[chacalon]

HI,

I have been ignoring the open door light staying on for a few days now, Evrything seemed fine except for the light staying on (everything shut properly)

Tonight my rav (GX 1996 2dr) wont start! it seemd to have run down my battery!

Q: is this possible? can that small light have run my battery dead? there is still some life in the batterry but not enough to start up the engine.

what is my best course of action?I am going to jump start the engine tomorrow morning and hopefully that will solve it.... can my Rav have something else wrong ...its been working like a dream otherwise.....

Please i need some help , Thanks

 

[Mindscape]

It may be that the door light's indicative of another electrical problem, like maybe a short in the door sensor system. The way the door sensor works is that it's a button that depresses when the door is closed, which breaks the circuit. When the door's open, the button pops out, completing the circuit and turning on the door light.

If it's staying on, though, that may mean that something in that sensor's broken, and that the circuit's somehow always closed (working) now. That might indicate a short in the appropriate door sensor, where electricity's jumping to the wire or the body of the car, and the short happens to also complete the circuit to turn on the door light. No more power than the door sensor takes, it'd not be really surprising that a short there might take a while to drain the battery, but usually shorts drain the battery much more quickly.

 

[peterpogi2005]

question: do the geiling lights stay on when they are set to "door" and the doors are closed? or is it only the indicator in the dash? if it's only the dash indicator, are the ceiling lights busted? do the ceiling lights work normally?

the switches in question are inside rubber boots in the car side of the doors, you can't miss them really! press each 1 fully in (with all the other doors closed, including the rear) on it's own to see if the door isn't pushing it hard enough.

i don't know if the switch is open or closed when the door is open so not sure to look for a cut/disconnected wire or a short! if you pull the boot off maybe you can figure out how to get one of the switches out to test it.

a small lamp in the dash will put about 0.1A or less load on your battery, so a standard 40Ah battery should take 400 hours or more to drian (in theory). could be a lot quicker depending on the state of your battery!

i don't know what else may be connected to the fuse for the ceiling lights but maybe pulling the fuse would be a short-term solution.

 

[chacalon]

question: do the geiling lights stay on when they are set to "door" and the doors are closed? or is it only the indicator in the dash? if it's only the dash indicator, are the ceiling lights busted? do the ceiling lights work normally?

the switches in question are inside rubber boots in the car side of the doors, you can't miss them really! press each 1 fully in (with all the other doors closed, including the rear) on it's own to see if the door isn't pushing it hard enough.

Peterpogi,

Its only the dashboard light that stays on, i have switched the dome light off just in case it comes on at some point, but it doesnt anyways (and they work fine),

I have managed to turn off the dash board light since last night. i have to push hard on the passenger side door, (i've found the problem), but when i dirve, it flickers...on and off untill i press on the side door again.


Is this hard to fix? what do you recomend?

well i think it definetly drained my battery, like i said before the battery wasnt dead, but weak enough to need a jump start. dont know how old the battery is....


Thanks for your response.

 

[chacalon]

If it's staying on, though, that may mean that something in that sensor's broken, and that the circuit's somehow always closed (working) now. That might indicate a short in the appropriate door sensor, where electricity's jumping to the wire or the body of the car, and the short happens to also complete the circuit to turn on the door light. No more power than the door sensor takes, it'd not be really surprising that a short there might take a while to drain the battery, but usually shorts drain the battery much more quickly.

Thanks for you reply!

I think it might be a short somewhere...i will have it checked. check my previous response to poggi, it turns off when i pushh on the door.... but comes on again when i open either door, but the problem i think is on the passeneger door. its is the only explanation to my drained battery as everything seems to be working properly....


Is this very labor intensive to fix/replace?

i should go to a car electrician rather than a normal garage....what do you think?


again thanks

 

[peterpogi2005]

if it's only that the switch isn't being pushed far enough, maybe you could take the rubber boot off (should just pull off) and see if the switch looks ok. if it does, you could either put something in the boot or on the door to push the switch that extra bit to make the light go off.

the light will come on when any door is opened, but probably only one switch has a problem!

you could try to do it yourself, even by taping a piece of cardboard on the door to switch the light off & see if your battery still drains. if it does, you have a short somewhere else too!!

enjoy your x-mass

 

[chacalon]

problem fixed....
pulled the "boot" off.... (tough to get out and put back) .... I put a couple of coins in ....works great.... i wonder for how long though....we will see...



Turns out, the battery drained because there was actuallly a door left open which my wife failed to tell me about....

Thanks for all your help ..

 

[peterpogi2005]

talking about lights being on when the key is out. i was lucky enough to spot that the tail/brake lights were on when i parked at the mall the other day. turned out that the little round plastic/rubber piece on the brake pedal lever that presses the switch had disintigrated & the switch wasn't being pressed enough to turn the brake lights off!

fixed with a self-adhesive rubber anti-skid footing (about 3/4" dia.) fron the local handiman store! not so easy to get at but still only a 5 min job!