Dome light problems.. works with the hatch but not the doors, tried replacing switch

99 XJ, 4 doors. The dome light will not come on when you open the drivers side or the passenger side doors. It DOES come on when you open the rear hatch.

I thought it unlikely that both of the door jam switches were bad but I bought two new ones and replaced them.

Dome light still does not work.

I have 12 volts coming to the switches in the door jams.

What am I missing?

Also where is the dome light fuse located? It's not listed in the owners manual as being in the passenger side foot well.

I have done some searching and the key buzzer was mentioned in another thread with a similar problem. I do not have a key buzzer (or at least it doesn't buzz with my key in the ignition and the door open. Would this cause the problem?

Thanks

bump

I think the wiring diagram indicates that the cargo lamp / liftgate switch are on a separate line from the wiring to the passenger door jam switches, but since you have power at the switches, ???

I think right side and left side are grounded separately. If you have power, then I guess you need ground. What else could there be?

Liftgate also has a separate ground.

Did the left side an right side stop working at the same time?

Could it be a generic grounding issue?

BrokenSockets said:

I think the wiring diagram indicates that the cargo lamp / liftgate switch are on a separate line from the wiring to the passenger door jam switches, but since you have power at the switches, ???

I think right side and left side are grounded separately. If you have power, then I guess you need ground. What else could there be?

Liftgate also has a separate ground.

Did the left side an right side stop working at the same time?

Could it be a generic grounding issue?

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I just bought the jeep, and neither door was working when I bought them. A police department owned the jeep before me.

Where is the ground located for the circuit? I don't want to take all the trim off for a scavenger hunt... anyone know where it is?

If I just splice in a ground on the passenger side, would that work for the drivers side as well, or are the doors grounded separately?

Jumper a known good ground to the switch. Light should go on. If this works, then find the ground. You can also follow the Joe Peters grounding bible and renew all of the Jeep grounds.

The lights shouldn't come on with the hatch up, if the fuse is blown. The lights are fed constant power, and ground is switched- third wire up front is a constant ground, for the maplights (IIRC), while the cargo light's third wire is a switched ground- the switch is inside the hatch, on the latch assembly. Do the lights come on via the headlight switch/dimmer knob?

The dome lights do come on when I use the headlight knob.

I don't have any map lights, just two dome lights.

Probably a ground issue. Does anyone know where on the chassis the actual ground is connected?

Everything else works as it should....

You've got 12V on one lead at the jamb switch. Is the other grounded? Have you pulled the knee bolster to see if they just unplugged the buzzer? I'd have a look under there, see if it's not something simple. If the lights work otherwise, I'd think the chassis grounds are likely good.

hubs97xj said:

You've got 12V on one lead at the jamb switch. Is the other grounded? Have you pulled the knee bolster to see if they just unplugged the buzzer? I'd have a look under there, see if it's not something simple. If the lights work otherwise, I'd think the chassis grounds are likely good.

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Which knee bolster are you referring to? I pulled the passenger side foot kick panel.

Where is the buzzer located on a 99 XJ?

I mean the panel under the steering column- it snaps out, couple of screws to hold the metal panel in place behind it. Not sure where the buzzer is, but I believe it's under the driver's side of the dash. Saw this while searching for it...

I would actually like mine to work! I have a police package on mine and it does nothing when you open the door or leave the lights on.

Click to expand...

Also found a post where someone said they just unplugged the buzzer and the lights still work, so I'm not really sure what to make of it. Something peculiar to police package Jeeps, maybe? I'd get in there and look for an unplugged device regardless.

OK so I just removed the knee bolster and metal backing plate. Since my jeep has no door buzzer, headlight buzzer, or headlight delay, I'm not sure where they should be located. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary but there are two larger size plugs that have nothing to go to. They appear to be secured out of the way from the factory.

On a possibly related note, should there be anything under the drivers seat? I have nothing under there but it looks like there may have been something?

So I just pulled off the passenger side kick panel.

The door switch has two black wires (grounds) and one yellow wire. These extend for about 12 inches and then the 3 wires meet into a plug which has one black wire and one yellow wire. This yellow wire has 12 volts. I just spliced in a ground on the 2 wire plug using the black wire and grounded it to the door frame.

STILL NO DOME LIGHTS.........

I am truly lost.......

OK so I got it 50% figured out.

I removed the knee bolster and the driver side kick panel... where I found 3 wires cut that go to the door switch! I don't know WTF they did so I wont even explain how screwed up and crazy the wires were.

So I spliced them back together, and presto, dome light works from driver side door!

It still does NOT work from the passenger side door, but I think I might know why..

On the driver side door there are 3 wires from the door switch, that extend about 12 inches and meet into a plug with three wires. The wires are yellow, black, and black w/ a blue stripe.

The dome light works when all these wires are connected.

On the passenger side, there are 3 wires from the switch, a yellow, black, and a black with a blue stripe. These extend about 12 inches and meet a plug. On the plug that the door switch wires meet, there are only TWO wires, a yellow and a black. The black with a blue strip wire is completely gone, even the pin is removed from the plug.

I think this is my problem... the trim panels are missing a couple screws on this side so they've obviously been removed before.

I need to find out where this black with a blue strip wire goes to so I can replace it. Is it just a second ground or does it actually connect to something?

Does anyone have a wiring diagram?

OK when I ground the black wire with a blue strip the dome light comes on... so I just need to find a pin for the plug and ground the wire...

Did you verify the black wire is grounded? When I put jamb switches in the rear doors, I used factory wiring. Black and yellow only, no third wire. All 4 switches are the same, and have 3 pins, but only two are used to switch the dome light on.

As far as a wiring diagram, you'll probably need access to a FSM for that kind of detail.

90Pioneer said:

A police department owned the jeep before me.

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there's your problem. Police departments modify the electrical system all the time. They likely disabled the dome lights for some reason, stealth, maybe it was an undercover unit, who knows. You're probably going to find a bunch of hots that were just cut that ran accessories, I'd likely pull up the sill plate covers and the center console and look for modifications to the harness, then put them back to factory.

hubs97xj said:

Did you verify the black wire is grounded? When I put jamb switches in the rear doors, I used factory wiring. Black and yellow only, no third wire. All 4 switches are the same, and have 3 pins, but only two are used to switch the dome light on.

As far as a wiring diagram, you'll probably need access to a FSM for that kind of detail.

Click to expand...

I do not know where just the black wire actually goes to. It disappears under the trim piece wrapped up in a bunch of wiring loom (looks factory). I did scrape off some of the shielding to this wire and attached another wire to it, and grounded it. Dome light did not go on using this method.


How can I set my multimeter up to test for a ground?

Also where did you find the harness plugs for the rear doors?

90Pioneer said:

I do not know where just the black wire actually goes to. It disappears under the trim piece wrapped up in a bunch of wiring loom (looks factory). I did scrape off some of the shielding to this wire and attached another wire to it, and grounded it. Dome light did not go on using this method.


How can I set my multimeter up to test for a ground?

Also where did you find the harness plugs for the rear doors?

Click to expand...

set meter to Ohms, ground negative test lead to the body, bare metal, bolt head s. Seat mounts generally work if they're not rusted.

positive lead to the wire in question, now read the ohms. If infinite resistance there's no connection, if less than 100 Ohms I usualy call it good. If it fluctuates and is above say 200 then the ground needs inspected/cleaned.

So I tried testing the ground and the multimeter reads 0.50 to 0.00, kind of varies...

would this indicate a good or a bad ground?

If it's bad, where does this actual ground connect to the chassis?

also I should note that i already spliced a wire onto this ground (black wire) and grounded it to the chassis.... dome lights still did not work for the passenger side.

Also I think the third wire on the front doors has to due with the map lights (I have none), so to the two wires in the rear doors would make sense...