I did a quick search and couldnt find my answer. If anyone knows if this has been asked before, please redirect me...

1987 4runner SR5

If i turn my dome light switch to "ON" nothing happens. If i switch it to "DOOR" it will come on when any of the doors open.

That seems kinda crazy to me. The only thing i can figure is the dome light fixture is bad but i dont want to replace it if theres a simple fix elsewhere.

Any ideas??

 

Pull it down & check the contacts inside. You might be able to clean them up & get it working.

 

like he said, sounds like bad contacts or possibly a bad switch..

 

I have the same problem with my 1991 pickup-I was going to try to take it apart and clean it. I was also going to try to find a brighter bulb for it also-the bulb that's in there now is kind of dim.

 

Had one doing the same thing. Take a little flathead and bend the contacts a touch. And clan the contacts.

 

use some sandpaper on the contacts too...removes corrosion

 

Or use one of those hard "ink" erasers or a can of contact cleaner and spray it on the contacts.
To brighten the light clean and dry the inside of the housing completely then get some silver model paint and carefully paint the inside surfaces of the light. Be very careful not to touch the metal strips however since many silver paints actually contain metal and may short out the light. You may also consider switching to LED lights they can be much brighter and also use less power.

Hope this helped

 

Aviator - any part numbers for NAPA, etc., for an LED that would replace the stock bulb?? I think tons of us have the 'dim interior light' problem....
Thanks

 

its a 31mm festoon, superbrightleds.com...find a 1watt. thats what i did and it is bright. i think all the info is in my build thread

 

Same problem here on a 95, I think its the contacts because every time I take out the bulb and pop it back, it seems to work for awhile.

 

The whole thing is held together with rivets that come apart easily. I drilled out all the rivets on mine and replaced them with some nuts and bolts. It works great now. I also have a bulb from http://www.superbrightleds.com/ it works great.

 

me too, the contacts were just dirty.

i also went w/ the 30mm festoon bulb from superbright led's. works great!

i tapped on some of the loose rivets w/ something hard on the back to prevent breaking the old plastic. Tightening up the rivets helped the light as well

 

Thanks, guys. I'm gonna take a look at all of that when i get home. It just baffles me that it works in one position and not the other, but i figured it was something simple.

 

I had this problem, I just used some denatured alcohol to clean the points, the previous owner must have been a smoker, it was a sticky film.

 

Just to be clear inmeant bend the contacts at the switch Uh contacts.