Dome light very dim when door open / not turning on when car running

[gdk771]

I have a 2015 Nissan Leaf and I think I have a problem with my dome light assembly. The light is very dim when I open the door after I unlock it. . If I manually hit the dome / map light button to turn it on it suddenly becomes very bright. It also will not turn on when I open the door when the vehicle is running (dash is on).

When I first got this vehicle I noticed that it was not coming on at all but this was because the selector switch at the top was set for it to be off all the time. I moved it to come on when the door was opened.

Ha anyone run into this behavior or problem before? It also makes a slight buzzing noise when it comes on in a dim mode. I am thinking I may have a flaky light controller but have no idea where this would be located.

Is anyone familiar with how the interior lights are controlled and where the controller might be located? Are there supposed to be any other lights that come on in the sides or under the dash? I could try checking the connectors to the controller it if I can find it. It's pretty dark in the interior at night.

Thanks

 

[macgeeknz]

My lights definitely operate at different intensities when running on 'door open' mode (or 'just turned off main power button' mode) as opposed to when I flick the manual switch. The manual switch is approx twice the brighteness. Not sure if this helps. I can check the diagrams for what controls it after work if it helps.

 

[knightmb]

Nissan was still using incandescent bulbs in a lot of stuff then, it's possible the bulb is dying. The buzzing is annoying, but any LED replacements you get will eliminate that, provided the bulb is the issue.

 

[gdk771]

OK Thanks guys. Does your dome light come on when you open the door with the car still "running" (dash on)? I have to stop and open a gate to get to my property and it is annoying I have no dome light when I open the door.

It is also annoying to me I have to unlock the door with the door unlock button. It does not unlock automatically when I pull on the door open handle (Like every other car I have ever owned). I don't know why this is. Seems like a safety issue to me if you have a power failure and you can't manually unlock the doors from inside the car by pulling on the door open handle.

 

[knightmb]

Mine does, you have to make sure the dome light is set for "door" and that you don't have all the internal lights disabled via the on/off switch near the front, top where the sun-glasses go.

That is one gripe I had about my Leaf as well, you have to either physically unlock the door latch or use the door unlock button when the Leaf is running. About the best you can do is set your Leaf to unlock all doors when you go into "park" and that should make life easier.

 

[gdk771]

Where is the setting to unlock doors in park? I have never seen that. I only have an S model so I can't access it through the stereo, just the crappy menus with the 4 dash buttons and I don't recall seeing that menu or setting.

Also is there just a dome light and a light in the right side of the hatch? Seems there should be some lights under the dash or on the sides in the passenger area.

Thanks

 

[knightmb]

Where is the setting to unlock doors in park? I have never seen that. I only have an S model so I can't access it through the stereo, just the crappy menus with the 4 dash buttons and I don't recall seeing that menu or setting.

Thanks

What year Leaf S ?

[edit] Duh, it says 2015 at the top, lol

The only thing I could find in the manual was on page 206 (section 3-5) about how to manually turn on and off the door locking settings, but it only covered what happens when you power off the Leaf, not anything else. You would probably need LeafSpy to do this then.

 

[macgeeknz]

It is also annoying to me I have to unlock the door with the door unlock button. It does not unlock automatically when I pull on the door open handle (Like every other car I have ever owned). I don't know why this is. Seems like a safety issue to me if you have a power failure and you can't manually unlock the doors from inside the car by pulling on the door open handle.

For what it's worth, this is indeed the case on all 3 passenger doors of both of my JDM Leafs (AZE0/ZAE1), however on both cars pulling the drivers door (internal) handle, DOES unlock the doors. Hows about that! Is this not the case on your car then? Ie all 4 doors operate the same for you? I wonder if the driver-door working for me is because both of mine are Japanese vehicles...

 

[rrip]

What is the 12v battery voltage? It should be at least 12.6. Every time my 12v battery goes bad the dome light comes on dim.