electrical gremlins 85'sd HELP!!!!

[polarisrmk]

So my battery has seemed weak lately in the mornings and i have tested on the load tester and its perfectly fine. Then i noticed one night that when i shut the door the "curb lights" on the bottom of the doors come on. and when i open the door they turn off. WTF? Also my dome light stays on all the time when in the "door open on" mode. Does anyone have any ideas? This is really starting to bug me. I know one day i am going to go out and the battery will be dead and then i will be really ticked. Everything else electrically seems to opperate just fine, though why do the headlights sometimes flash if the door is open? i was working on the car the other night and had the door open and the headlights started flashing and would not stop till i started the car.... Strange.

[blackestate]

Turn the dome light off by the wheel next to it, and there is a switch on the pannel by the sunroof that will leave power to the lights in the doors, and drain the battery. Took me 2 days to find that out when I had a similar issue. Turned off the switch, and no more problems.

[polarisrmk]

Ok i am bringing this post back up becuase i finally figured out all of my electrical gremlins. but the other day parking in the costco parking lot i noticed my dome light was not going off again (85 300SD). so i just flipped it off and went on my way. that day i left on vacation and left the car parked in the garage for a week. when i came back battery was dead and the dome light was still switched off. Checked the battery and it charged up fine and load tested fine. put a spare new battery i had in the car and the same thing happeded.

I found a few threads about the seatbelt light and dome light staying on but i don't have the seatbelt light on just the dome light. Could the timer on the dome light assembly be malfunctioning and draining the battery?

If so do i replace the dome light assy. or is this one of those bad mercedes solder jobs that can be fixed by resoldering the board.

[CANDIDE]

Originally Posted by polarisrmk

Ok i am bringing this post back up becuase i finally figured out all of my electrical gremlins. but the other day parking in the costco parking lot i noticed my dome light was not going off again (85 300SD). so i just flipped it off and went on my way. that day i left on vacation and left the car parked in the garage for a week. when i came back battery was dead and the dome light was still switched off. Checked the battery and it charged up fine and load tested fine. put a spare new battery i had in the car and the same thing happeded.

I found a few threads about the seatbelt light and dome light staying on but i don't have the seatbelt light on just the dome light. Could the timer on the dome light assembly be malfunctioning and draining the battery?

If so do i replace the dome light assy. or is this one of those bad mercedes solder jobs that can be fixed by resoldering the board.

If its similiar to the 87sdl that I have, there is a electronic timer and some other electronic components on a circuit board inside the light/switch assembly. Most likely your circuit is dead. Probably not a bad solder joint issue. Replace the assembly with a good one, this may take a few tries unless you can test functionality before you buy.

[Kelly]

I took apart the dome light assembly in my 87SDL tonight. My dome never comes on with the door, but does when you switch it on manually. I found a resistor fried, and an op chip fried as well inside. I'm hoping it might have something to do with my erratic alarm. Anyway, no way of fixing it, must replace.

Op chip must be the timer, and theres a big capacator in there as well. Does the dome kinda fade on and off in these cars?

Also, is the rear dome light supposed to come on with the front doors open?


Gracias.

[polarisrmk]

I have the same erratic alarm problem on my SD so i just unplugged the alarm module fixed it right up.....

My dome light timer function started working on its own the other day .... i can't get it to fail again ... so strange so i won't fork the money out quite yet.