Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Concourse rear ceiling LED light
I converted my flourecent bulbs over to LED bulbs on my 05 Concourse. I did the light furthest back by the entry door first, after i had the fixture retrofitted i took my mutitester and probed each wire for current but i forgot to switch the dial to read voltage and ended up blowing a fuse some place so now that light wont work. I checked all of the fuses under the dash, i checked all of the fuses in the house breaker box, i pulled the switch panel back by the closet and looked in there for a remote inline fuse, i pulled apart the rear trunk storage compartment and looked for a fuse in there as well, i crawled underneath the truck looking, checked fuses in battery compartment also, nothing. Im at a loss, i thought all of the flourecent ceiling lights would all be on the same 15 amp fuse in the house breaker box but that one isnt. Does anyone have any ideas where to check? I also checked the switch on the switch panel beside the closet, i can swap a hot wire from another switch over to the overhead light switch and it fires up. Im at a loss.... I checked all the wiring diagrams i could find, very limited, but they show nothing as far as detailed circuits.
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
In my 1999 Concourse, the rear overhead light (the one on the carpeted part of the ceiling just inside the main door) is on circuit #2, which is a 14-gauge red wire with a 15-amp fuse. This same circuit feeds all three (originally) fluorescent lights on the carpeted ceiling, plus the Fantastic vent up near the front on the carpeted ceiling. However while the other things are all fed by one wire that makes its way along the line (to the other two lights and the fan), the light by the door has it's own wire (or rather splits off) and comes around behind the shower, then up over the door (behind the carpeted "tube") and to the light by the door which I think is the one you are having trouble with. On mine there are no fuses other than the main one (except the Fantastic Fan has its own fuse built into it).
Things may have changed by the time your rig was made, but quite a few things remained the same over the years, so...
Things may have changed by the time your rig was made, but quite a few things remained the same over the years, so...
1999 Concourse
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Hmmmm, that doesnt help. All of the other lights work perfect, i can pull the 15 amp fuse in the breaker box and all of the other lights will go off. There has to be a fuse some place because i can jumper power to the rear overhead light switch and the light will come on. I had the multitester set to send amperage into the wire instead of set to read voltage. I yanked the false panel above the entry door and even though there are wires behind it there are no inline fuses to be found, i also dismantled the trunk walls and again plenty of wires but no inline fuse, i also yanked the drawers out of the kitchen cabinet to see if there was an inline fuse behind the cabinet some place with nothing found once again. Im at a loss and about ready to just jumper it to one of the other switches like the rear step and leave it. It just has me baffled and i hate doing things that way.
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
I totally hear you on wanting to find the problem. Sure, you could get around it another way, but that's unsatisfying.
For starters, from what I know, the "amps" mode on a meter doesn't inject amps into the circuit, but rather uses a small built in shunt to measure the current. Thus, when you went to measure voltage on "amp" mode, what the shunt did was create a short circuit, and then theoretically, a fuse would have blown (usually it blows a fuse in the meter though). But it seems that something did go awry. That makes me wonder if something melted or came adrift that just affects that fixture. So when you are jumpering and it does work, what is being left out? Seems like the problem should be in that leg.
Things change over the years but I will say I have never found any sort of "hidden" inline fuse in my Chinook. And aside from the wiring behind the shower, I've had it all exposed (removed all upper cabinets and closet for remodel job, plus refrigerator, stove cabinet, and sink cabinet. Oh, and club chairs and couch... LOL). Maybe they changed their tune by 2005, but it wouldn't be the first thing I would think of due to their past practices. It just wasn't the way they did things (and I can't see any motivation to put a hidden inline fuse anyway - if there was a motive then maybe).
If I had to guess some change, then rather than a hidden fuse, I'd wonder if it was on a different circuit than the #2 mine is on. Kind of makes sense since it was wired from a different "leg" of wire anyway (from astern rather than from over the couch where the wire leads to the other two lights plus the forward vent/fan). So I see you have checked all of the other fuses, but .... what about double checking? Is it on another fuse? Maybe circuit #1 (brown, does a lot of the rear door stuff). Did you just visually check the fuses or did you try to "run" all of your other DC stuff (sometimes fuses look good but have blown). Very few (none) of the circuits only have one thing on them, so if anything is wrong then no matter what circuit that light is on something else should also stop working if it's a fuse (maybe you have already done this). That's actually what I did to double check Chinook's wiring diagram. I turned EVERY DC thing on, then pulled each fuse and noted what went off, and made a list. It did match the diagram, btw.
Again, not saying there isn't a hidden fuse, but just that it's not at the top of my suspect list since 1) Chinook didn't do that in the past, and 2) I can't see any motivation for them to start doing it, and 3) production builders rarely start doing unneeded things just to have more to do. I will say that their crimp connectors are (like most) not the highest quality. Maybe you have eliminated all of those though, and it does seem coincidental if one went bad. Also, is the chassis ground wire still intact?
Please don't take offense if I'm suggesting something you've obviously already done - I can tell you're sharp and don't mean to imply otherwise - just that I'm here and you're there.
For starters, from what I know, the "amps" mode on a meter doesn't inject amps into the circuit, but rather uses a small built in shunt to measure the current. Thus, when you went to measure voltage on "amp" mode, what the shunt did was create a short circuit, and then theoretically, a fuse would have blown (usually it blows a fuse in the meter though). But it seems that something did go awry. That makes me wonder if something melted or came adrift that just affects that fixture. So when you are jumpering and it does work, what is being left out? Seems like the problem should be in that leg.
Things change over the years but I will say I have never found any sort of "hidden" inline fuse in my Chinook. And aside from the wiring behind the shower, I've had it all exposed (removed all upper cabinets and closet for remodel job, plus refrigerator, stove cabinet, and sink cabinet. Oh, and club chairs and couch... LOL). Maybe they changed their tune by 2005, but it wouldn't be the first thing I would think of due to their past practices. It just wasn't the way they did things (and I can't see any motivation to put a hidden inline fuse anyway - if there was a motive then maybe).
If I had to guess some change, then rather than a hidden fuse, I'd wonder if it was on a different circuit than the #2 mine is on. Kind of makes sense since it was wired from a different "leg" of wire anyway (from astern rather than from over the couch where the wire leads to the other two lights plus the forward vent/fan). So I see you have checked all of the other fuses, but .... what about double checking? Is it on another fuse? Maybe circuit #1 (brown, does a lot of the rear door stuff). Did you just visually check the fuses or did you try to "run" all of your other DC stuff (sometimes fuses look good but have blown). Very few (none) of the circuits only have one thing on them, so if anything is wrong then no matter what circuit that light is on something else should also stop working if it's a fuse (maybe you have already done this). That's actually what I did to double check Chinook's wiring diagram. I turned EVERY DC thing on, then pulled each fuse and noted what went off, and made a list. It did match the diagram, btw.
Again, not saying there isn't a hidden fuse, but just that it's not at the top of my suspect list since 1) Chinook didn't do that in the past, and 2) I can't see any motivation for them to start doing it, and 3) production builders rarely start doing unneeded things just to have more to do. I will say that their crimp connectors are (like most) not the highest quality. Maybe you have eliminated all of those though, and it does seem coincidental if one went bad. Also, is the chassis ground wire still intact?
Please don't take offense if I'm suggesting something you've obviously already done - I can tell you're sharp and don't mean to imply otherwise - just that I'm here and you're there.
1999 Concourse
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Yes i have checked all fuses at least 4 times because it was driving me nuts after spending a bucnh of money on new LED bulbs to replace the flourecents. I found a relay and a hidden fuse for the CO2 detector behind the switch panel by the entry way. I found one hidden fuse behind the trunk inner side panel for the back up camera, which i think someone added on, the was at least one more but i do not recall where it was hidden at the moment. One of the first things i did was to check every other item in the vehicle to see what else didnt work in hopes that it would give me a clue as to what went wrong, but everything else still works. Course i found the fuse panel in the brown box on the sink counter, the factory ford fuse box under the dash, an additional addon small fuse box next to that one under the dash, and of course the ford fuse box under the hood. The only thinig i didnt check were the breakers that are supposed to be down by the battery compartment under the truck. I didnt figure they had anything to do with that one light. Oh and i also found the GFI outlet beside the rear entry door. I unplugged the awning light power wire from its switch and plugged it onto the rear entry light switch and the new LED bulbs fire right up and work great, so whatever is wrong is in the circuit prior to the switch on the closet wall.
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Okay, fair enough on the CO detector, although when one takes it out every five years to replace it, the fuse is right there behind it (right?). So I'd say "slightly hidden." But I mean it's not ten feet back in the wall, illogically. (BTW, many boaters and now RV-ers have gone to the battery powered CO detectors. Typically, "hard wired" seems better and battery mount the lesser way, but there are good reasons for battery powered CO detectors. For one thing, they have a lifespan anyway (typically about five years, whether hard-wired or not). For two you can remove the batteries when the rig is not in use if you want to. For three (maybe most important), often times the CO detector is not hard wired in the best place. CO is neutral (doesn't really rise or fall) so the recommended level is usually head height when sitting/sleeping. In my Concourse it was mounted up near the ceiling by the back door. Not the height or location of my head pretty much any time. I turned that into a storage cubby (massive amount of space on my rig there) and so did Jeanie (another Concourse owner). Oops, tangent!
Anyway, back to your light. It's a puzzler. I would 99.9% guarantee that that light is fused to the brown coach fuse box. Anything is possible, but that's the vast probability. So my guess now is that there is a problem in the wire that leads only back to that hall light from where it splits (the other "leg" goes to the forward two ceiling lights and the forward ceiling fan). I can look back at my photos, but it likely splits behind the fuse box. The "main" wire for that circuit runs up in the wire chase that is in the wall at the back of the upper cabinets, and at around the center of the couch (fore and aft position) there is a wire nut and a wire branches across to the air-conditioner hole vicinity (this on my rig)(runs between roof and ceiling). This wire then powers the fan and one light forward of the air-con hole, and then the light behind the air con hole. Then a separate wire (but on same circuit) goes aft and powers the light by the door.
What I haven't looked at is whether that same "couch split" contains the wire that runs back behind the shower and over the back door to feed that hall light. I'd guess no, since that's a lot of extra wire, but maybe. Otherwise it must branch off somewhere behind the brown box and near the fuel filler area.
Here is one idea: Let's say the problem is for some bizarre reason in that "leg" of wire that runs to the rear light only. For some unknown reason it did not blow the main 15 amp fuse. Maybe it wasn't a "fuse" issue at all but rather a physical one. Maybe a crimp was hanging on by a thread and got dislodged. After all you were working in that area. That might be hard to find but maybe it is close to the light. Maybe you already know that's not true, but I'm just thinking out loud.
Anyway, back to your light. It's a puzzler. I would 99.9% guarantee that that light is fused to the brown coach fuse box. Anything is possible, but that's the vast probability. So my guess now is that there is a problem in the wire that leads only back to that hall light from where it splits (the other "leg" goes to the forward two ceiling lights and the forward ceiling fan). I can look back at my photos, but it likely splits behind the fuse box. The "main" wire for that circuit runs up in the wire chase that is in the wall at the back of the upper cabinets, and at around the center of the couch (fore and aft position) there is a wire nut and a wire branches across to the air-conditioner hole vicinity (this on my rig)(runs between roof and ceiling). This wire then powers the fan and one light forward of the air-con hole, and then the light behind the air con hole. Then a separate wire (but on same circuit) goes aft and powers the light by the door.
What I haven't looked at is whether that same "couch split" contains the wire that runs back behind the shower and over the back door to feed that hall light. I'd guess no, since that's a lot of extra wire, but maybe. Otherwise it must branch off somewhere behind the brown box and near the fuel filler area.
Here is one idea: Let's say the problem is for some bizarre reason in that "leg" of wire that runs to the rear light only. For some unknown reason it did not blow the main 15 amp fuse. Maybe it wasn't a "fuse" issue at all but rather a physical one. Maybe a crimp was hanging on by a thread and got dislodged. After all you were working in that area. That might be hard to find but maybe it is close to the light. Maybe you already know that's not true, but I'm just thinking out loud.
1999 Concourse
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Say, since it's exposed on my rig right now, I took another look at that pigtail of wire that comes down from the rear hall light to the area just above the door. There is about a foot of wire on the light pigtail that is exposed there, and it is wire nutted to what is presumably the main feeds coming from behind the shower (one nut for white/ground; one nut for red positive). Any chance one of those got loose or somehow malfunctioned?
If you don't already have it off, the carpeted "half tube" above the door (what you would bump your head on if you walked straight into it on your way out the door) comes off fairly easily, and then all those wires are exposed, plus the wire nuts.
Here is a photo I took of mine earlier. It's a little hard to tell in the photo (I can take a more illustrative one if you like), but the "larger" red and white wire you can see is tucked in and the yellow wire nut(s) are up to the right. That's part of the light pigtail. You can just see the light fixture in question at the top of the photo. When the photo was taken I had already converted it to LED, hence the clipped little wires inside it (I went with a tube shaped LED bulb).
Here is a zoomed crop. The left hand side (as we see it) of the red/white wire is where they "break out" of the loom. Then the pigtail is led over to the right and tucked in (yellow is the wire nuts).
The black wire looms are original. The two smaller ones each have a pair of Romex type A/C wires; the larger one is the main DC wire bundle, all heading over to the passenger side.
If you don't already have it off, the carpeted "half tube" above the door (what you would bump your head on if you walked straight into it on your way out the door) comes off fairly easily, and then all those wires are exposed, plus the wire nuts.
Here is a photo I took of mine earlier. It's a little hard to tell in the photo (I can take a more illustrative one if you like), but the "larger" red and white wire you can see is tucked in and the yellow wire nut(s) are up to the right. That's part of the light pigtail. You can just see the light fixture in question at the top of the photo. When the photo was taken I had already converted it to LED, hence the clipped little wires inside it (I went with a tube shaped LED bulb).
Here is a zoomed crop. The left hand side (as we see it) of the red/white wire is where they "break out" of the loom. Then the pigtail is led over to the right and tucked in (yellow is the wire nuts).
The black wire looms are original. The two smaller ones each have a pair of Romex type A/C wires; the larger one is the main DC wire bundle, all heading over to the passenger side.
1999 Concourse
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
Hmmm not sure, i will have to pull that panel off again and check the wire nuts. I do know that the ciruit from the light to the switch on the wall is functioning because i powered the switch up with the awning light power wire. But i will yank that panel again to see if i missed something not so obvious like a loose wire nut mainly because i was looking for fuses based on how the event transpired.
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
I just noticed a minor detail, but just wanted to mention it because likely your wiring is a bit different. That is that on my rig, all three of those lights are controlled by a switch right on the fixture, not a wall switch. I saw you said "switch," but didn't pick up on the fact that you said it was a wall switch, not one right on the fixture.
Funny, because just yesterday I was fishing some string through because I plan to put in a switch for that light by the door. Figured I'd put it fairly low on that wall section between the bathroom door and the entry door such that I could reach in from outside and hit the switch as well as use it from inside. That's what got me to notice that that light was fed from the rear (vs. coming back through the ceiling from the forward lights) in the first place - I was happy to see how easy it would be to add a wall switch. But so anyway, those photographs show the original wiring for my original light which is operated by a switch right on the Thin Lite fixture itself.
I won't change the two forward ceiling light switches (nor even probably make them LED) because I only use them once in a blue moon. But the one by the door I use all the time.
Funny, because just yesterday I was fishing some string through because I plan to put in a switch for that light by the door. Figured I'd put it fairly low on that wall section between the bathroom door and the entry door such that I could reach in from outside and hit the switch as well as use it from inside. That's what got me to notice that that light was fed from the rear (vs. coming back through the ceiling from the forward lights) in the first place - I was happy to see how easy it would be to add a wall switch. But so anyway, those photographs show the original wiring for my original light which is operated by a switch right on the Thin Lite fixture itself.
I won't change the two forward ceiling light switches (nor even probably make them LED) because I only use them once in a blue moon. But the one by the door I use all the time.
1999 Concourse
Re: Concourse rear ceiling LED light
This particular unit has both switches, one on the wall panel and a switch on the light fixture itself. I just leave the one on the light in the on position all the time and use the wall switch to turn it on and off. Mine has a switch panel above the closet door with 5 switches in it, awning light, porch light, dump light, Entry light, and electric step switch. Since i have never used the awning light or the awning i just plugged that wire into the Entry light switch until i can figure out the problem.