Chevy van courtesy lights constant voltage

I have a 1998 Chevy express van. The courtesy lights won?t go off after starting the engine or shutting the door after engine is off. Contstant on.??? It is a conversion van with a smart fuse block model

211. I did find the troubleshooting manual for it and unhooked the two wires to it as it said. The juice from the OEM wiring is on at the box which means it is from the OEM wiring. I just bought this thing six days ago and need to know where the switch is on the drivers door so I can check the switch there when you open the door. Something is either shorting this thing out, a bad switch in the door, or does anyone have any other ideas. I unhooked the feed to the smart block intellitec system and everything functions correctly except the courtesy light. If I hook it back up, all hell breaks loose and all the lights stay on continually. If I unhook the intellitec fuse block to the conversion part, there is no juice to the courtesy light up front which is fine because that is where they hooked the OEM wiring harness to it, but there is juice on all the time on the courtesy light wire. The other wire, there is no power at all. Hope I have clarified this... Any help on the whereabouts of the door switch would be helpful, and I can check those as I did pop a fuse on the courtesy light OEM fuse block right before it didn?t work any longer. So something is doing something. It does not blow a fuse now. Plus one other thing....if you could. There is a relay under the hood to the right. It is a small one and all the wires are unhooked for this. Do you know what that is for at all? And is there any way to turn off the headlights that stay on continually? I forget the name of those. I have only driven older cars without that type of thing. Thanks a million. Hope someone has some insight to this. Gayle
Reply to
diversdelight
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On the headlight switch module there is a switch, and a thumbwheel. The switch controls the headlight, parking lights... The thumbwheel controls

  1. Dimmer function - dims the instrument panel and other interior lights. (Various knobs and dials) When the headlights are on. Rotates up and down. Up is full bright, down is off. In between is... well in between.
  2. Parade mode for the dimmer system. Turns the the lights from #1 on full brightness for maximum visibility in daylight (or nighttime). Parade mode is one click up from full bright.
  3. Interior lights on. Is one click up from Parade mode.

Additionally there is a push switch labled Dome Overide. It forces the dome (courtesy) lights to stay off even with the door open.

KenG

diversdelight wrote:

Reply to
KENG

"" wrote: > On the headlight switch module there is a switch, and a > thumbwheel. The > switch controls the headlight, parking lights... The > thumbwheel controls > 1. Dimmer function - dims the instrument panel and other > interior > lights. (Various knobs and dials) When the headlights are on. > Rotates up > and down. Up is full bright, down is off. In between is... > well in between. > 2. Parade mode for the dimmer system. Turns the the lights > from #1 on > full brightness for maximum visibility in daylight (or > nighttime). > Parade mode is one click up from full bright. > 3. Interior lights on. Is one click up from Parade mode. > > Additionally there is a push switch labled Dome Overide. It > forces the > dome (courtesy) lights to stay off even with the door open. > > KenG > > diversdelight wrote: > > I have a 1998 Chevy express van. The courtesy lights won?t > go off > > after starting the engine or shutting the door after engine > is off. > > Contstant on.??? It is a conversion van with a smart fuse > block model > > 211. I did find the troubleshooting manual for it and > unhooked the two > > wires to it as it said. The juice from the OEM wiring is on > at the box > > which means it is from the OEM wiring. I just bought this > thing six > > days ago and need to know where the switch is on the drivers > door so I > > can check the switch there when you open the door. Something > is either > > shorting this thing out, a bad switch in the door, or does > anyone have > > any other ideas. I unhooked the feed to the smart block > intellitec > > system and everything functions correctly except the > courtesy light. > > If I hook it back up, all hell breaks loose and all the > lights stay on > > continually. If I unhook the intellitec fuse block to the > conversion > > part, there is no juice to the courtesy light up front which > is fine > > because that is where they hooked the OEM wiring harness to > it, but > > there is juice on all the time on the courtesy light wire. > The other > > wire, there is no power at all. Hope I have clarified > this... Any help > > on the whereabouts of the door switch would be helpful, and > I can > > check those as I did pop a fuse on the courtesy light OEM > fuse block > > right before it didn?t work any longer. So something is > doing > > something. It does not blow a fuse now. Plus one other > thing....if you > > could. There is a relay under the hood to the right. It is a > small one > > and all the wires are unhooked for this. Do you know what > that is for > > at all? And is there any way to turn off the headlights > that stay on > > continually? I forget the name of those. I have only driven > older cars > > without that type of thing. Thanks a million. Hope someone > has some > > insight to this. yle > >

Hi, those buttons do NOT turn off the courtesy light...???? What do you think? Do you know where the relay is for the courtesy light? Maybe that is bad... I can check it if I know where to look for it. I may just bypass it and hook up so I can turn off the light manually.

Reply to
diversdelight

On GM vehicles the interior lights are ground switched. That is they have power to one side all the time. The ground side is broken using the door switches. From your description you have a ground wire shorted. The conversion relay only allows the extra lights to be controlled using the same switches, but because it takes more current for the extra lights that the factory controls were not designed to handle the put a relay in line that handles the extra current. Finding the short might be difficult since it could be a bad door switch or a bad wire grounded somewhere else. There should be one ground wire connected to that smart relay that is connected to the original wiring. Disconnect it first. Then pull the door switches one at a time and look for a bad switch. Keep in mind some use the switch for more than just the lights. Usually the drivers side door will have 2 wires, one for the lights and the other controls the key in/lights on/alarm type stuff. I would start with the drivers door, then the passenger door and then the side door(s) then the rears.

Also there have been instances of this problem being caused by a bad light switch.

Reply to
Steve W.

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