Courtesy/dome light problem.... - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

pbastian · 03-06-2010, 02:34 PM

Newbie to the site. 98 Camry LE V6 with 130K miles (and counting!).

Cant figure this one out. Dome light works when switch is set to ON position. When I "arm" the car with the SecuriKey, and then disarm, the dome light comes on when in the DOOR position. But, when all I do is open the door, the dome light will not come on.

To me, it appears that the dome light assembly is fine, since the light does come on in either ON or DOOR position. I notice there are switches on all four doors that probably activate the dome light when a door is opened. I dont know where to look to check that this particular part of the system is working correctly. Are there any diagnostics I should do to get to the bottom of this?

Any help would be appreciated.

stefenlara · 03-19-2010, 10:27 AM

Welcome to the FORUM ..

Even I have the similar need about a year back and got a solution from this forum itself..!! May be by this time you might have got the answer for the bottom part question..!! Check out the manual man.. Anyways I will post you private msg..!!

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Lara..!

mr.pringles · 03-22-2010, 08:55 PM

Yes, you're correct. Those black rubber switches is whats not causing your dome light to turn on while you open the doors. The door magnets that sense the dome light are probably rusted really bad, or just dirty . All you need to do is remove the black rubber cap, and spray a little of WD-40 into it. Use a plier and jab in + out & left + right a bunch of times and it should help.

93celicaconv · 03-22-2010, 09:02 PM

Also a clue regarding your door switches - when you open a door, there should be a telltale light or something in the instrument cluster telling you a door is ajar. If you don't get such a telltale, it is likely to door switches are bad.

Also, when you leave the key in the ignition and the door is closed, you should hear nothing. When you open the door, you should get a chime to remind you that your key is in the ignition. If you don't hear that while opening your driver's door, chances are that door switch is bad.

Wouldn't be the worst thing to go get at least a driver's door switch and put it in to see if that corrects the problem on the drivers side. If it does, then you can decide if you want to buy the switches for the other doors or not.

AlaricD · 03-22-2010, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbastian

...when all I do is open the door, the dome light will not come on.

THE door (which I would take to mean the driver's door), or ANY door? That's a lot of switches to fail if it's any of the doors...

93celicaconv · 03-22-2010, 09:24 PM

The dome light should come on when you open any of the 4 doors.

AlaricD · 03-22-2010, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 93celicaconv

The dome light should come on when you open any of the 4 doors.

We all stipulate that fact.

What I question is that ALL FOUR of the switches are bad. That's a lot of switches to be bad on the same car. I think the problem is elsewhere.

93celicaconv · 03-23-2010, 06:06 AM

OK. Why not do a little analysis then.

Remove one of the switches from any of your 4 doors. Disconnect the wiring harness (it is a single wire). Then ground that wire to the chassis, someplace with a known good ground (even the negative post of the battery terminal, if you have a sufficiently long wire). When grounding that wire, does your dome light come on when it is in the DOOR position? If so, that particular switch is proved to be faulty, and your circuit to that door is proved to be good.

The door switches on your Camry are a lot like the ones I have on my Celicas. And on a couple of normal use cars, I've replaced these switches 3 or 4 times since I've had them already (although I've replaced with ones from a salvage yard, of which only 1 in 3 work when I do a replacement process). So all 4 door switches not working would not sound unusual from my experience.

pbastian · 11-30-2010, 01:40 PM

I recently got back on this. Thanks to everyone who chimed in. Here's some more information. The overhead dome assembly is NOT the problem. I was able to test this by swapping in a brand new one, and the problem remained (lucky for me, the dealer took the part back). To clarify some of the other posts, the dome light DOES NOT come on when opening ANY of the doors. However, the in-dash door ajar indicator DOES come on when any of the four doors are opened. The likelihood that all four switches are no longer triggering the dome light seems pretty low.

I removed each door switch and tested it by connecting it to the car battery. When I depress the door switch, test light goes out. Release door switch, test light comes on. This was true for all four door switches.

Do the door switches have separate circuits for the dome light and the door ajar indicator on the dash? I had been assuming that if the door ajar indicator came on, that the door switch is good. If not, then I will try the grounding idea proposed by 93celicaconv.

I am starting to believe this has something to do with the SecuriKey+ alarm system. I found that if I arm/disarm the alarm, when I disarm with the key transmitter, the dome light comes on. It just doesnt come on when i open a door.

93celicaconv · 12-08-2010, 09:11 PM

Pbastian, I've been on the road the last couple of weeks, and I don't have my service manuals with me. When I get back next week, I'll look at my '03 Camry service manual to understand the circuit better regarding your situation. I know there might be a little difference between a '98 and an '03, but on this circuit, I'll bet they are almost the same.

Is your SecruiKey+ alarm system a factory system, or an aftermarket or dealer installed system?

pbastian · 12-09-2010, 08:27 AM

93celicaconv,

Hey, thanks for all your help. This thing has me baffled. Answer to your question re: SecuriKey+, definitely not aftermarket, but I do not know if it is dealer installed or factory. It came with the car when I bought it from the dealer. I do have a document that describes what I believe is all the programming for the SecuriKey+ system, and I have used it to modify one of the programmable features - all doors unlock when I turn off the engine. Now, I currently keep the alarm system in "valet" mode. I notice that some of the arm/disarm behavior just doesn't function in "valet" mode, like lights flashing when disarming. My next experiment is to take the system out of "valet" mode and monitor the features for a couple of days. I do know that the dome light does come on when I disarm the system (!!). It just doesn't work when I open a door. Given that all other signals point to the fact that there is power to the dome light, and it functions under certain circumstances, I am getting more suspicious that the SecuriKey+ system may be the culprit in some way.

ajkalian · 12-09-2010, 09:09 AM

Here's a DIY on how to take apart the door switches and clean them.

DIY - 2000 Camry LE - Cleaning the Door/Dome Light Switch

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