So I upgraded my two interior, trunk, engine compartment, glovebox and license plate lights with the LED kit from Suncoast. Very nice upgrade and they all function fine. Polarity mattered for all except the glovebox LED which worked in either pole position.

When done I pulled the fuse that controls all these bulb locations because the car is in winter storage. I also pull the clock fuse so it doesn’t run for six months needlessly. Have done this for 17 years.

The weird thing is thst when when I went to close the glovebox door with the fuse pulled - so no power to that circuit - the new glovebox LED bulb will light very dimly, like at 1/20th normal. It only lights when the door is nearly closed and I think it stays on when fully shut.

With the circut fuse installed the LED bulb acts normally and shuts off with the door. I reversed the LED and the same weird dim light. I installed the old incandescent bulb and no issue.

Any ideas? It’s not going to matter as there’s no current draw and the car lives on a maintainer anyway. Or I can just install the old incandescent bulb.

Another chapter in 993 idiosyncratic behavior. A bottle of good wine to the RL genius that figures this one out. Apologies for the long post and dull subject.

Red or white?



Andreas

Red or white? Not sure what the question is.

typically red with beef, white with fish/poultry. Although I enjoy a nice Chianti with liver.

Ha! Your choice.

Good advice I will check the hibernating 993 tomorrow. Thank you.

I'm no EE but it may be a capacitive coupling issue, so perhaps the lines to the lamp are hot, meaning that the switch is downstream from there. If you pull the assembly and find 12v on the line even when not lit, that would explain it. If so, there's no feasible solution, but who cares if it's really pulling miniscule current.

If im correct, that seems like odd wiring by Porsche. I'd expect the switch to be upstream of the lamp so that it's not always at 12V, especially because the lamp socket is bare, unprotected. But what do I know.

p.s. If I'm correct, the incandescent bulb is pulling the same minimal current as your barely-lit LED bulb. The difference is that a tiny current will actually barely light an LED. Of course, you could measure all that to confirm.

Good suggestion I’ll check the fixture for voltage in the conditions I described.

Are you saying a very low voltage is constantly applied to the glove box light? Any idea of the voltage?

And why would reinstalling the incandescent bulb solve this? Granted it won’t be visibly lit, but won’t it still draw the same current? If so, I wouldn’t consider that a solution to any real issue. A dome light is one thing, but a dim glove box bulb is never seen.

Tore, thanks for the info. So I guess since the incandescent bulb ihas been drawing a minimal current for all these years there’s no harm in leaving the LED bulb in place? I’ve checked this issue with the alarm disarmed of course.