1996exjay

Hey all, Does anybody have an idea what might have caused this to happen out of the blue? Everything seems fine as I drive it but the interior lights wont turn off and the gauges quit working. It's a 96 classic. Thanks in advance.

Troth

ill ask the obvious first. is your headlight switch turned and clicked to turn the domes on? have you checked the dome fuse in the fuse block on drivers side? any problems with your radio? the radio and dome are related in my 92' XJ

1996exjay

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I did check that the switch was off and the fuse is good. Checked it every which way to make sure it wasn't sticking or anything. No radio in it currently and the wires for the radio are wired to a plug for a specific radio and look to be ok, meaning no bare wires to short out. The weird thing is that the lights came on and the gauges quit at the same time. I ran the car to my brothers shut it off for a few hours and when i turned it back on...whammo. Can i just pull the fuse or should I unhook the battery every night? I don't mind wrenching on jeeps but electrical stuff melts my brain.

Steve796

I'd probably take a light tester to the fuse box and find out where you are getting continuous flow of electricity when you shouldn't.

Troth

you could take the bulbs out but there may still be current sent to the domes, would that drain energy since its not being utilized. did you check all of your door sensor buttons too to make sure one of them isnt bad. also check OBS fuse in engine compartment fuse block. the OBS in my 92 is linked to my dome and radio, my jeep did something like that recently, it sat for 4 days and when I turned it on I had not spedometer readings and check engine was on then i shut it off and turned it back on and it was fine

1996exjay

Thanks guys. I didn't get a chance to do anything today but I'm gonna get a test light and also check the obs.

1996exjay

Just wanted to update about my gauges not working issue in case anyone else is ripping their hair out like I was.. I've read several threads about other people having similar issues but never really found a solution until yesterday. I'll start by saying I'm as useless as **** on a bull when it comes to electrical and I'm not claiming that this is a actual solution. But, I decided to try and check the other things that are using the same fuse(yeah I know this is a no brainer) and decided to take down my overhead console first to see what it looked like inside. Now all I did was unhook the interior light plug and the plug for the compass and temp. They looked ok so i plugged them back in. I put the fuse in for the hell of it and it didn't pop. I started the jeep and it still didn't pop. Everything was working!?! I have no idea what the problem was but after spending a few days searching for cut or melted wires I found nothing. So I'm not sure if one of the plugs was shorting out or if it was a coincidence that the gauges started to work at the exact same time I re-plugged the wires. Either way I'm stoked. Took her through inspection and now that the check engine light works properly I passed the emissions test. So in case anyone else is in the situation i was in you might as well give it a shot. Thanks for the input and letting me get this off my chest.