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Step well courtesy lights


jacwjames

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I am redoing the steps installing vinyl plank. 

So I pulled the small courtesy lights out and couldn't get them to work, checked the bulbs both were bad. 

Is there a new style light, preferably LED bulbs that I can replace with???

The number on the light fixture is LR93589

 

Thanks

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Jim, I know that you have already ordered new fixtures, but for the benefit of others who might just want to retro fit the incandescent bulbs with LED's here is what I used in my 2006 Cayman.  I also bought these from M4products.com

FESTOON-3-5050-WW Warm White 5mm x 31mm micro festoon 3 5050 SMD LEDs * FESTOON-3-5050-WW 3 $3.49 USD $10.47 USD

 

Carey

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I agree, M4 is a great company.  I bought LED headlight bulbs for my Camelot but they wouldn’t work. After asking if I could return them, they said to send them for their inspection.  If they accepted them they would charge me a 20% restocking fee, which I thought reasonable.  But, they gave me 100% refund on my card.  I would have been happy with 80% in store credit.

Now for my automotive needs, they are my go to source. Nice folks.

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4 hours ago, 1nolaguy said:

Jim, I used the same festoon replacements as Idoc57 and they work well but for the little difference in cost and since your are updating the stairwell anyway the fixtures from M4 look like a great option.

I'm thinking the same thing, they are black and the treads are black so they should look OK

I stopped by Autozone to see what bulbs they had.  The bulb looks equivalent to a Sylvania 1895 bulb, they did not carry LED. 

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It took me quite a number of tries until I found the correct size festoon LED to fit our fixtures. I finally got the correct size on Aliexpress or all places. Our bulbs were only about 3mm in diameter where most LED festoon bulbs were of greater diameter and would not fit in the fixture.

 

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Well, I got the new step well courtesy lights and installed them today.  When I first connected them none of the switches would turn them on.  I started fooling with them and hit the ground wire against metal and the lights came on.  Further checking shows that there is ~13 volts coming to the lights. 

I was under the assumption (and you know what happens next) that the step well lights are controlled by the porch light switch, checked my wiring diagram and as best I can tell that is right.  Can some one confirm what controls the step well courtesy lights. 

The wiring for the lights come in from the front, hard to trace as they are under a piece of heavy plastic.  The wiring from the switches is also hard to trace as I have no easy access to the wiring under the dash.  I pulled the small 3 switch panel, can't see much from there. 

I decided to quit and fix this problem next year 🤬 hoping I might get some guidance. 

 

Edited by jacwjames
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13 minutes ago, jacwjames said:

Well, I got the new step well courtesy lights and installed them today.  When I first connected them none of the switches would turn them on.  I started fooling with them and hit the ground wire against metal and the lights came on.  Further checking shows that there is ~13 volts coming to the lights. 

I was under the assumption (and you know what happens next) that the step well lights are controlled by the porch light switch, checked my wiring diagram and as best I can tell that is right.  Can some one confirm what controls the step well courtesy lights. 

The wiring for the lights come in from the front, hard to trace as they are under a piece of heavy plastic.  The wiring from the switches is also hard to trace as I have no easy access to the wiring under the dash.  I pulled the small 3 switch panel, can't see much from there. 

I decided to quit and fix this problem next year 🤬 hoping I might get some guidance. 

 

Wires maybe crossed? That is from factory black is + 

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1 hour ago, JDCrow said:

Wires maybe crossed? That is from factory black is + 

OK, but I checked the wires with a meter and they had voltage on them no matter what position the switches were in. 

The wires coming out of the new LED lights are red and black, I assumed the red was (+).  No instructions provided. 

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3 minutes ago, jacwjames said:

OK, but I checked the wires with a meter and they had voltage on them no matter what position the switches were in. 

The wires coming out of the new LED lights are red and black, I assumed the red was (+).  No instructions provided. 

Yeah. Hard to trust anything plastic anymore. Maybe red is - and black is + for the LED

I try and tell myself how little people are paid to make these, let alone quality control 
 

Edited by JDCrow
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If I'm reading right, the source wires are hot, but the new lights are not working?  I would try reversing those wires and see if the new lights work that way.  If not, hook them to the battery and make sure they work.  I ordered 6 puck lights from Amazon and the firstbwas a dud.  All the others worked.  You can see a bad solder spot.  In my 06 Dip, I have a switch below passenger window for the stepwell lights.  Did you ever have working lights there?  As mentioned above black tends to be pos and white neg in these Monacos for 12v. 

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Gotcha.  Maybe post a pic of all your switches and someone with similar will be able to help?

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Guest Ray Davis
58 minutes ago, jacwjames said:

The light works,

The power on the  (+) wire is there all the time, when I ground the light to metal it comes on. 

Trying to figure out where the wire is routed and what switch controls the step well courtesy light. 

Jim, on my 03 Windsor the sw is all by itself, and down a little on the pass console or whatever it's called.  Just inside the door.

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Thanks for all the replies, got it working.  The switch is at the passenger side console next to the salesman switch.  It actually switches the ground, so there is power at the step light feed wire all the time.  It is actually on the chassis battery. 

The light is fairly deep/thick and barely fit re the thickness of the plywood and laminate. 

 

Floor Step light lite.jpg

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Jim, I think you will find a great many 12VDC switches wired the way yours was--That is, for any given light, the +12VDC is supplied to it permanently and the light is turned on by the switch completing the circuit to ground.  The switch connects the fixture to GROUND, rather than supplying +12VDC to the fixture.

Not sure of the reason for this, but I have found it on every Monaco I've ever worked on.  There might be some exceptions, but the vast majority of fixtures are turned on by completing the GROUND circuit.  I'm aware that many (if not all) aircraft are wired the same way, but I don't know the reason.

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Yup, every time I work on an area of my rig I haven't worked on before I learn something new.  Just have to store this information in the back of my mind, which seems to be getting more cavernous.  

One thing for sure is that you can trouble shoot the circuit quick, just put a ground to it and you know it works.  If it doesn't you have bigger problems. 

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