I recently replaced the incandescent bulb in my dome light with an LED bulb. This is in my '89 4Runner. The ON and OFF settings on the dome light work great. However, when the switch is turned to "DOOR" the LED glows a little, even with the doors closed. With doors open, it turns fully on. It's like there's some current leakage going on somewhere. The original bulb did not do this, so maybe the LED is more sensitive? I've checked and cleaned both door buttons. Any help or experience with this would be great! Thanks!

 

I BELIEVE (larry the cable guy voice..lmao).......you should post up the link or part number of the LED bulb you got to replace the dome light..LOL

mine is nowhere NEAR bright enough to be useful..i mean if it is PITCH FRICKIN BLACK..then the little light is ok....just ok though..i want something that is pretty bright lol

 

I run a 1 watt Luxeon LED in the dome light and it puts out lots of light:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/LEDs/index.html

And no faint glow when the doors are closed.

Most likely your door switches have some resistance when the door is closed (should be infinite as those switch contacts open up when the door closes) and that is letting a little current flow in the LED. LEDs need like 1/10th the current of a regular bulb so just a little leakage will cause them to light up. Might also be an alarm system or something else hooked up to those switches leaking current.

 

I got them at autolumination.com. 31mm festoon bulb. They aren't as bright as I would like, but they get the job done. I got 2: one for the rear deck light and one for the dome light. I just can't figure out why the dome glows on "DOOR" with the doors fully shut...

 

Let's see. I rewired the deck light into the dome light power so I could turn the deck light on and off without having the parking lights on. Think that would do it?

 

Could be, easy check is to disconnect the wire to the deck light switch and see if the problem goes away. I wired my deck light to constant power so I can have them on at any time, but I used another constant 12 volt power source.

 

I just disconnected the wire back to the dome light...no change since the LED still glows. Is there any way to check or adjust the door switches, other than to clean them?

Oh, and 4Crawler, I'm send you a quick PM about a separate question regarding ARB switches...Thanks.

 

You could narrow down the problem by disconnecting one door switch at a time and see if the problem is in a specific switch or if it is nor related to the switches at all. If a switch, may try some electrical contact cleaner (Radio Shack or an auto parts store) and see if you can get that sprayed inside the switch. Some switches I have seen have exposed contacts and some are sealed up.

 

OK. Found out that the non-functioning "alarm" system installed by a dealer way back when was leaking current into the dome light. I unplugged it at first and that fixed it, then took the whole system out. Makes everything under the dash much cleaner. Turns out the OEM stuff is perfectly fine. Thanks for your suggestions.