Interior lights staying on

[rny]

Hi folks, my VZ Berlina has developed a lighting fault where the interior lights, front of cabin and rear on both sides will not turn of. They stay on after engine start, will not even turn off with the manual switches. The only time they do go off is after I have left the car and engaged the central locking where they then turn off after a few seconds. Initially this was an intermittent fault for a few days, but now its all the time, day or night. I am thinking along the lines of maybe a lighting relay fault. Any ideas? Its a real pain driving at night with all the cabin lights on, I don't really want to pull the fuse.
Cheers,
rny.

 

[adam_m]

i was going to suggest checking relays like you mentioned

 

[Nut Kracker]

Do the lights come on when you open the door?
Do they go off when you turn the engine off, without using the remote lock?

Do any of the other interior lights turn on/off....eg. vanity lamps (on the sun visors), foot well lights (if you have them),
boot light and glove box light?
If these all work fine, then it wont be the illumination relay, as these lights use this relay.

I would suggest a faulty dome light switch.
May be this switch, when activated, is not disconnecting the earth from the BCM and
when you turn off the engine, the BCM is timing out the lights, as it would normally do,
therefore turning them off.

 

[rny]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I swapped out the interior lighting relay on the panel under the steering column with the demister one, and the lights all worked as they should. Great, so off to the dealer, new relay, only $13 so not too bad. Installed, checked, same problem. Swapped with the demister relay again, same problem. I was able to switch off the rear ones on the ind switches, so they are off. Problem with the front ones still appears to be intermittent. Sometimes ok, sometimes not. When not ok, starting and running engine, they stay on, turn engine off, they stay on, removing key from ign, they stay on, open and close door and remote locking, they go off after around 8 secs. While off, manually switching works fine. OK, at this stage I just switched off and left off. While writing this post, I went out to check my explanations were right and wouldn't you know it, everything seems to be working perfectly. WTF ?????????????????????????????????? Only thing I can add, is after discussion with a sparky and Holden nut at work, I sprayed contact cleaner into the door switches and gave them a good workover. Initially that made no difference. Maybe that has now had some effect. Here hoping and fingers crossed. Any more suggestions.
Rny

 

[Nut Kracker]

Take out the door switches if you can and have a look at their condition.
One or more, may have corroded terminals.

 

[rny]

Cheers, will try that at the weekend.
Rny