Courtesy Light Problems

[Tony el Tigre]

I was replacing the bulbs in the courtesy lights and I ran into some troubles. I tested the light fixture and power was coming through it, so I thought I only needed to get some new bulbs. I went to the local O'Reilly and got Sylvania 6418 lights. I got the new bulbs in and the courtesy lights still don't turn on. Any suggestions on what to look at or how to fix it?

[sloride]

I had same problem. My housings had power but wouldn't power the bulbs everytime I rocked them on. Converted to new after market led bulbs with housings and now they work like the day I drove it home the first day.

[gogmorgo]

This is a bit of a known problem. The sockets rotate inside a round housing, and the contacts eventually wear out and/or get dirty. Mine work but can be finicky sometimes. If they don't work, usually when I put a bit of pressure on the housing, they'll come on. Wouldn't surprise me if the tester probe put enough pressure on them to do the same.

[Tony el Tigre]

Thanks guys for the help and suggestion. I'll see if some cleaning will do the trick, if not, I'll just modify the lights  :thumbsup:

[ParadiseMJ]

Take the fixture out of the Jeep.  Look at the little rocker switch in there, see if it's:

a) dirty or oxidized (green) - use a small piece of emery paper/sand paper and clean off the contacts. I actually used a fine paper on the end of a dremel.  Cleaned them up nicely and they work like new now. 

b) distorted - the contacts are prone to bending out of range over time.  Use some tweezers to see if you can bend them back into shape...carefully.

 

Or get on ebay and buy some new fixtures.  They're not really expensive.  They may need a tiny bit of trimming...of the panel. to pop right in.  You also may need to bend the clips to make it stay in.  Follow the wiring instructions that they come with.  They're weird.

[Tony el Tigre]

Cleaned the inside of the fixture, and now they work like new. Thank you guys very much  :D