The light inside my 2012 Sonata that is supposed to turn on when I open the car isn’t working correctly. When I set the option to “Door”, instead of turning on only when the door is open, it stays on all of the time. It seems like, if the switch is on “Door” and I put a very small amount of pressure on the switch towards “Off”, that this “Door” setting will work correctly. This won’t help, of course, because once I remove the pressure, the light will stay on permanently (until I turn it off). Because of this I keep the setting on “Off” all the time.
Question: What is causing this and how easy is it to fix?
Replace the door switch
Tester
Thank you for the reply. If I open the car door and press in the door jamb as hard as I can the light doesn’t go out, no matter how long I hold this in. How can I know, before I spend the time and money fixing this, that it is actually the door jamb that is bad?
The door jamb switch is the prime suspect. You can remove it and test it with an ohmmeter or test light. Spraying some electrical contact cleaner into it and operating it many times may clean its contacts well enough that it’ll work. You could try that and maybe avoid having to remove it.
Most repair shops will replace it with a new switch. Me, I like puttering with things and rehabbing them.
Good luck and please let us know how it goes for you.
Sounds like the overhead light selector switch has failed. You will probable have to replace the overhead console.
How complicated and expensive is that to do?
Looks like a new map light assembly is $105, price may be more depending on vehicle options. Remove the two screws inside the sun glass holder, lower the lamp and disconnect the wires.
Inside the car, when a door is open, there is an indicator showing that the door is open. When the doors are all closed, the indicator shows this also. Wouldn’t this be a sign that the car “knows” the doors are all closed and that it is the overhead light switch that is bad?
I understand better what you are seeing. Whichever switch seems to be bad, try electrical contact cleaner spray on it. Turn off the power to it first - probably by removing a fuse.
I think you misunderstood my post. I’ll rephrase it.
Inside the car, when a door is open, there is an indicator showing that the door is open. When the doors are all closed, the indicator shows that the doors are all closed. Wouldn’t this be a sign that the car “knows” the doors are all closed and that it is the overhead light switch that is bad and not the door jambs.
Yes. Both the instrument panel indicator and the dome light itself are triggered from the same switch in the door latch or jamb.
I installed the new dome light. It’s easy to remove the old one and easy to install the new one. It turns out that this solved the problem. Thanks for the advice everyone. It’s nice to have light in my car at night when I open the door.
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