Interior lights

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Clean04yukon

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Hey everyone! Have a little issue with my interior lights. Put all new LED lights in and they will not come on individually by pressing whatever button on each light. They will come on with the dial thing on dash though. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks
 

S33k3r

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I have a similar problem with my map lights, but have been too lazy to even ask about it. Glad you at least asked, lol. I may go searching yet. Love the LEDs though -- when they work!
 

DougAMiller

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That's because LEDs don't draw nearly as much current as an incandescent bulb. The interior lights are on what GM calls "inadvertent power", which is switched off after about 15 minutes to guard against running the battery down. It monitors the current on the circuit and doesn't turn it on unless it sees the load of a light bulb, but the LED is too small of a load for it to detect. When you turn them all on, the combined load is high enough to trigger it.

When I switched to LEDs I put a resistor in line with the bulb to create the additional load. Only problem was that resistor got really hot if they were on for more than a minute or two. One of them actually got hot enough to melt the plastic bezel and I had to get a new one from a junk yard. So I rewired it with two resistors and a capacitor to prevent the overheating.
 
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corvette744

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That's because LEDs don't draw nearly as much current as an incandescent bulb. The interior lights are on what GM calls "inadvertent power", which is switched off after about 15 minutes to guard against running the battery down. It monitors the current on the circuit and doesn't turn it on unless it see the load of a light bulb, but the LED is too small of a load for it to detect. When you turn them all on, the combined load is high enough to trigger it.

When I switched to LEDs I put a resistor in line with the bulb to create the additional load. Only problem was that resistor got really hot if they were on for more than a minute or two. One of them actually got hot enough to melt the plastic bezel and I had to get a new one from a junk yard. So I rewired it with two resistors and a capacitor to prevent the overheating.
Try a different led bulb im not sure were i got mine but they all work when i press the button on whatever one i want.
 

89Suburban

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I have the next gen Tahoe but I had to orient the polarity of the LED's I bought from super bright a certain way to get them to work correctly.
 

Joseph Garcia

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All of my lights, inside and outside, have been converted to LEDs on my GMT900. All interior light comes on, when I push the appropriate on/off button. LEDs do have a specific polarity, and will only work if installed in a particular direction. Just for sh**s and giggles (its a long shot, but really simple and quick to do), take one of the LEDs that won't function with its own on/off button, and change the direction of the LED in the socket, and see if this results in no light at all or resolves your issue.
 

MassHoe04

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Just curious...

What happens when LEDs are installed on interior lights?
The lights (map lights, dome lights) currently do a soft fade to off, after doors close or doors locked from the key fob.

Do the LEDs just go 100% on/off with no soft fade?
 

Doubeleive

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Hey everyone! Have a little issue with my interior lights. Put all new LED lights in and they will not come on individually by pressing whatever button on each light. They will come on with the dial thing on dash though. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks
just get different led's you don't need to do any of this mod nonsense, some led's have the ability to fade on/off and some do not, most do and will work fine.
all you typically have to worry about is polarity, oem bulbs are incandescent so polarity does not matter, led's on the other hand are typically polarity sensitive, some are not but more often they are positive/negative and will not be marked so if you want to be precise check them with a 9v battery and a couple wires, then use a meter on the metal tabs where they insert in the vehicle to make sure you have them all in properly. usually you can just turn the interior light switch on as you are putting the bulb in if it does not turn on then just flip it the other way.
just to clarify I have put led's in my 00,03,04,05,12 and they all work fine so it has nothing to do with year or changes by GM to the electrical system, just get different bulbs.
 
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Joseph Garcia

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Just curious...

What happens when LEDs are installed on interior lights?
The lights (map lights, dome lights) currently do a soft fade to off, after doors close or doors locked from the key fob.

Do the LEDs just go 100% on/off with no soft fade?
My interior LEDs fade, but the fade is a bit shorter in time duration that the original OEM incandescent bulbs.
 

SnowDrifter

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I have some from vleds. Noted similar behavior, but they would turn on dim. I actually preferred it tbh. Kinda like a lo/hi

They fade out with doors closed
 

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