My 1992 Vette has 37,500 miles on it. I only bought it in July '06 but it has a clean history.
When I bought it I didn't realize that the horn did not work, but drove it until early November anyway before having it professionally repaired. All seemed well for a week or so with everything working as normal.
It became cold in the Boston area and the car was parked in the garage for a week or so.
I went to start it, and nothing, not a click.
Trickle charge did not have an affect.
I jump started the car, the interior lights remained on while it idled for a minute or so in the garage, then the car shut down.
Any ideas from anyone that may have encountered interior light problems remaining on?
(This C-4 does not have an "on-off" light switch on the door lights.)
I appreciate any ideas that you all may have. I'm bummed due to the incredible warm winter that we 've had thus far in the Boston area..... I could have enjoyed this thing right up to this writing......
Thx ,
TK

 

what do you mean, "then the car shut down" Do you mean it quit on its own? The motor shut off and the power from the battery was gone again?

 

Yes, the car "shut down" (stopped running) on its own within a minute, or so after the jump start. While it did run the interior lights were on and possibly drained the battery????
The battery was new in July '06.

 

The car "shut down" (quite running) on it's own after the jump start within a minute or so. While it was idling the interior lights were on. Possibly drained the battery????
The battery was new last July.
TK

 

If the car was running and you took the jumper cables off and that killed it. I would suggest that the Alternator is bad. The Spark needs to come from somewhere either the Alt or the Battery in that order. And once the4 battery gets drained with a bad Alt, the cars dies. Start looking at the fuse box.

A Trickle charger will not bring a totally dead battery back. You need to hit with some power to get it going again. Once you get a bit of charge into the battery then the Trickle will work. This is all prefaced with the fact that the battery is not bad in the first place.

 

Have your battery tested, sounds like it's not holding a charge.....or your alternator isn't charging (or both).

 

Is the 92 like the 93 for the lights switch. I have a 93 and there is a slide switch on the left side of the headlight switch. Make sure that it isn't all the way up. If it is, it turns the interior lights on. That may be what drained your battery.

 

I believe that you're right about the alternator, however the drain appears to be coming from the fact that the interior lights will not turn off since the horn was repaired.
The battery was new in July '06, appeared to be fine until the horn repair.
Alternator is possibly bad, again however the interior lights appear to be the culprit???? Any ideas???

 

You need to recharge the battery fully and test the voltage with a voltmeter. It quite possibly died from a dead cell in the battery or poor connection. Both the battery and alternator can be tested at say Autozone, to see if one or the other is bad.

As for the interior lights being on. Check the door switch where it closes in the door jam. Push it in all the way with your finger and see if the lights go out. There is one in each door.

 

I thought of that as well...but I'm pretty sure the '93 was the first 'wrap around' dash design.

It still seems odd when I hear that 'this C-4 has no on/off light switch'. Is it missing or was it really not equipped with one?

 

The 90-96 had this light/dimmer switch by the headlight switch. The 84-89 you have to turn the headlight **** to turn on the interior lights.

 

Here is a picture of the 92-93 headlight switch. I have circled the dimmer control on the side. Note that if you slide the switch up past the brightest position it will turn your interior lights on.

 

Understood. The illustration that you posted (thanks) is the same as my '92.
Possibly I misunderstood your comment about an "on-off" switch. Apparently on older models, there is an actual on-off switch on the door light itself. There is none on the '92. That is what I was responding to before.
I appreciate your help.....Thx

 

This is a very good post. I had the exact same thing happen to me. I would go out to the car and it wouldn't start. Well I found out about the switch by accident when I got ticked at the car and shut the door kind of hard. Sure enough the light went out. Now it works perfect. The part about the alternator is right on as well. You may want to make sure that your alternator connector is hooked up and not loose. I thought I had connected mine when I redid the intake manifold seals. Well as my luck goes, I didn't and it wasn't hooked up. I found this out after replacing the battery. So I hooked it up and it works like a champ. But I do have a spare alternator sitting on my shelf as a result. Did I mention that Murphy is a permanent residence in my house?

 

All this is good learning info, but understand, the car quitting on its own has nothing to do with the lights. There is another issue that needs to be addressed. The light switch could be on and the lights be on for ever and the cars internal charging system should keep the motor running....and the lights burning.

The reason why I stumbled into this thread was...

My interior lights seemed to be acting weird as well. come to find out, thanks to this forum and it's members, it was the 10a gauge panel fuse being blown. This fuse didn't run the lights or else they wouldn't work at all, but the 10a fuse DID power something else that the CPU looked for in order to tell the lights how to and when to work. Once this other circuit was broken the lights were getting wrong signals from the computer.

All that being said, fall back to the fundamentals before you pull the dash apart looking for a gremlin.

A.) Pull and check all the fuses. Don't just look because sometimes the fuse won't let you know from the view from the top.
B.) Put a fully charged battery in the car. If your battery is new, just take it and have it charged. then put it back in.

Start the car. If it runs and stays running(you guys that know more than me correct me it this is bad info) Disconnect the Battery and see if just falls flat on its face and dies. If it dies then you know where to look. The Alternator or the fuses that lead to it.

Understand, me not being there makes it hard, but this is the path I would take.

 

Same as the 90, 91, 92 & 93. Goldcylon

 

All of your input is great and will be put to good use. Once I get this taken care of (now it IS winter in New England) I will post the remedy and keep you informed. May not be for a good number of weeks, however due to cold weather.
..........
TK

 

"Wrap Around"/Cockpit style dash appeared in 1990.

 

 

Tkenty, I would go back and see the guys that "fixed" the horn problem, and be sure to let them know that this wasn't happening prior to their repair job(which I assume is the case).Hope all turns out well for you.