Dome lights mind of their own

[joelmic]

when my truck lights up it's awesome, but wife and I can come home and open doors and nothing comes on.
I try to lock and unlock and nothing, then let a day go by or so and they work fine.
What is making dome and footwell lights not work 'every' time the door is opened?
And when they don't work, the manual does turn them on either.
Tomorrow they will work...

 

[Jeepwalker]

When you say 'truck lights up' ...do you mean the exterior lights sometimes don't come on when you Lock/Unlock it? Do you ever see a door ajar light on the dash when you are driving the vehicle (bad switch/wiring)? I would try the below easy and free things first and see if it makes a difference:

1) Inspect the battery cable connections. If ANY corrosion, clean them. Make sure the fusses and everything on them look like clean connections.

2) Grounds. Make sure the grounds to the body and engine are good.

3) Push all the fuses down, ...they have been known to work themselves up.

4) Unhook the battery cables and leave the cables unhooked overnight. Re-hook up in the morning. That should reset the computer and associated modules. See if that makes a difference.

5) Swing by the parts store for a free code scan and see if anything has come up that might point you to something. Also have them test your truck's battery, in case it's starting to get low. A low battery can cause flake-outs. You might want to have the code scan done first, right away (before you do #4)... because it might indicate a bad door switch and then you have the answer. Leaving the cables unhooked will erase most of the codes.

Ultimately it could be a variety of things: Some electrical fluke (try the above things for those), bad door switch, cracked or frayed wiring in the door jamb, problem with a module or failing door switch.

But first try the easy and cheap things like listed in 1-5.

Let us know what you come up with.

 

[Marshall]

I was watching a y tube service fellow, either RainManRay's Service or more likely South Main Auto in NY , Working on a chev 1500, and some of the wires in the wiring harness in the front door jam was shorted or open by the door hinge where it flexes when door opens, closes
I think the power windows had stopped working.
So have a really good look at that wiring, after all the easy stuff.

I had a 68 Imperial and the head lights would shut off at night a few times, that harnes was shorting and overloading the head light cck somehow. the head light switch also was poor, burnt contacts.

 

[RamDiver]

when my truck lights up it's awesome, but wife and I can come home and open doors and nothing comes on.
I try to lock and unlock and nothing, then let a day go by or so and they work fine.
What is making dome and footwell lights not work 'every' time the door is opened?

So, opening either the passenger or driver door and no interior lights?

When you indicate, "I try to lock and unlock and nothing", does this mean no interior lights or no locking or unlocking plus no interior lights?

And when they don't work, the manual does turn them on either.
Tomorrow they will work...

The wording here looks as though you meant to indicate that the manual control of the dome light doesn't function either during these episodes. Is that correct?

.

 

[joelmic]

So, opening either the passenger or driver door and no interior lights?

When you indicate, "I try to lock and unlock and nothing", does this mean no interior lights or no locking or unlocking plus no interior lights?

That is correct... I have full function with locking and unlocking: so the interior lights just flat out sometimes don't work with opening or closing the doors. Locking and walking away, coming back within minutes and unlocking/open door still does not light up the dome or footwell.

And YES, at this point you also cannot manually use the fade/dome light wheel to turn on the lights... nothing happens.

But overnight, I go to the truck and unlock and all lit up, I get in close the door and fade to black like normal... I came home and they worked as soon as I open the door again.

BUT, something is giving me "random" fails in this otherwise normal function...
I'll check AplaOBD and see if I have any error codes but other than that I was just wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else before.

 

[RamDiver]

A battery disconnect to my truck while at a dealership recently caused different types of intermittent BCM-related communication faults.

The HVAC system worked OK one minute and was out to lunch, the next minute.
The Uconnect radio was in an unusual state, not showing the normal options.

The solution to my problems was to reset/restart the BCM. I'd be tempted to disconnect your battery for 90 minutes, leaving the headlights on to drain the line.

And everything that Jeepwalker listed.

.

 

[GTyankee]

Possibly try something different ...

Turn the Headlight Switch to the AUTO Position & leave it in that position for a day or two. It should not change anything, as far as the Battery goes.

The Wheel under that should have the MAP lights ON, or move it just away from ON position, in that position, the Map Lights should come on with the opening of the doors.

If anything changes with the Doors & Map Lights
there may be something going on with the Light Switch

 

[White six four]

Are all the interior lights original?

Reason I ask is I changed my interior lights to led from a kit on Amazon 2 years ago. Well those cheap ones started burning out one by one. So I replaced them with lasfit ones. When the rear dome light crapped out this summer I put in a Sylvania led for it. Lights worked normal for a month or so. Then all of a sudden sometimes the interior lights wouldn't come on with opening the doors. They wouldn't work for a few days then they'd work again. Next day back to not working. So for shiggles and gits I bought a lasfit one to replace the Sylvania. Lights work every time now.

It may not be your problem but just my experience.

 

[joelmic]

Turn the Headlight Switch to the AUTO Position & leave it in that position for a day or two. It should not change anything, as far as the Battery goes.

The Wheel under that should have the MAP lights ON, or move it just away from ON position, in that position, the Map Lights should come on with the opening of the doors.

This is how I always have my settings.

 

[joelmic]

Are all the interior lights original?

Reason I ask is I changed my interior lights to led from a kit on Amazon 2 years ago. Well those cheap ones started burning out one by one. So I replaced them with lasfit ones. When the rear dome light crapped out this summer I put in a Sylvania led for it. Lights worked normal for a month or so. Then all of a sudden sometimes the interior lights wouldn't come on with opening the doors. They wouldn't work for a few days then they'd work again. Next day back to not working. So for shiggles and gits I bought a lasfit one to replace the Sylvania. Lights work every time now.

It may not be your problem but just my experience.

Well, this might be something I need to check into, both my footwell and both dome lights are LED, Ive had LED in them for years tho... but you did experience the same thing so I'll keep that in mind for sure.

 

[White six four]

Hopefully its something as simple as it was for me. Although I was almost ready to start taking door panels apart looking at all the wiring and making sure the door ajar sensors were working correctly.

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[joelmic]

Although I was almost ready to start taking door panels apart looking at all the wiring and making sure the door ajar sensors were working correctly.

I've had my door panels off several times for things like speaker change and such. Pretty easy, but I wouldn't know the first thing about testing 'door ajar' sensors.

But I'll check OBD first for any recorded errors.