I took off my OEM dome light and wired on a different one, a blue flouresent one. I did this in my other max and it worked fine. When the doors where open it was on, then you close the doors and it turns off after a few seconds and turns off right away when the doors locked. The new light has a red wire and a yellow wire i wired it one way and blew a fuse. I wired it the other way and it turned on, but it wont turn off and work with the doors. So I wired the OEM dome light back on just like it was never cut and now that wont turn off either and now the light around the ignition key hole wont turn off either. Since its only one led I didnt worry about draining the battery. Now I would like the dome light to work properly. If anyone has messed with the wiring with the dome light or has had any problems with the dome light that could help that would be great.

Thank You
Tom

 

bump

 

just something to check...sometimes i forget too..
check that the selector is on the AUTO position and not ON or OFF
i think the auto is in the middle of the the 3.
i dunno...its simple but you may have just forgot

 

Yeah I checked that. I think the wiring may have gotton messed up somewhere.

 

Did you solder? Because if you did, maybe you bridged something that wasn't supposed to be bridged.

 

Agreed....thats the only possible reason...it can't be the bulb.

Erik

 

No I didnt solder it. I just twisted the wires and taped it with electrical tape.

 

depends on which door you're closing. if you close the driver door, the light will go out after 30sec. any other door, the light will extinguish immediately. cool feature huh? When I bought my car 3 weeks ago, I thought my dome light was broken too!
Jae

 

No, I know thats not the problem.

 

what selector are you talking about?

Thanks

 

I have the same exact problem!!! my problem happened when i was trying to install a LED in the ignition light and i am somewhat sure that i caused a very brief short, and since then the lights don't shut off. I have tried tracing all the wires and everything else i can think of. Only thing left to do was to disconnect the ignition light and turn off the dome light so that they won't drain my battery. FYI, the the light in the ignition is not a LED so definitely disconnect that in the mean time because you are going to drain your battery fairly quickly. I would really appreciate it if someone looked into this, i tried looking at the chilton wiring diagrams and found nothing. I have gotten used to getting into a car with no dome light, but i would really like it back on. and for everyone else, don't play around with these components, and if you do then definitely disconnect the battery during the entire installation process.

 

Ditto. Ever since I tried to wire an led in my door light my dome light has been off and my keyring light has stayed on. But, the solution to my problem is a bad drivers side lcu (window switch), I just ordered one from a junk yard, should be in tomorrow. I also wired an led in the keyring, didn't notice that it stayed on 24/7 until you posted this message. I've had it running for a month, no battery drain at all. Tonight I wired up 3leds in my dome, noticed they stay on with the door shut. I'm hoping the new lcu solves the problems. I'll update when I find out. Sean

 

I hope the new window switch works for you, but it didn't work in my case.. i tried out my friend's window switch, and it didn't solve anything.

Keep us posted if anyone finds a solution.

 

I just realized that most people don't use relays when installing electrical stuff. Before the next project, check them out. With a relay, fuse, and diode, you can make a pretty safe electrical installation.
Jae

 

Only other thing I could think of is if you damaged something in the BCM by hooking stuff up the wrong way...I'm not sure how, but if you think you ran power down the ground wire...that's the wire that's switched by the BCM..prolly not good.

 

Got my new LCU today. Installed it, right away the door light began working again. Dome light still doesn't come on. Conducted an experiment with normal dome bulb and leds. Any input is welcomed.

Voltages will be listed as follows: normal dome bulb voltage/led voltage

e.g. Normal voltage with Dome in on position 12.66/12.52

Car off/Alarm off Door closed Dome=.232/9.89
Car off/Alarm off Door open Dome=0/7.48
Car off/Alarm on Dome=.213/9.84
Car off/Alarm tripped Dome=.187/7.48
Car off/Ign. on/Door closed Dome=0/9.81
Car off/Ign. on/Door open Dome=0/7.48
Car on Dome=.286/10.06
Car on/Door open Dome=.245/8.70
Alarm disarmed Dome=0/7.82

When I bought the car 2 months ago the dome light would come on when the door was opened, go off when the door was closed, come on for 30seconds when the alarm was turned off. I did short the door light terminals, which in fact damaged my LCU. Upon replacing the LCU my door light began working again, therefore Zboy may be right about the BCM being damaged. At a minimum something is incorrect. Does anyone know a solution based on this info or should I check the junk yards for a BCM now? Thx, Sean

Forgot to mention, keyring light still stays on 24/7.
Also if I get an aftermarket alarm system it would basically bypass this dome problem I believe. Wouldn't fix the open door dome on/close door dome off problem, but at least when you disarm the alarm you would have 30seconds of dome light.

 

anyone know the prices for BCM?

 

Did anyone figure this out? I've had this problem since I bought the car in June of '01 and it's really starting to annoy me that i have to leave my dome light on OFF.

 

I checked another thread: http://forums.maxima.org/audio-elect...-turn-off.html
but would like to be sure that if your dome light is dim after you have closed and locked your doors, and waited say 1 minute (to be sure the timer is not active) that this is nothing to be concerned about in terms of draining your battery, etc.

Thanks.


~M3

 

I don't think anyone from this orginal thread a decade ago will answer your question, so I will.

If your dome light (or door lights) is dim when off, then it just means you bought cheap LEDs. If you buy the better kind, the problem won't happen. If you don't want to buy the good kind, don't worry, your battery won't drain with the LEDs on that dimly.

 

Thanks for your quick reply! All the best for the New Year!