Thread: Why might my cabin lights be staying on all of a sudden?

Might want to go see if the wheel below your headlight switch is cranked all the way to the fat end. That thing (on 97-03 GP) controls guage lighting brightness but if cranked all the way to bright, theres a detent and it switches your "dome light" on. Easy to bump the switch without knowing. Thats the manual dome light switch, its kind of a carry-over from the old days when you crank the headlight knob all the way left for inside lights. A tiptoe through the owner's manual can familiarize a driver with subtle features such as this one.

Glad to know basics are still on the front line! You open and shut all the doors yet? I believe the door switch is in the latches on these cars. It could get complicated, I defer to higher powers and have nothing further at his point. Electrical is my kryptonite, just thought I'd ask about that switch because I found mine on the other day. It does eventually time out, does it? Hmmm... good luck with it.

Typically its a bad door actuator, but not always. I had the same symptoms but it was due to a different issue.

Lock actuator or blend actuator?



I've had gurgling sounds from within the dash due to, I assume, a supposedly bad driver's side blend actuator but was noticing today that the gurgling seems to have doubled.

Originally Posted by Centauri

Lock actuator or blend actuator?

Lock actuator. Part of the latch assembly. If you have a DVOM, you can check functionality of each actuator at the BCM. No need to pull the door panels unless or until you find a bad actuator.

Like I say, door actuator is MOST likely, but other possible causes are faulty headlamp switch, faulty BCM, or short to ground on courtesy lamp circuit.

I can't imagine a faulty blend door actuator causing a "gurgling" sound. Usually bubbling or gurgling in the dash is from air in the heater core. Haven't had to fight that problem yet. I'll let someone else chime in on that issue.

I'll focus on the lighting problem because I've been there before.

Let me know if it turns out NOT to be an actuator. I can send you some trouble trees to work through to narrow down the cause.

I pulled the fuse on my 97 because my drivers door lock actuator switch was bad....it's cheaper to just use a small LED flashlight in the cubby hole

Originally Posted by Centauri

I was noticing too that I can sometimes get the dome lights to go off by playing with the wheel underneath the headlamp control knob. But everything else stays on. Hmm...

Play with it faster! Just kidding, that didn't sound right did it? The parts inside that headlight switch could just be dirty from lack of use. Do like we did back when twisting the old-school knob made the dash lights flicker... work the switch back and forth vigorously and repeatedly. That might fix it. Or at least tell you theres an issue in the headlight switch.

that dimmer wheel for the dash lights, clicks at the brightest setting and the inside lights come on. iirc thats part of the head light switch, it goes bad.

Originally Posted by idrivejunk

The parts inside that headlight switch could just be dirty from lack of use

I suppose that's possible also. It's crazy dusty here.

It happens to all the stuff with rheostats or whatever those spring lookin thingys are called, that dim the dash lights. Thats why I brought it up first thing, so you would notice any funny business if you cycled the switch. Anybody remember scratchy-sounding volume knobs on stereos? Same thang, just work hell outta the switch to buy time until you can replace the whole switch or clean it.

Edit: this still might not be the whole issue!

I had a similar problem with my 97 years ago...turned out that battery acid had dripped onto the wiring harness that runs underneath the battery and corroded some of the wires, causing all sort of weird electrical glitches. Cleaned it up and patched the broken wires and then all was good. Might be worth taking a quick look.