I’ve had intermittently flickering dome lights for several months, and occasionally the dash lights flicker on and off. This happens when I’m going over a bump or making a right hand turn or driving on a rough road. I haven’t noticed much of this on the freeway, just when I’m driving slowly, and generally as I approach my house. I’ve only noticed this at night for obvious reasons. My mechanic in January replaced the switch on the driver’s door. The night I drove home, the lights flickered briefly again. It’s generally been better, but it’s not totally resolved, as I’m noticing the same problem happening when I drive over bumpy surfaces.
The car in question with intermittently flickering lights is a Honda Odyssey 2000 minivan. RancheraRisa
If the repair performed affected the condition you describe they must be related. What I can come up with is that a switch from another door also has the same failure.
Or we can conclude you are incorrectly observing a improvement in the concern and we must start at the beginning and discount the report that the installation of a new drivers door switch helped.
I agree; I don’t think that installation of a new driver’s door switch completely solved the problem, and I will have to consider the other doors as well.
The lights don’t flicker as often as they did in the past–that’s the improvement–however, they shouldn’t be flickering at all. Thanks.
Without a wiring diagram in hand, my guess is that the flickering dash lights could be due to a faulty rheostat (dash dimmer). This is the widget that controls the brightness of the dashboard illumination lights.
Try rotating it a tiny bit and see if the problem goes away.
If you are stating that the dome lights turn on while you are driving then I could see the trouble being with one of the door switches or possibly the light switch. Disconnecting the door switches one at a time should lead you to the bad one eventually if the problem is with one of them. Since the trouble seems to happen with vibration you may be able to find the trouble by tapping on suspected areas with a rubber mallet. If the problem is with the light switch tapping on it with a screwdriver handle may show up the trouble.
Thank you for your response. I think it’s the dome light that comes on more frequently than the dash–it seems to me that since I had the driver door switch fixed I haven’t noticed the dash lights flickering too much, but it’s still worth looking at it. I will be taking the car in this week to check on this as well as to replace the battery. The battery has gone dead 4 times since last November–and I think it’s time for a new one. I’ve had to call AAA to jump start me in November, January, February 27 and then this week again on March 14. I was told that the battery contacts were loose three out of the four times. In February the left hand contact was replaced. I wondered if this might have some bearing on the flickering light situation too. It seemed that they both started happening about the same time.
It’s possible that you could have 2 separate problems here; one for the dome lights and the other for the dashboard illumination lighting.
Regarding the dome lights and door switches, keep in mind that all cars suffer body flex. This means the body itself is moving and twisting as the car travels down the road. If a door is squirming around a bit (even helped along if the vehicle has ever been wrecked) then it’s possible that body flex could be causing an intermittent in one of the door switches.
You could try this for a test. Apply a couple of layers (small pieces too) of duct tape to the door where it makes contact with the door switch and see if the problem disappears. If it does, then the door needs some adjustment.
This is an interesting point. Last July I was rear-ended on the freeway and the whole back end was damaged. From what you indicate, there’s a possibility that the impact of this may have caused the door to shift somewhat. Thanks for the suggestion.
Talk about thinking through the possibilities. I’m impressed.