Interior light / That is not the dimmer switch problem
 

Hi All,
I have a weird problem. I can really use some good advice.
When I open the and get into my 1998 C5 Convertible, the interior lights come on and stay on in till I start the car, then they turn off.. Seems normal. When I turn the headlights on, they pop up and come on, but so do the interior lights under the dash and mirror. This makes driving very aggravating at night.
I did play with the dash dimmer switch. When I turn it all the way to the right, it does click, and the interior lights get brighter, Then when I turn to the left, it clicks and the lights go back to a softer glow and the dash then becomes dimmer the more I turn it to the left. The inter lights come on and off with the headlights regardless if the dash dimmer switch is pushed in, our out.

What say U?

I say they are working correctly.

I agree. Working as designed. The light under the mirror is intended to light the shifter at night.

The interior lights coming on with the headlights is NOT normal. I'm not sure if you have a grounding problem at the headlight control module or where the issue is.

Free bump in hopes that 8VETTE7, Bill Curlee, or some other electrical guy see this.

Maybe a slight glow on mirror, but somthing is wrong with under dash and mirrors light on with headlights.. just looking for starting point..

Do the rear compartment lights turn on as well?

Try pulling fuse 29 and/or relay 42 in the passenger footwell fusebox. If pulling those don't disable the lights, you have a short in your harness somewhere. Most likely a short between the backlight circuit and interior light circuit. Or headlight circuit and interior light circuit. What happens when you push the stalk forwards to turn the high beams on?

Moved to C5 Tech.

You are right, pulling the relay and or fuse, will turn the interior light off, but come back on when turn headlights on.
They did go off once while driving, hit a bump and came back on (Dam)
No change with brights.

Bob

Sounds to me like you have some sort of short. Do they turn on with the parking lights, or only the headlights?

I'll go over wiring diagrams to see if I can pinpoint a place for you to start troubleshooting.

Try removing relay 43.

Since removing relay 42 doesn't solve the problem, it rules out a bad BCM and faulty relay control. My best guess is that there is a short between the courtesy lamp circuit and the exterior parking lamp circuit. However, there are several places where such a short can occur. Passenger footwell fusebox is where they are all commonly connected, so I would start there.

Thanks, I will start my search... I did install the LED lights in the signals, and the relay under the dash to stop hyper flash.. Something tells me since that hyper flash was not a gm product to maybe give that some thought.
Do you think the 3 book service manual is a value to guy like me?

Thanks for all your help, this site is awesome, and has help me tremendously...

I'm having the exact same issue. Did you find the problem?

No, I’m still having same problem.
 

Wow. Ok. Was hoping you found the issue. I'll be away from my car for about 2 weeks. Guess I'll start troubleshooting when I get back to it. If you do find the solution please post it.

Interior lights
 

I haven't come up with the solution. Have you?

No solution!!
 

I JUST fixed mine. Look at this thread. Mine had about half of the "salt" looking stain that this fellow had. I flushed the area around and under with alcohol. Dried it out well. Reinstalled it and nothing but joy!

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...7-and-hcm.html