So I pulled he headliner and dome lights from my 96 XJ a while back, and yesterday replaced them with a setup from an 01 XJ instead (all the junkyard had and I was getting fed up of getting into a furnace every day before work). The process of hooking the lights up burned out the 10 Amp fuse for the interior electronics, so I put a 15 Amp fuse in, and everything seems to run fine.

Except the driver's footwell light stays on when the door is closed, as does the centre light in the panel above my head. It dims, but stays on (ironically that central light ONLY comes on when the doors are closed).

I think I might have a short somewhere, or one of the door switches is busted/obstructed (my bet would be the hatch). Given it immediately burned out a fuse, I'm assuming the former.

I've pulled the fuse overnight to prevent the battery draining, but obviously that's not really a solution. Any thoughts? Could it have something to do with me pulling the XJ's original central locking circuitboard (remote was lost a long time ago) and not replacing it?

 

UPDATE:

So this morning I took the light fitting out, and hooked up the old dome light. This killed the light in the footwell. Plugged the new dome light in, on comes the centre light (very dim) and the footwell light again (also dim).

So I unplugged it again, took out the centre bulb, plugged it back in and behold, no footwell light.

I'm not 100% certain this is good in the long-term, however, but I'm not an electrician; I know how to create and interrupt a circuit and that's about it, which is why I've asked for help :P

 

I'm not great with electrical either but using a higher Amp fuse doesn't seem very safe. Do the map lights on the new one work with a 10 Amp fuse? If it's pulling to much power maybe LED bulbs would help.

 

yes I’m receiving an old thread.

Have you fixed this issue? I’m having the same issue and I’m looking for answers.