Dome light issues.
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Dome light issues.
My dome light in my 88 f150 is giving me issues. I have some LEDS in the dome light. When either door is open the light is on and bright. When the doors are closed the light is still on but dimmer. I have pulled out both door switches and cleaned them up with contact cleaner. That didnt seem to help. Is there a common place for the wires for the dome light to short out at? Right now I have the fuse pulled. If I take out the dome light the door chime turns on and off properly when the fuse is in. Also the cargo light seems to only come on by the headlight switch.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
Logistics Pro
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 4,744
Likes: 5
From: Earth
mine does the exact same thing, most LEDs that I have come across will not (as stated above) load the system correctly, remember these trucks came out when LEDs (for cars) were still in infancy (from what I remember as a really young kid lol) LEDs really didnt start picking up as far as I can tell around the 2000's, if you really want to boil this down into history (im just trying to summarize the LED history into cliff notes version instead of pages 
you can really say LEDs were first "discovered" in 1907 by the British experimenter H. J. Round, but even that was more of a light-emitting solid-state diode.
the first "official" LED its self was supposedly done by Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev in 1927 but I would say thats not really important...LOL but yes these trucks (and vehicles weren't really intended for LEDs to be used in and the circuits I believe will always have a small load on them no matter what so that is what is causing your LED bulb to give a very low "glow" from your bulb. hope the info helps
yeesh, at least my electronics courses came in handy for something...lol!
you can really say LEDs were first "discovered" in 1907 by the British experimenter H. J. Round, but even that was more of a light-emitting solid-state diode.the first "official" LED its self was supposedly done by Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev in 1927 but I would say thats not really important...LOL but yes these trucks (and vehicles weren't really intended for LEDs to be used in and the circuits I believe will always have a small load on them no matter what so that is what is causing your LED bulb to give a very low "glow" from your bulb. hope the info helps
yeesh, at least my electronics courses came in handy for something...lol!
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Well all that in the past, the load of the led shouldnt keep the light on and dimmed with the doors closed. If the door is closed the circuit should be open and no light on at all. There has to be a point where the circuit is staying closed and keeping a voltage to the leds but at a low amp.
Mainly I want to know where I should start checking at to find this fail point.
I have tried a new door switch in the passanger door with no help.
Mainly I want to know where I should start checking at to find this fail point.
I have tried a new door switch in the passanger door with no help.
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Logistics Pro
Joined: Apr 2011
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From: Earth
well from what my electronics prof. had told me is even if the switch is off there is still going to be a very very minor (minute) load on your circuit in some way, its residual, but I would suggest if I had to pick a place to start, go from your dome light switch and trace the wires back to your dome light, then from dome light (if applicable, but as far as I can tell the two wires are hot wires) trace the ground, which as far as I can tell is the body its self (screw that holds lamp to truck body) so that should be fine, your truck should have either a green wire or a black wire, at least mine does...as seen below...
Logistics Pro
Joined: Apr 2011
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From: Earth
for the most part yes, your bulb uses maybe what....1 amp? where as your normal bulb may use lets say (to keep things easy) 6 amps of power (may be more or less but lets just say its 6 for ease of numbers) so with the circut your bulb is only going to draw 1 amp of power on the 12V circuit, where your normal bulb (12v) wull draw say 6 amps, so when your circuit goes "off" you have maybe 5 amps flowing on the circuit so when your door switch goes "on" your bulb lights up quickly as it should, so your "residual" current would be about 5 amps in this case, now the true numbers may be more or less, but Im just trying to keep it simple for understandings and this is how it was explained to me so im just passing this on as I understand it my self...White 97 Xlt may have a better explanation then this, but im just giving it as I understand based on how i was taught in my classes at college.