks to me like the Interior Lighting Relay is a 12 legged, gull wing, surface mount chip, that could not be touched without destroying all the gauge needles if you were a left handed surgeon with 3 wrists on each arm and had a squad of tiny soldering ants. Ima guess this one is going to be an external fix...if I can think of a way to do it. Plenty of places to access wires, but printed circuit boards are very well guarded. Our Father Who Art In Detroit really, really, wants me to pay $1000 to get the dome lights to work.