Suddenly rear dome light not turning off?

[JD Martin]

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Ran into an odd problem tonight. Moved all the vehicles down the street to make room for a big Thanksgiving hoedown. When I went out to move everything back, the truck was locked and all the lights were off. I unlocked the doors with the remote and inside lights came on like normal. Started the truck, and hung out for a few minutes listening to a good tune on the radio and realized the front seat inside lights turned off, but the rear dome light was still on. Drove back to my driveway and it never turned off. Turned off the truck and locked up like always and light stayed on. Tried everything I could think of - tried every switch in there - opened and closed every door, locked and unlocked with the remote, restarted the truck, etc. Nothing turned it off. It's too dark and cold to mess with for now so I just pulled the battery cable. Put the cable back on and light came right back on.

I left the cable off for tonight but any ideas to fix this tomorrow? I read through the owners manual and didn't see anything I was doing wrong. In fact I didn't even see a switch that controls just the rear dome light, only the rocker that goes on/door/off, and even with that off the light wouldn't go off.

 

[JD Martin]

Another question: is the entire light cover a switch? Can it be turned on independently of the overhead rocker light switch by the windshield in the front of the truck? The owner manual says lights turn off automatically after 10 minutes if left on to save the battery. I'm wondering now if this light has been on for months and I just haven't noticed it because I almost never drive at night any more.

 

[mtofell]

Check around it for dampness from the leaking third brake light. I'm not even sure if that could cause your issue but it's nearby. Also, be sure you don't have all the lights triggered on.... IIRC, my dash brightness switch clicks and turns on all the overhead lights but I can turn off the two domes over the front seat (leaving the rear one on as you are experiencing). I think that's the way it is on my truck.

 

[Rado]

AS JD asked is the lens cover also a switch ?

 

[JD Martin]

Problem solved! User error, of course . The entire light switch cover is a switch. Push on the whole assembly and it turns it on (permanently) or on (with the other overhead lights with the door/rocker switch control). There's no real "off" position for the back seat overhead light. Apparently sometime in the past - hell, who knows how long ago -'it got turned 'permanently' on, and because I almost never drive at night I just never noticed. Because it does in fact go out after 10 minutes with the truck off to keep the battery from running down, but I wouldn't have ever noticed because it's always daylight when I'm getting out of the truck and if I look out the window 10 minutes later the battery fail safe turns it off. I never even noticed it staying on while I was driving, but maybe I just hit it not that long ago.

So just in case anyone else has this problem in the future. As a side note, you can leave the negative battery cable disconnected all night and not have to reprogram anything the next day. I pulled the cable last night when I couldn't figure it out, and this afternoon when I got it figured out all my settings on the radio were all still saved.

 

[RamDiver]

I am able to disable all the interior lighting using the dimmer adjustment under the headlight switch.

IIRC, the lighting off is the detent stop before the interior lights on position.

.

 

[TRK_GANG74]

Problem solved! User error, of course . The entire light switch cover is a switch. Push on the whole assembly and it turns it on (permanently) or on (with the other overhead lights with the door/rocker switch control). There's no real "off" position for the back seat overhead light. Apparently sometime in the past - hell, who knows how long ago -'it got turned 'permanently' on, and because I almost never drive at night I just never noticed. Because it does in fact go out after 10 minutes with the truck off to keep the battery from running down, but I wouldn't have ever noticed because it's always daylight when I'm getting out of the truck and if I look out the window 10 minutes later the battery fail safe turns it off. I never even noticed it staying on while I was driving, but maybe I just hit it not that long ago.

So just in case anyone else has this problem in the future. As a side note, you can leave the negative battery cable disconnected all night and not have to reprogram anything the next day. I pulled the cable last night when I couldn't figure it out, and this afternoon when I got it figured out all my settings on the radio were all still saved.

We’ve all had one of these moments. Glad it all worked out for you.

 

[Rado]

Problem solved! User error, of course . The entire light switch cover is a switch. Push on the whole assembly and it turns it on (permanently) or on (with the other overhead lights with the door/rocker switch control). There's no real "off" position for the back seat overhead light. Apparently sometime in the past - hell, who knows how long ago -'it got turned 'permanently' on, and because I almost never drive at night I just never noticed. Because it does in fact go out after 10 minutes with the truck off to keep the battery from running down, but I wouldn't have ever noticed because it's always daylight when I'm getting out of the truck and if I look out the window 10 minutes later the battery fail safe turns it off. I never even noticed it staying on while I was driving, but maybe I just hit it not that long ago.

So just in case anyone else has this problem in the future. As a side note, you can leave the negative battery cable disconnected all night and not have to reprogram anything the next day. I pulled the cable last night when I couldn't figure it out, and this afternoon when I got it figured out all my settings on the radio were all still saved.

THANKS for updating us !
FYI we ALL have those senior moments LOL

 

[RamRigger]

Good to know, thanks for this

 

[chilsam]

Another question: is the entire light cover a switch? Can it be turned on independently of the overhead rocker light switch by the windshield in the front of the truck? The owner manual says lights turn off automatically after 10 minutes if left on to save the battery. I'm wondering now if this light has been on for months and I just haven't noticed it because I almost never drive at night any more.

On my 99 360 durango rear interior light the lens is a switch....like on my 06 caravan

 

[Dean2]

Glad you found your issue and that is was a no cost, simple fix. My 2021 2500 has a switch on the overhead console that turns off all interior lights. When you open the door no lights come on, but you can still turn them on at the light by manually pushing on the light.

 

[JD Martin]

Glad you found your issue and that is was a no cost, simple fix. My 2021 2500 has a switch on the overhead console that turns off all interior lights. When you open the door no lights come on, but you can still turn them on at the light by manually pushing on the light.

That's exactly how this works. Who knows how long I had the back light switched to always on, though. If not for the battery saver feature I would have noticed either from a dead battery or from looking outside at night and seeing the light on in the truck. Because I almost never drive at night anymore I wouldn't notice otherwise.

It's not obvious that the entire light cover is a switch. Personally, I think all controls inside a vehicle should be obvious, so I'm not a big fan of it (remember in the old days when the light had a little switch?) but at least now that I know I won't have to pull the battery cable again

 

[G-Ride990]

That's exactly how this works. Who knows how long I had the back light switched to always on, though. If not for the battery saver feature I would have noticed either from a dead battery or from looking outside at night and seeing the light on in the truck. Because I almost never drive at night anymore I wouldn't notice otherwise.

It's not obvious that the entire light cover is a switch. Personally, I think all controls inside a vehicle should be obvious, so I'm not a big fan of it (remember in the old days when the light had a little switch?) but at least now that I know I won't have to pull the battery cable again

After reading through this thread I just went out to the garage and checked mine. Sure enough, switch.

Never knew that

 

[JD Martin]

After reading through this thread I just went out to the garage and checked mine. Sure enough, switch.

Never knew that

Some days you just learn things. My brother oversees a number of private hospital psych wards and I just learned today that they don't have any sharp corners in there, that doctors have to wear bow ties or no ties so that they can't be strangled with their own tie and that all types of fixed rods (like shower rods) have to be breakaway so they can't be used for suicide. I always thought the psychologists were just self-important twits with their bow ties