Why Won’t My Interior Lights Turn Off (How to Fix)?

Dome lights are the lights found on the top of the insides of your car, although other cars also have lights on their doors and below their dashboards.

While they illuminate the insides of your car, their main goal is to warn you that some of your doors are not properly shut. 

They are turned on when you open your doors and remain lit until all your car doors are closed properly. As you can see, this would be a big problem if your interior lights were to stay on even if you shut off your car doors properly. 

This may be due to problems with the circuits inside your car, so this article aims to help you find out why your interior lights are staying on and how to fix them. Read more to find out how!

Dome Light Stays On When Door Shut?

The video focuses on the problem that your interior lights stay on while driving. Their main suspect for this problem is that your car’s wiring may be faulty and needs to be fixed. 

Afterward, the speaker discusses the mechanics of the interior lights and the different possible types of switches they may have. Finally, the speaker tells you that you should look into the wiring of your dome lights and have them checked by a mechanic.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do The Interior Lights Work In The Car?

Before you talk about what could be the major causes of why your interior car lights stay on, it would be important to talk about what the detailed mechanics are about the lights and how they work in general. It wouldn’t take long as it is as simple as having a lock mechanism on the switch of the car door. 

When doors are opened, a switch turns on the light and is closed as you shut the door properly; this is similar to the refrigerator lights found at home. You can still turn on the lights manually via the switch when the doors are shut.

What Are Common Reasons Why The Interior Lights Are On?

After discussing the general mechanics of how the interior lights work, it would be easy to see that some of the major reasons the lights stay on revolve around this general mechanism.

Some of the reasons include the following:

1. The Control Knob Is Turned On

If you have shut your car doors properly, it would be the number one reason it is still open afterward. If you can not turn off your dome lights, then this means that one of your car lights switches is stuck in the ‘on’ position.

Your interior lights will be broken if you can’t adjust the brightness or if your interior lights are still on. You might want to remove the lightbulb inside manually to prevent it from draining your battery even more. 

Afterward, you could take it to a mechanic so that your lightbulb and switches would be reinstalled and fixed properly. 

2. The Wirings Are Faulty

After checking on the switches and shutting the door properly, sometimes the wiring inside the car itself may be at fault. There might have been a mismatch between the interior lights’ circuitry keeping them on.

The solution to this problem is to trace back the wiring inside your dome switch. Usually, the wiring of the lights is connected from the switch to the dashboard of the car. 

When you don’t see an obvious problem with the wiring, you should leave it alone and avoid trying to fix it yourself. Have a mechanic look into your vehicle’s wiring to avoid any other problems when you try to do it yourself.

3. Can Interior Lights Drain My Battery?

The direct answer to this question is yes; it can drain your battery. If you leave your car parked for a long time while the interior lights are stuck, you will drain your battery over time.