Thread: Interior lights

I'm sure it could be done, I can pull mine when I get a moment and take a squiz. Best guess would be to take the door switch input and bypass the timer circuit to drive the relay directly but it sounds like the relay contacts in yours are actually the issue. If you can identify the 4 wires needed to stick in a normal relay, wire in one of those? Should be a constand positive feed to both the relay input and one side of the coil, although they could come from different sources, a ground switch from the door switches and an output to the lights unless I'm missing something. I have had mine out as I moved the relays there to fit the ECU fir the 3.9 I installed but don't recall anything untowards about the wiring for them.

Dead easy, yank the relay, bridge the lamp earth path to the door switches with a separate switch on the dash so you can have the doors open without interior lights. 15 minutes max. to fix.

Originally Posted by bee utey

Dead easy, yank the relay, bridge the lamp earth path to the door switches with a separate switch on the dash so you can have the doors open without interior lights. 15 minutes max. to fix.

Ok, so from all terminals I just need to work out which is the wire the goes to the lights ... and which is the door pins (that one is easy, it'll go to earth when I open a door). For now I dont' even care about the lights staying on when a door is open. All of my cars do that by default. Just having the interior light off would be a bonus

seeya,
Shane L.

Hi Shane,

What year is your Rangie?

When I first purchased my 92 Rangie the interior light would suddenly come on while driving .... sometimes at night.

Traced it to the switch on the back tailgate .... disconnected it, taped the wires and problem has not returned.


Baggy

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Ok, so from all terminals I just need to work out which is the wire the goes to the lights ... and which is the door pins (that one is easy, it'll go to earth when I open a door). For now I dont' even care about the lights staying on when a door is open. All of my cars do that by default. Just having the interior light off would be a bonus

seeya,
Shane L.

Check the wire colour for the wire from the interior light to the relay and the wire colour from a door switch to the relay. They'll be purple, with a white stripe for one and some different stripe for the other, not sure exactly what but not hard to work out.

Might I suggest you get rid of the immobilizer/alarm. That's more likely to be the source of your constantly draining battery. This was the first thing I did after buying the RRC... I have learned the hard way from previous experiences.. I also noticed it on the RRC after owning it for a week. 2 weeks into ownership I had the whole underdash spaghetti ripped out and rewired - Properly.

fwiw, I left my headlights on in the RRC on wednesday. mid-afternoon. locked the car, went inside.
Missus heads to work early, notices parking lights still on - turns them off for me and sends me an sms.

I go out expecting to find a flat battery, so I get the charger out and the extension cord....
car starts first chirp. Bugger me. Even I was surprised. The battery eyeglass was indicating it needed a charge....

So you can leave your parkers on for more than 15 hours and not flatten your battery - to which I'm going to ask, have you checked ALL the door contacts AND the underbonnet contact for the engine bay lamp, as well as the tailgate? - Don't shoot the messenger - I'm only asking!

I cleaned every single one when I purchased the vehicle. I also replaced the interior overhead lamps with LED festoons. I have not done anything to the door lamps (incandescant still, bit of a PITA for LED's in a moisture-prone area), the engine bay lamp is the same ****weak ba9s or whatever it's called globe - i.e. useless. I have plans for a larger LED light under the bonnet - one with a manual switch - because the spring contact one is just junk.

I don't know how far you go when you check your electricals, but when I do stuff like this, I always test in ciruit voltages and current draw at these contact areas and especially on the dodgy spring-contact switches. It's not unusual to see voltage drops of 2v or more on crappy contacts and corroded wiring - and this means the current required is greater to make the circuit work. I've solved numerous RRC issues just by following this practice as I go - but as you know and understand, it's not always going to prevent something else from becoming a problem... It is a Range Rover after all.

Once everything is properly cleaned, de-oxidized and in some cases, rewired/soldered/heatshrunk etc, then the problem potential for that connection is reduced to near-zero.

I'll also ask if your radio has an ignition bypass feed - if it does, check the current draw. Sometimes, this can drain a battery.

Insofar as the lights coming on when they shouldn't, it's generally accepted that the issue is a stuck contact on a door switch, or bare wiring completing the circuit nearby.
Those door contact switches are just cheap and nasty. The one in the tailgate is in a stupid location too.

I also rigged up a permanent 'off' switch in the rear left of the headliner, near the tailgate. This allows me to turn off the lights (or turn them on) and bypass the relay. It's perfect for when we go fishing etc at night, and has a telltale ring that prevents me from forgetting it - so you have options available to manually bypass the timer relay - I just don't think that it is the cause of your issue.

It's more likely to be those stupid spring-contact switches - possibly the wiring behind is shorting on the spring or somesuch.

I would get rid of that immobilizer - they are notorious for draining batteries overnight. Has happened in every MB I've bought with an aftermarket one fitted. Not immediately mind you - sometimes it's good for a couple of years, but you always end up with the same issue... The 'new' battery starts to lose grunt after a week, and then one morning it's just about cactus. Immobilizers can have strange behavioural symptoms too - you can test them out of circuit and theyre OK, and testing them in circuit often shows no issues. Especially the ones that have backup capacitors to maintain supply when the battery feed is cut. They're all total bollocks and not worth the hassle. They can even stuff up the central locking circuits, so be aware of any stray current around the door lock switches as well.

They can also cause battery drain through ignition harness issues, because most installers do a really nasty job installing them, with scotchlocks or electrical tape over an unsoldered twisted wire junction.
I've never seen a decent aftermarket alarm/immobilizer fitted "professionally" by a 'professional installer'. So that's another area worth looking into after you sort out your door contact switches and wiring.

Just another example of odd electrical issue, this time in a 1990 Toyota LCruiser.

Multimeter showed amp draw that cycled, from near zero to nearly 3 amps then back to near zero, repeating over and over. The amperage rise was quite fast from zero, slowing as it got closer to 3 amps.

Disconnecting the dash clock stopped the amperage draw. Faulty capacitor or something down steam constantly calling on a capacitor? Was it really the clock? All I know is the battery doesn't go flat now. And knowing the time, well...eh (shrug of shoulders!)

thanks guys,

I haven't had a chance to look at it ... the wifes poogoe 407 clutch died (bloody thing ... it only gave 80,000kms warning that it was on it's way out .... how dare it die on the spur of the moment like that). So its moved to the front of "**** that must be done yesterday" list. I've just spent 5 hours trying to get the god damned gearbox back on the engine ..... Talk about ready to drag it out of the shed and burn the thing. Those five hours should have been re-assembling the thing so it could be driven. It will be interesting to see how the solid flywheel conversion works either way.

so range rover sits outside slowly draining its battery still. The alarm/interior light is certinaly the problem. The alarm in 90% removed. but the interior like on tells it there has been a door opened if you lock it with the keys. So it randomly flashes the indictators. It is definatly just the interior light. I haven't had a problem until that **** of a relay started playing up ( it drains the battery quite quicky ... 4 days will knock the battery right down ... you have the four 'door" lights on the doors themselves that are on as well as the interior lights.

seeya,
Shane L.