Need Help..

[Chris]

Ok Buick fans.. I have a puzzle for you all.

If you are like me, the electrical part of your car is probably your least favorite thing to troubleshoot.

I was working on the vert today and noticed that after I shut the door, the interior light stayed on.  This has been doing this off and on over the month, but it always seems to go away after opening and closing the door a couple of time.

The first thing I looked at was the headlight switch to make sure in wasn't turned in the "interior light on" position. 

I then checked the plunger style light switches on the door jambs.  I tested them (they tested ok) and even tried swapping them with another set... no luck.

To keep my battery from running down, I pulled the bulbs so I'm ok for now but this is driving me nuts and I want to get everything put back the way it's supposed to be.

Maybe this is related and maybe it's not, but I've never been able to get my parking lights / front turn signals to work on this car (bulbs and fuses switched out with new).

Suggestions?

Chris

[Chris]

Just to make absolutly sure that it wasn't the door jamb switches, I went to Autozone today and picked up a new set ($4.00 each) and installed them... no luck.. still won't go off with the doors shut or the switches fully depressed.

I also picked up a new headlight switch which will be the next thing I try to swap out. 

Those three things are the only switches that turn on the interior light.. right?  Am I missing something?

Chris

[Loren At 65GS]

Chris,
Another possible cause could be wire going to ground.  Since the courtesy lights are turned on by the switch in the jamb controling the ground connection , I'd look carefully at the wires in that part of the circuit. It takes only a small break in the insulation of the wire and it touching metal , then you got light.

Loren

[sjfd04]

Chris

When you installed the new switches, did the lights say on when the switches were disconnected?  I would agree with Loren, check open circuits or bad ground.  I had a right front turn signal light that would go on when I switched over to the left turn signal. Found a bad ground.

Tom

[65gs76limited]

Don't forget,the open ground could be in the rear lites also since they are on the same circuit.Kinda strange with a open ground and it's not instanly blowing your fuse.

[Loren At 65GS]

Fuses are blown when a hot goes to ground before the load.
On the circuit for the "dome", courtesy lights,the load[bulb] is hot all the time.
It turns on when the door is opened and the circuit is completed as a ground. To cause a fuse to blow, the wire that is hot between the fuse box and the bulb ,"load",has to touch metal, "ground", before the power reaches the bulb.

I hope I'm not confusing you more then helping.
Loren

[Brian]

Loren is right--the courtesy lights are turned on and off by the ground.  Chris, I would start looking at the wiring under the rear armrests where the courtesy lights are in your convertible--they could easily have been pinched in that area of the car and have the ground wire grounded.  The other area to look is the two courtesy light bulbs under the dash--they are tied in with the same circuit, and if the ground gets grounded somewhere under there, it will make all the interior lights come on.

[Chris]

Thanks Brian,

I get my car back from the body shop in about two weeks and I've been saving the electrical work till then.

I'm going to replace the rear taillight harness with a new one ($145 from Year One   www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?cat=2 )

Every A body I've ever owned has the same light socket issues and I'm thinking maybe the grounding issue is back there.  I've tried bending out the contacts in the sockets however I think they are finally to the point of replacement and the $145 will give me piece of mind that all my rear lights are working correctly.

I'll start at the rear of the car and if that doesn't fix the dome light issue, I'll try the rear panels like you are suggesting and move forward from there. 

As soon as I get the dome lights fixed, it'll be onto the horn (aftermarket steering wheel) the clock (rebuild with the kit that's out there) and a thumping new stereo (I'm still trying to figure this one out).   ;D

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, I'm sure I'm going to need them here in a couple of weeks.

Chris

[Bigpig455]

Just stumbled across this thread after posting a very similar problem.

Chris - how did you resolve your issue?

Thanks again, Rhett