The interior lamps on wife's 93 Fleetwood come on normally, but it takes them about 8-10 minutes to go off after the door is closed. I think they will go off after 8-10 minutes even with the door open. Turning on the ignition switch has no effect on them. Isn't there a relay somewhere that controls the lamps? If so where is it. Any suggestions?? She just bought it Tuesday night and everything seems to work fine except for the interior lights. Thanks!!

The manual light switch (headlights, etc.) is twisted to the "ON" position for the interior lights to be on all the time. There is a energy/battery saving timer switch that will turn off the lights if you forget to turn them off. I think that's what you are experiencing. The timer is about 8 to 10 minutes.

Check the head light switch. It has the normal GM twist to dim the dash and turn "on" for the interior lights.

I thought about this......the headlamp switch is rotated to left, not in the interior light position. Interior lights still hang up.

Yes, I didn't mean to insult your intelligence, but some people don't know about the power off delay. It has saved my battery more than once.

Maybe the switch is bad. ?? I'll look at the circuit diagram to see if anything comes to mind.

This would be an easy thing to overlook, especially with the automatic off after 10 minutes. Wish it were that simple. The lamps work off a relay, as I found it, but there must be a separate timer somewhere that lets the lights burn for about 30 seconds. I don't think the timer is in the relay, as there are 4 more like it that run other accessories. I switched 2 of them around and still same thing happens. Most cars have hot wires to interior lights and the door jamb switch grounds the circuit when the door is opened. This Caddy has no switches, and the lights come on when you raise the door handle. This leads me to assume that there is no fire in the wires to the lights until a switch is closed, and the lights are grounded to the body, just opposite from most cars. Would be fairly simple to re-wire with switches in jambs and do away with the delay feature, but don't think it will be that easy.

A fairly common issue on those cars is electrical shorts in the doors. One common result is interior lights staying on as yours do. You can verify this by seeing if any of the mini wedge switches are showing aground from any of the doors. If so, that's the door to look into.

I dug into this section of the service manual. The timer is in the CCM which provides time delay power on the Component Center DIL (Delayed Interior Lamps) relay, part of the "convienience Center" Located left side instrument panel, left of steering column.

There are five pages of diagnostic proceedures for the interior lamps. Your problem is listed in the list of possible symtoms. Basically the diagnostics do point to either a short in the circuit that powers the door and roof rail courtesy lights, or a short from the CCM to the switched side of the relay (less likely).

The pages of diagnostics basically track down a fault with a mini-wedge assembly. The mini-wedge connectors sit on top of the door latch assembly.

The other remote possibility is a bad CCM.

They will go off after about 10 minutes. If there were a short, (ground) seems like they wouldn't go off at all. I read in another forum that Cadillac discovered the problem and redesigned the switches in the door. I even tried the passenger door, but same results. I guess all doors work off the same timer. I will try to locate the mini wedge switches and see what they look like. I really appreciate all the help!!

Yes, the upper (roof rail) and lower door lights are on two separately numbered circuits, but they all powered through the one relay which get its timed power from the CCM.

When I pull one fuse, all the upper and lower lights go out.

Do the lights stay on when your driving or are they off. I had a similar problem with my car but my lights would flicker on and off while I drove. It turn out to be a bad micro switch in my drivers door latch mechanism. I cleaned the switch up with electrical parts cleaner and no more problems.

They come on when I lift the door handle like they are supposed to. They will not go off for about 10 minutes. It doesn't matter if I just leave the car sit, drive it, or whatever, they stay on for about 10 minutes then go out. Does anybody know where this timer thingy is??

According to local Cadillac dealer, the gizmo that controls the interior lamps is in the trunk behind the back seat. It controls a bunch of other stuff and sells for about $272. Kinda expensive for trial and error.

Did you ever try checking the switches at the doors like Katshot said?

Haven't been into the door yet. The switch seems to be OK. The timer is the problem.

Fleetwood350

The problem may not be the timer. The symptom you describe has much higher odds of being a wedge switch than the CCM (the gizmo behind the rear seat shelf), which provides computer smarts for most of the vehicle.

If one fo theinterior light circuits is grounded, the CCM will cause the CCM to provide the full amount of timed (about 10 min) power to the lights. It's just the way the system functions due to the grounding problem. (Kind of like when one of your turn signal lights is burned out, causing the blinker to run at a faster rate.)

Unfortuneately, diagnosing the door wedge switches isn't real easy due to their access. I'll see about scanning the diagnostic section in the manual. That might give you some good information. It's going to be a number of large files. Do you have high speed Internet access, and can I e-mail them directly to you, as my web space wil not accept many mosre files?

Scurling - can you send those files to me too, if you find them - i have same problem with my new toy.
I have high speed internet, so file sizes are not problem.

Edit: forgot e-mail: ain@cadillac.pri.ee

Yes, I have DSL. It isn't as fast as RR, but a lot better than dial up. Appreciate any help on this. I was planning on installing some conventional push button jamb switches (non grounding ones) and interrupting the circuit that controls the interior lights. This should cause the lights to work like most other cars without the delay feature.

Fleetwood350

You profile will not allow e-mails or private messages within the forum. Send me a private message with your e-mail address so I can send you the pics.

thanks

Your profile will not permit me to send you a message either. I don't think there will be any problem posting it here. It is:



thehammetts@atmc.net

Fleetwood:

There must be a problem, or maybe the administrator has settings on your account to prevent personal msgs. or e-mail. I send and receive personal messages all the time to other subscribers. I double checked my User CP settings and my profile is activated for personal msgs. and to receive e-mail form subscribers.

Anyway, thanks for the address. I'll get the files out ASAP.

I got all the pages. Really appreciate it. I burned them all to CD-R for permanent record. Looks like it could be quite involved, but will see what I can do when the weather warms a little.

Got all the pages. I burned them all to CD-R for a permanent reference. Looks somewhat involved, but will give it a shot when the weather warms a little. Thanks again!!

Good luck. Diagams can be a little overwhelming when they are multiple pages. Just take them a section at a time.

The numbered items with codes correspond to the following:
Sxxx Splice
Cxxx connector --))---
Pxxx passthrough grommet
Gxxx ground connection
.5 xxx wire size and circuit number

I'm pretty sure the ground splice for the interior lights is in the left b-pillar at the base...