Kim has an 88 toyota pickup. The bulb in the dome lite died. He bought an LED replacement. During the day the dome's low setting works. At night it doesn't. Whether the head lights are on or off makes no difference. What in heck is going on?

G

 

Might be worth getting a regular bulb and see how it behaves.

 

I shared your response with Kim, he reminded me this was going on before the bulb went bad. Could there be a circuit with a daylight sensor?

G

 

There is no low setting on the dome light. There is always on, off, and on when a door is open.
None of those have anything to do with the headlights being on or off.
There is no light sensor on these trucks.

 

Could be as simple as a bad LED……it happens more than not due to how cheap and cheaply built these have become….

 

Does the dome light work when doors are opened(dome light set in "door" position?
Does the dome light work when you manually turn to "ON" position?

edit: the reason i asked is if someone ever unplugged the buzzer for the key in the ignition (if you had your key in the ignition in the "off" position and opened the door it would buzz) it would disable the dome light courtesy switches. you could still turn the dome light on manually, just wouldn't work when doors opened.

 

I had the same problem in my 93 pickup. When trying to repair (during daytime) it worked. When trying to use it (night) it didn’t work. It turns out that it was the ground connection of the light. When cold (night) the metal shrank and there was no ground. When hot (day) the metal dilated and there was ground. Check the ground connection in the lamp, maybe tighten the screw or bend it a little so it makes contact all the time.