Dome lights won't go out on my 96

FilthyHippie said:

I'm thinking it's probably the button in the driver door that's shorted or something - I depress it and nothing hapepns. I've got the fuse pulled for now, but where is that wire, and what's the best way to get in there? Also: anyone got a better recommendation than the Haynes for electrical? Not that I know much about wiring, but it seems pretty useless.

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N8N_99xj said:

Also, apologies for insulting your intelligence but some younger people who haven't driven old cars don't know this, if you turn the headlight switch knob all the way to the left that will also ground the dome light circuit to turn the dome lights on without opening a door.

If neither of those is the problem I'd check all the other pin switches and then look for a chafed ground wire that is grounding out that circuit.

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FilthyHippie said:

Well, that's what it was.

And no insult taken - I know I don't know sh-t! To my credit, though, the husband says I know more about cars than him now.

I'll keep all this in mind for when the wiring inevitably does get buggered, though. thanks guys. And again, apologies in advance for all the dumb questions I'll be sure to ask in the future.

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N8N_99xj said:

LOL those of us who grew up driving cars older than ourselves are familiar with stuff that hasn't been common in decades. I remember at one point in time I had a '62 Studebaker Daytona and I'd parked my then-girlfriend in. That one was actually a nice car that my friend had pulled out of a shed and I'd fixed it all up. Factory 289, 4-speed, about the same size as a Mustang or Nova. I was sitting around half dressed and she wanted to go to the store. I tossed her the keys and told her to move it, no special instructions other than to kick the gas pedal to set the choke. (I actually kind of wanted her to just drive it, I like ruining people for boring cars) Heard it fire up... idle... idle... finally found some pants and went outside, car is sitting with the hood up, both she and a neighbor are trying to figure out how to unset the parking brake, she'd never seen a car with the t-handle under the dashboard before.

So long story short even intelligent people (she has a Master's degree) sometimes just don't know stuff because they've ever seen it before, and don't feel bad about asking questions.

Now guys, don't do what I did after I had a little chuckle and showed her how to work the parking brake, when she said "How was I supposed to know that little orange handle wasn't the brake release" I let the brain-mouth filter disengage and said "Probably the little "H" engraved in it." Yeah, I got a serious Female Look of Disapproval for that.

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FilthyHippie said:

I take it the car stuck around and she didn't? LOL

I'm surprised my husband didn't think of it. We're long distance right now so I can't get his help with this beast, but all of the cars he's ever owned were 70's and 80's. Dunno. Maybe Caddys did it differently. (As an aside: I'm going to seriously enjoy the look on his face when he goes for a spin in the Jeep for the first time. He's used to his car seats feeling like la-z-boy recliners.)

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