I lost the interior panel light and running/taillights?

ELUTTON

MEMBER
1991 PONTIAC GRAND AM

91 Grand Am 2.5L automatic with 180k. Replaced brake/tail light bulbs before a recent trip and 750 miles later immediately after turning the Parking lights on (notable that both light buttons were very warm to the touch), I lost the interior panel light and running/taillights. I have checked the fuses and double checked that I installed the correct bulbs. I fear that I am embarking on an elusive electrical nightmare. Really I just want to know if there are other switches, relays or similar components to check/replace.

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

If this happened right after turning the lights on, then I am going to suspect the issue is in the switch.

More than likely the switch is shorted and caused an issue with the lighting system. The way this works is the switch supplies power through the lighting system and gets ground through a common ground.

So, we need to start by checking the voltage coming out of the switch and find out what is there.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-wiring

Once we know what is there, we need to move onto checking the voltage at the bulb.

Clearly if you have no voltage coming out of the switch then we need to replace the switch assuming the fuse is fine.

If the switch is ok then we need to try and find a wiring issue.

Please run through this and let me know what you find. Thanks

Image (Click to make bigger)