Interior lights not working

[GJolicoeur]

I started my 04. 5 3500 club cab dually yesterday and noticed that none of my interior lights are working. The dash lights are out as well and there's no signal light indicators.



All of the exterior lights are working fine, including the signal and brake lights.



I've checked all the fuses - all OK, and I've run the instrument cluster test - which passed without errors.



The dimmer switch dims the overhead, radio and console green flourescent displays.



Any thoughts about what's wrong and what I could check next?

 

[Prairie Dog]

Seems to me there were some posts about this a long time ago. If I remember right, the fix was simply to unhook your batterys for 30 minutes or so. Now that I think more about it, I think that was only for the dome lights though. .

 

[GJolicoeur]

I disconnected the batteries for 45 minutes or so, took the time to clean the terminals.



I reconnected, but nothing has changed - still no overhead, dash lights or signal indicators.

 

[Ross]

Was this ever resolved? My interior lights work about 10% of the time...

 

[GJolicoeur]

Nope - I'm just going to replace the dash and hope for the best. Found a decent price at Avondale Dodge.

 

[FourBarR]

Just a thought does the 4. 5 have the IOD fuse? Controls many of the ignition off Draw items like interior lights ,radio etc. Its in tne normal fuse panel inside the truck. Not sure where in the 4. 5,but on the left side of the panel when rivers door is open.

 

[GJolicoeur]

Yes - it does. The first I thing I did was to check all the fuses - unfortunately, none were blown,...

 

[LRohr]

My truck has the same problem , I changed out the FCM with no luck . #@$%! My next step is to check wiring between the doors at the door pillars .

Larry

 

[rashwor]

Following...

My wife's 05 Durango has a similar problem. The dash backlights work fine. The interior dome lighting and driver and passenger overhead lights quit working one night. They stayed on for a unusually long time after exiting the vehicle and then finally went off to never come on again. Also, since this happened, the 4lo, 4hi, and service 4wd orange instrument lights came on and are on still to this day. The kicker? This Durango is NOT a 4X4!!!!#@$%!



Any input would be appreciated. I will follow this thread as it may give me some ideas of where to start looking.

 

[opjohnny]

I had strange thing like this also. Turns out when the headliner was dropped for hail damage in 06 they did not hook everything back up. With new hail damage in 2010 they reconnected things correctly and all is well. If enough wires break to the rear doors you will have trouble too.

John.

 

[Dave Wright]

I had a problem with my overhead lights and it was tied to the visor somehow. The visor must have a switch in it. When I play with the visor while the dome lights are on the domes flicker. Finally, I just extended the visor and tweaked it up and down then put it back into position sharply. After opening and closing the driver's door the dome lights started working properly again. I tested the theory twice and it seems to fix my issues. Hope this helps.



Dave

 

[Ross]

OK... add me to the list. No instrument lights, erratic tach, no vanity mirror lights, and no dome lights.





These little electrical gremlins are driving me crazy.

 

[GJolicoeur]

Finally got the problem fixed - a broken wire going to the cluster caused the whole problem. All the lights are working again!

 

[Taintedspeed]

What wire was broken? And where if you can remember? My 04 1500 is doing the same thing but I can't find a broken wire.

 

[GJolicoeur]

It was under the hood in the bundle that ran through the firewall to the dash area. One of the wires in there that provided power to the lights in the dash had been broken by a plow installer who was probing the harness for power when they installed my plow. Sorry I don't know which wire,...

 

[Taintedspeed]

I found a small red wire that ran through the back of the bundle that had been broken. I made the repair and everything works as it should now. Thank you for your experience, it forced me to keep looking. I found the wire when I twisted the bunch of wires and one end manifested itself.