wds928

How come my underhood light doesn't work?? This is one of several minor annoyances I am trying to fix.

I have put a new bulb in that I tested. I pulled the plug and tested with a voltmeter and get nothing, with or without the headlights turned on. Red wire is supposed to be hot, brown is ground. Fuse #17 is good.

I believe the headlights are supposed to be on for this light to work. I have stuck the voltmeter prongs into the spade connectors so many times now that corrosion couldn't be the problem.

Any suggestions??

MikeN

I believe only the parking lights just need to be on along with the
emergency brake pulled.........try that combo and see what happens.

Randy V

Is the hood position switch working properly?

ROG100

Hi Bill,
Just checked mine and the light comes on as soon as you open the hood. No need to turn on parking lights or engage the ebrake.
This will give you a default.
Roger

wds928

Thanks for the input. I didn't realize there was a hood position switch. Now that I think about it, there is a switch on the passenger side, it appears broken.

What exactly does this hood position switch do? Does it display anything on the dash readout?

DR

>What exactly does this hood position switch do? Does it display anything >on the dash readout?

Depending on year model the switch is used for Alarm contact for hood (all years), Electric Fan safety switch (87-up), and underhood light (91-up).

Luckily they are not expensive ($12.77) and very easy to replace.

wds928

David:

Thanks for the great info. I will check the switch tonight and see what happens.

SteveG

My position switch is very loose/wobbly and the light doesn't work. Since it looks almost useless anyway, I have ignored it. Would this have any effect on the alarm which when the doors are locked, will activate spontaneously, usu an hour after I exited the garage?

Nicole

My hood position switch used to turn the light off when you pressed it a little. If you pressed it down all the way, the light would come on again. Of course I did not know that I was driving with illuminated engine all the time. But mysteriously my battery got drained every time the car sat for a few days. Once I figured it out and replaced the switch, there was no more battery draining. Car now starts even if it has - god forbid - sat for 2 weeks.

DR

Yep, seen it happen many times.

macreel

My '84 has a tilt switch in the lamp socket base
and makes connection to ground when the hood
is about 1/3 way up(& park/head lts 'on').

Your '94 hood bulb is connected to Term. 30
and the hood contact switch makes to ground
when the hood is opened.

G'luck.

John Struthers

This is a problem?

wds928

Ok, I have checked the hood switch and it is broken only in the sense that the plastic lock tabs around the switch housing are broken and the housing won't firmly lock into the metal holder.

I put the volt meter on the swith and it shows 12 volts with the switch button pressed down or not.

The engine compartment light still doesn't work at all, no matter what the hood switch position is.

So what's broken?? Any suggestions??

SharkSkin

That 12V should go away with the switch released, meaning the "hood up" position. The switch grounds a 12V line that comes from the central warning & alarm systems, and by doing so creates the current path to light the bulb. Try shorting the BR/GN wire at the hood switch to ground and see if the light comes on then. See the wiring diagram snippet below:

macreel

wds928... I believe the #2 terminal isn't
getting a ground: either a bad connection,
dirty contact, broken wire between socket
and ground points(upside down "T"'s to
right of switch symbol, in diagram), or
NG bulb(broken during install?). In your
installation is there continuity from the
bulb socket side to ground?

If you're sure the brown wire is ground
connect it to another wire you've attached
to a known ground spot (touch the
brown wire as close to the bulb as you can).

The 'hot' wire will be 12V all the time; as
will the 'ground side' of the bulb until the
ground is made; then it will be '0' V., as
current flows and bulb lights.

G'luck.