# LED dome lights stay dimly lit when off, will this drain battery?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/led-dome-lights-stay-dimly-lit-when-off-will-this-drain-battery/180407>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** ford\
**Created:** [November 2, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/led-dome-lights-stay-dimly-lit-when-off-will-this-drain-battery/180407 "2021-11-02T23:47:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jmcarc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@jmcarc](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jmcarc)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/led-dome-lights-stay-dimly-lit-when-off-will-this-drain-battery/180407/21 "2021-11-08T14:22:56Z")

</div>

There might be a charged capacitor connected in parallel with the LED. Since the LED has a higher resistance and therefore uses only a fraction of the current of an incandescent bulb, the capacitor takes much longer to discharge.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![circuitsmith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/circuitsmith/32/40376_2.png) [@circuitsmith](https://community.cartalk.com/u/circuitsmith)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/led-dome-lights-stay-dimly-lit-when-off-will-this-drain-battery/180407/22 "2021-11-08T16:21:41Z")

</div>

> [@jmcarc](#):
>
> There might be a charged capacitor connected in parallel with the LED.

Can’t imagine why the designer would add a capacitor big enough to light the LED for 45 minutes.  
It would be bigger than the bulb.

[Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/led-dome-lights-stay-dimly-lit-when-off-will-this-drain-battery/180407.md?page=1)