DjHackStyle

I cant figure something out with the dome light bulb. I bought the car and it came with a 4 led bulb in the dome light, worked great then it blew out one day so i bought a replacement from vleds.com and it works on and off but when i put the switch in the middle so the light is supposed to come on when the door is open the led stays like a little lit up. So i figured the led is bad and bought another one, same problem. Then i bought a 12 led bulb on ebay and same problem. I dont get it. I just want it to be off when the dome switch is in the middle until the door is open. Is there another led i can buy that will work properly??

Heres the LED half on in the day time, in the night it looks bright even though its supposed to be off until door open.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

the light on DIM basically means that the grounding on your car isn't optimal. If you either install a grounding kit or clean up your engine grounds, the light will operate normally again.

IOW - it's not the LED, it's your car.





HOWEVER - you say the other one worked completely normally? Then it "blew out"? How did it "blow out"? Is there corrosion on the terminals in the dome switch?

DjHackStyle

The other LED worked great but in the back of the LED light it had several components like lil boxes and stuff so i figured it must have been a quality product. The chinese leds from ebay just have some SMD resistors and thats it. I didnt see corrosion, i even took it apart, no idea why it wouldnt work. I resoldered everything and still nothing.

Any way to fix the ground issue to the dome light so that bulb works? I dont have any other electric problems.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

you can install a diode reverse-polarity and that could get rid of it...

DjHackStyle

Man i didnt pay that much attention in electronics class @ TCI.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

many of the LEDs that are plug and play for our cars have a resistor and the LED on the power end, and a reverse-polarity protection diode on the ground side. This will extend the life of the LED by ensureing that the current only flows one way (if the thing is installed backwards, it won't light up). This diode also helps when there is trickle charge - a little bit of current, enough to light up the LED slightly..which it seems like you have.

I'd honestly just clean up your grounds in the engine bay and see if that'll help Because your underlying condition of poor / floating ground is still there. Talk to Shinjiduo and get one of his kits

DjHackStyle

Ok ill try this, i do have 1 of his kits i have not installed yet, been too hot lately. Thanks.

SupaFly

iTrader: (2)

I purchased LEDs through a group buy here and have the same issue with the dome light staying dimly lit when the switch is in the middle position. I gave up on trying to figure it out and just leave the light off now.

DjHackStyle

Lolz man im feeling this way now.

If someone could find This same exact LED bulb it would solve all this because i had it and it worked great. Heres closeups



The top led bulb is the chinese ebay one that stays dimly lit, the bottom led bulb is the one that was working flawlessly, notice all the extra components it has.

TallTom

Maybe it is the door switch that is the issue?

DjHackStyle

Regular bulbs work great and the previous LED too

ktcp643

Go on eBay and look for "canbus" led. I heard these have the proper resistor to prevent that glow when its supposed to be off

ramriv777

I had a similar problem on my 03 SE. I replaced the courtesy lights on the front doors with LED bulbs and immediately noticed that my "door ajar" light on the dashboard would stay half on. It wasn't completely on, but it wasn't off either. It bothered the heck out of me, to the point that I just put the original bulbs back on. The last thing I need is an gremlin in the electric system for a stupid LED. Problem solved. After reading this thread, I figured this could be related.

DjHackStyle

I looked this up and it mentions canbus bulbs are for cars that display an error message with LEDS. however it might work not sure. I searched google and found a LED bulb which looks of good quality so i ordered it solely because it has several components on the backside and i got some instrument clusters bulbs from them which work very nicely.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...d-festoon/238/

I hope it fixes this dim issue let you guys know when it arrives.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

looks like amerikaner laid it out already, he's correct.

Also the maxima will cut power completely after the car is locked and parked for a bit, so even though it glows for a while after you shut things off, so it will shut off completely after a couple minutes of parked, locked.

If you are seeing the light on dim while driving at night (it stays on just a bit) then you have a loose connection on one of the tangs or the ground on the housing is not contacting 100%

DjHackStyle

The two screws holding up the housing provide the ground connection. If the screws are removed the light will not turn on even in the ON position. With the ground to the housing removed (screws) the light is still dimly lit. I just tried it. So i think this ground theory is not applicable to this specific location. I think the bulbs are just cheap garbage.

TunerMaxima3000

iTrader: (4)

the ground for the door-trigger is supplied, it doesn't use the housing ground. it's supplied by the BCM (body control module).

the reason we have this issue is because the dome light has power 100% of the time. It's the ground that's triggered to turn the light on. When you slide the selector it grounds using the case ground, when the doors open and the selector is slid to the 'DOOR' position, it is grounded through the supplied ground wire connection from the BCM.

LED's will actually find enough of a ground through the case internals and the wiring, Even though it's not switched on, as long as power is supplied. As soon as the BCM cut's the power supply the light will go out completely (this is the time out I was speaking about earlier)

DjHackStyle

Ok that makes more sense

MaxMike93

I had a similar problem with my LED bulb (I have a VLEDs 1.5W bulb) and the real problem was just the metal plate the switch slides not making enough contact with the plate that supplies the power. My friend noticed it, bent the plate the switch on the dome light slides a little to give it better contact for where it needs to touch, and everything is great for me. Before that, the bad contact would keep the bulb from having its full brightness and would flicker a bit from the loss of contact.

EDIT: Just noticed that your problem isn't the bulb lighting up properly, it's that the bulb is staying lit. I misread the issue, my mistake.

DjHackStyle

ur on to something, the bulb works correctly but i noticed when i push the dome light assembly upwards it flickers and gets brighter i dunno this thing is retarded.

bennuss

Had the same issue. The switch contact where not optimal for the leds. Need to bend the switch contacts to make a better contact.

DjHackStyle

This works just did it, no more flickering and brightness is full power. hitting the dome light while its on doesnt affect it anymore. Switching button feels much sturdier. Thanx.

DjHackStyle

Problem solved:

i just got the LED from superbrightleds.com and it works perfect. the slightly dim issue is gone. Bottom line cheap chinese crap leds dont work in a maxima.

superbrightled bulb is on top compare front and back to the ebay one. It is also of much better quality and much brighter than the 12led one. Highly recommended.



http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...d-festoon/238/

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

the actual LEDs on that superbrightleds.com one are the "5050 type" which basically means one of those is brighter than 3 regular ones

SupaFly

iTrader: (2)

Cool.. I just ordered new dome and license plate leds. For anyone interested, here's a 5% off coupon code for superbrightleds.com: focusfan13