03 tahoe LED dome light

[soulsea]

I just want to wish you good luck ... we're all counting on you!

 

[Rivieraracing]

[yt]SmHeP9Sve48[/yt]

I love that movie, great quote!! Do we have clearance, clarence??? lol

 

[rippinitup]

Trust me, the moment she will get there and open her mouth, you will send her straight back with Cash on Delivery. She is 9 and knows more about this world then I EVER WILL.

I am telling you, the map lamp was on and VERY dim, she opened the vanity mirror on the passenger side, ............... I hear a click, ............... the map light is as bright as when the doors open and it is still this way on all map lights throughout the truck (knock on wood).

The only problem I have now is deciding if I should change the vanity mirror bulbs to LEDs as well (which are in the mail), or shall I leave it all alone since it works now????

you should go give ur daughter some $$$ for fixing this problem! lolol

 

[JochenWoern]

UPDATE on VANITY MIRROR incident

Has anyone else tried this scenario with the vanity mirror as I had explained?

Well, I have to let you know that this morning when firing up the truck to drive to work, the map/reading lamps were "dim" again, NOT as bright as when the door opened.

This time I opened the vanity mirror on the drivers side and the same thing all over again: "CLICK", ............... and the map/reading lamp is as bright as it should be.

It now appears that this comes and goes randomly, meaning the lights work fine for a while (even after the vehicle has been shut off and sits for a while), then all of a sudden the vanity mirror needs to be opened in order for them to work again. As I parked the truck at work, I shut it off. I waited a few minutes and then fired it up again, .................. the lights worked fine WITHOUT having to open the vanity mirror.

I have to say, this whole thing seems rather strange to me and I have no clue why there should be a voltage/current drop and when one opens the vanity mirror, the lights turn bright?????????? Shouldn't there be even more drop in voltage when additional lights come on?

 

[Rivieraracing]

Can you pinpoint where the clicking is coming from?

 

[JochenWoern]

Can you pinpoint where the clicking is coming from?

Chris,
It seems like the clicking sound comes right from the mirror area. Not sure though if this is even possible!?

I will try to pin point it in more detail next time this shall happen.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Chris,
It seems like the clicking sound comes right from the mirror area. Not sure though if this is even possible!?

I will try to pin point it in more detail next time this shall happen.

Cool, Mike (tahoewhat) said that he thought his clicking sound was coming from the dome light overhead console but like we both said that there wasn't really anything in there that should be clicking!! Wondering if changing the vanity lights to LED would eliminate the easy fix you just found out, just trying to figure out if the draw from the reg bulbs is making the circuit provide more voltage from a different source!!

Just doesn't make sense!!

 

[chauncey0337]

What we need is for someone to install a 5 watt load resistor in parallel with one of the dimming domes and test it on and off during the day to see if that solves the problem. I'll have to see if I can find one of my incandescent ones and measure the resistance to check for the ohm value we need for the 5 watt resistor. Just a thought.

 

[JochenWoern]

Cool, Mike (tahoewhat) said that he thought his clicking sound was coming from the dome light overhead console but like we both said that there wasn't really anything in there that should be clicking!! Wondering if changing the vanity lights to LED would eliminate the easy fix you just found out, just trying to figure out if the draw from the reg bulbs is making the circuit provide more voltage from a different source!!

Just doesn't make sense!!

Chris,
I have my vanity mirror LED's coming and I will see what happens after I install those. I will keep you posted accordingly.

The sound could come from the console as well, just really never tried to pin point it.

 

[JochenWoern]

OK, as mentioned before, I am NOT an Electrical Guy, but I spoke to one of the electrical Engineers at work today and described the situation.

I will try to explai to the best of my capabilities what the Eng. thought:

He thinks that the moment I install the LED's in the vanity mirror lights that my vanity mirror light "trick" will no longer work as per the following explanation:

Suppossedly there are contacts in automotive wiring that open and close based on turning things on and off. It is also suppossedly very common in automotive wiring that these contacts somewhat corrode, and therefore have a "layer of corrossion" on them which needs additional power in order for the contact to be made. So the explantion is that as soon as I open the vanity mirror, the old style bulb draws the additional higher current for the corrossion layer to be overcome in order for the contact to be made. As soon as I change the vanity mirror bulbs to LED's which draw less current, this will most likely no longer work.

Now does any of this make sense to you Harvard graduates?

I will try this and report back as soon as I have received the vanity light bulbs.

This thing is getting frustrating for sure and my Lederhosen are starting to bunch up again.

 

[ajaxnxs]

And that's why I went to Marist!



Sent from my Motorola ATRIX using Tapatalk

 

[Rivieraracing]

That's what Chauncey and I are discussing as well, and are wondering if adding a resistor to a LED bulb that's equivalent to the natural resistance of a regular bulb would solve the problem you guys are having!! I think Chauncey was going to ohm a regular bulb to find out the resistance of that bulb and find a resistor that is the same resistance and see if that works instead of adding an additional wire to each light to "up" the voltage!!
If you think about it, could you ask the same engineer what I just mentioned now and see what he thinks about that idea, curious on if he thinks that by adding a resistor to up the load needed to power the LED if that would work?

Man, oh man, does my newly discovered Harvard brain hurt right now!!! lol

 

[JochenWoern]

That's what Chauncey and I are discussing as well, and are wondering if adding a resistor to a LED bulb that's equivalent to the natural resistance of a regular bulb would solve the problem you guys are having!! I think Chauncey was going to ohm a regular bulb to find out the resistance of that bulb and find a resistor that is the same resistance and see if that works instead of adding an additional wire to each light to "up" the voltage!!
If you think about it, could you ask the same engineer what I just mentioned now and see what he thinks about that idea, curious on if he thinks that by adding a resistor to up the load needed to power the LED if that would work?

Man, oh man, does my newly discovered Harvard brain hurt right now!!! lol

Talk about the brain hurting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will inquire with the Engineer and will get back to you.

Thanks.

 

[ScottyBoy]

Has anyone measured the voltage yet when the lights are dim? I am suspecting its to do with the BCM. I know on a lot of GM vehicles, the BCM will "go to sleep" until it senses a door open or an electrical load. I wonder if that's the case here. If so, the BEST solution would be to simply reworked the 12v lead on each light to a constant fused 12v source.

 

[chauncey0337]

Has anyone measured the voltage yet when the lights are dim? I am suspecting its to do with the BCM. I know on a lot of GM vehicles, the BCM will "go to sleep" until it senses a door open or an electrical load. I wonder if that's the case here. If so, the BEST solution would be to simply reworked the 12v lead on each light to a constant fused 12v source.

Scott, read through the whole thread because Chris and I have already suggested that but neither of us have the problem and no one who does have that problem doesn't want to go through the 'trouble' of doing that.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Yeah Scott, if you get some free time (which you might need quite a bit of it when it comes to this thread), can you take a look at the whole thread and see if you can come up with anything else that we might have missed on getting a permanent fix!! We could use another Harvard electrical brain on this matter, hoping we can all figure this out so we can take this thread out back and put it out of it's misery!! lol

---------- Post added at 11:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 AM ----------

Talk about the brain hurting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will inquire with the Engineer and will get back to you.

Thanks.

Yeah no joke, right? I have been dealing with migraine headaches ever since my car accident over a year ago and especially since my chiropractic and massage claim went out in Sept.!! Sometimes this thread brings them out in full force faster than normal!! hahaha

 

[BillBlatt18]

I will definitely try once I get home. I will try this weekend. I also am curious about the vanity thing. I will try mine but doubt it will work as I have leds in those too which are also dim

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[chauncey0337]

That's what Chauncey and I are discussing as well, and are wondering if adding a resistor to a LED bulb that's equivalent to the natural resistance of a regular bulb would solve the problem you guys are having!! I think Chauncey was going to ohm a regular bulb to find out the resistance of that bulb and find a resistor that is the same resistance and see if that works instead of adding an additional wire to each light to "up" the voltage!!
If you think about it, could you ask the same engineer what I just mentioned now and see what he thinks about that idea, curious on if he thinks that by adding a resistor to up the load needed to power the LED if that would work?

Man, oh man, does my newly discovered Harvard brain hurt right now!!! lol

Well last night I tried to locate one of my incandescent domes to measure the resistance and could not find one. So, just for kicks decided to measure one of the led domes and could not get a reading then remembered 'duh' an led IS a diode and switch the leads around and this time got a reading but could not get an accurate reading. But I did notice the leds lit up very dim when I tried to measure the resistance. I think it's time to get a new multi meter, I still have the analog one I got when I was in school, lol-

 

[JochenWoern]

Well last night I tried to locate one of my incandescent domes to measure the resistance and could not find one. So, just for kicks decided to measure one of the led domes and could not get a reading then remembered 'duh' an led IS a diode and switch the leads around and this time got a reading but could not get an accurate reading. But I did notice the leds lit up very dim when I tried to measure the resistance. I think it's time to get a new multi meter, I still have the analog one I got when I was in school, lol-

Well, at least you know how to read one of these darn things.

 

[chauncey0337]

Well, at least you know how to read one of these darn things.

Yeah, I think everybody else who knows how to read one is dead, lol.