Hi all,

I have a strange one here.

My 96 Blazer seems to have started to leave the interior lights on. I had to pull the light in the dome and under dash so the battery would not be drained. I thought it might be one of the door switches but I have note been able to investigate yet. Is there a relay some place that might be sticking or is it most likely a door swtich? Any advise?

Thanks.

Mark.

 

I believe there are only two things that control the power to the dome & courtesy lights - the door switches and the dimmer switch for the dash (run it all the way up til it clicks and your interior lights come on). I can not remember if the door switches work by completing a ground, but the diagnostic should be the same. If you remove each one of the door switches one at a time and the lights turn off at any point, then you have found atleast part of the problem. It is possible to have more than one door switch be bad and if not prepared for such an instance, it'll drive you nuts! Once you find a switch that, when removed, the lights turn off, go back through and reinstall the rest of them. If the lights turn on again (with all of the installed switches depressed), then the last one you installed is also bad.

If you find that even with all of the switches removed, the lights are still on, then you need to move to the dimmer switch (part of the headlight switch).

If you remove the headlight switch and the lights still are on, you probably have a wire grounded out somewhere along the harness between any one of the door switches or between the headlight switch and the main interior lighting circuit. You can attempt to track down a grounded out wire with a multimeter set to conductivity and check the conductivity from each of the door switch wires to ground. If the door switches have more than one wire running to them, then the black one should test positive to ground and the other should not.

Let me just say that I have not messed around with the door switches on any s10 based vehicle for some time and do not remember what I have done very clearly. It is quite possible that I have stated something incorrectly and please, if anyone sees something out of place, please correct me!

Good luck and let us know how the diagnostic goes.

 

swartlkk

Thanks for the advice. I suspect the drivers door swith as it is the most used. I will remove and meter.

Hope it is not the dimmer or wiring harnesss!.

Mark.

 

yea i had problems with my interior lights too.....in my case i just messed with the interior light switch to the left of the steering wheel until the door lights turned off....a pretty weird qwerk i must say....also at one point my interior lights (door lights) would come on suddenly when i was driving at higher speeds..and then would flicker and whatnot, some sensor with the passanger side door i think was loose so i just opened the door and slammed it shut and hey it worked lol

 

I suspect you are correct, I was just listing off the possibilities to prepare you. I definitely hope that it is the door switches as it gets more difficult to diagnose the further in it gets.

 

I also had trouble with a dome light that stayed on all the time. Turns out I accidently flipped the override switch on the rear hatch. Didn't even know it exhisted till then.

 

Thanks Guys,

I will try to take a look tonight.

Mark.

 

Well, last night I had the dash bezel off to change the radio out, cd died. I took a look at the drivers door switch not noted three wires, not the two expected. After wiggling the wire and switch I have come to the conclusion it is the switch as I now have the open door buzzer on all the time. A bit of a pain on the way to work this moning. I will see if I can get one from the dealer.

Any thought on bypassing the switch? IE remove the switch and splicing the wires?

Thanks

Mark.

 

Well,

I took a look a the drivers side switch yesterday. It fell apart in my hand and the contacts were all green and dirty. I stopped by the part counter at the local GM dealer and got a new one for $7. All is good. I have interior lights and no open door buzzer as I drive to work.

Thanks for the positive advise.

On another note I install a new CD deck and discovered the rear passenger side speaker is not working. Going to have pull the door skin and look I guess. Put the old radio back to test the connection. It was dead. I would never know as that is the side with the baby seat!

Mark.