Haunted Dome Light Mystery spooky

[Reattatude]

My 1991 coupe may be haunted. The dome light has a bad habit of going on / off whenever it pleases, and it runs down the battery. Of course I can remove the lamp but jus' checking to see if this is something that somebody else on the forum has experienced.

Might put car on the market and I dont want to surprise a new owner. :cool:

Edited August 15, 2013 by Reattatude
edit (see edit history)

[Ronnie]

Do the footwell lights go on and off randomly at the same time the dome light does or is only the dome light?

[Reattatude]

Do the footwell lights go on and off randomly at the same time the dome light does or is only the dome light?

Didnt take that into consideration. Of course I just happened to look outside and catch the light on to know it was doing this in the first place - I disconnected the battery at that point but didnt notice anything but the dome lamp.

[Barney Eaton]

This may be the wet carpet gremlin. Under the passanger seat is a plastic tray with the front to back wiring laying in the tray. If you have a water leak, it will migrate to the tray and there are about 5 electrical splices under the seat that can be corroded by the water over time.

Check the carpet for dampness. Or if you know it has leaked in the past, there is a good chance your problem is with the splices.

[Reattatude]

This may be the wet carpet gremlin. Under the passanger seat is a plastic tray with the front to back wiring laying in the tray. If you have a water leak, it will migrate to the tray and there are about 5 electrical splices under the seat that can be corroded by the water over time.

Check the carpet for dampness. Or if you know it has leaked in the past, there is a good chance your problem is with the splices.

Water from where, Barney? The car has been mostly sitting in the driveway for months except for ocassionally firing up and driving around the block (well a block out here is several miles... I removed the one bulb (dome) and the car starts fine.

Now its my 89 Reatta that seems to have a power drain of some sort, I have to put a battery charger on if it sits idle for a couple of weeks or less.

[Barney Eaton]

I know Indiana gets rain........

Over time (and rains) Reattas that live outside often have minor leaks at the top of the side windows. This water collects under the carpet and unless detected stays there until it evaporates. An owner might notice it if the drivers side got soggy but often the passanger side get ignored.

In addition, there is a plastic channel on the passanger side that the front to back wiring harness resides. This channel can fill with water and because it is not in contact with the carpet and insulation, does not dissipate and evaporate rapidly. One owner sent a picture with water covering the wiring.

In that channel, under the passanger seat are 5 or so electrical splices. These are steel (use copper/brass for repairs) and over time the water rust the steel to the point that electrical contact is lost. This is fairly common on Reattas that live outside and now are 20+ years old. You must remove passanger seat, the door sill plate and move the carpet back to access the channel. The channel has a plastic cover that can be unsnapped. The area of the splices is where the channel has a "T" coming from the center console. You may need to unwrap some of the electrical tape, but eventually you will find at least 5 tape covered splices where several wires terminate.

Unwrap all the splices and repair all of them since you have already spent an hour getting to the wiring. If all the wires going into the splice is long enough, I suggest cutting all the wires at the base of the ferrel (the copper will be corroded and this reduces the time needed to clean the wires)

The repair.... you could just put a new splice ferrel over the wires and crimp it in place.... I am sort of "belt and suspenders" on wiring. I would first tin all the wires (this verifies that the wires are clean) then slip on the new splice and crimp, then reheat the splice and add more solder.....that joint will never fail.

Test everything that was failing before retaping the splices and put it all back together. You probably have already soaked up any standing water and you might want to let the car air dry before reinstalling the seat. Look closely at the attached photo and you can see the reflection in the standing water...... the top of the picture is toward the front of the car.

[Reattatude]

No doubt, it rained all day and last night too. So if the car has any leaks as you described I would think the carpet would be wet now if I checked.

An hour to remove the seat? Never taken one out...Sounds like fun

you said there are about 5 splices in the area so I assume the other 15 or so wires in that

bundle just pass through there. lol.

Too bad only one of the cars can live inside. I should sell the silver one to someone with a pole barn or some storage bldg.

Thanks for the detailed post.

I know Indiana gets rain........

Over time (and rains) Reattas that live outside often have minor leaks at the top of the side windows. This water collects under the carpet and unless detected stays there until it evaporates. An owner might notice it if the drivers side got soggy but often the passanger side get ignored.

In addition, there is a plastic channel on the passanger side that the front to back wiring harness resides. This channel can fill with water and because it is not in contact with the carpet and insulation, does not dissipate and evaporate rapidly. One owner sent a picture with water covering the wiring.

In that channel, under the passanger seat are 5 or so electrical splices. These are steel (use copper/brass for repairs) and over time the water rust the steel to the point that electrical contact is lost. This is fairly common on Reattas that live outside and now are 20+ years old. You must remove passanger seat, the door sill plate and move the carpet back to access the channel. The channel has a plastic cover that can be unsnapped. The area of the splices is where the channel has a "T" coming from the center console. You may need to unwrap some of the electrical tape, but eventually you will find at least 5 tape covered splices where several wires terminate.

Unwrap all the splices and repair all of them since you have already spent an hour getting to the wiring. If all the wires going into the splice is long enough, I suggest cutting all the wires at the base of the ferrel (the copper will be corroded and this reduces the time needed to clean the wires)

The repair.... you could just put a new splice ferrel over the wires and crimp it in place.... I am sort of "belt and suspenders" on wiring. I would first tin all the wires (this verifies that the wires are clean) then slip on the new splice and crimp, then reheat the splice and add more solder.....that joint will never fail.

Test everything that was failing before retaping the splices and put it all back together. You probably have already soaked up any standing water and you might want to let the car air dry before reinstalling the seat. Look closely at the attached photo and you can see the reflection in the standing water...... the top of the picture is toward the front of the car.[ATTACH=CONFIG]217281[/ATTACH]

[jonlabree]

Is there a switch for the dome light on the 89??

[Guest Mc_Reatta]

Is there a switch for the dome light on the 89??

Not individually. The dimmer slider in the headlight switch when slid all the way to the right pass a "hump", will turn all the courtesy lights on.