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Dome light: The cure

31K views 27 replies 18 participants last post by  OldBonus 
#1 · (Edited)
I thought Id make a little right up on how to fix the dome light which never seems to work right on a Supra. In my case, and hopefully most of your cars, this was the fix. Its pretty simple. Take the dome light cover off(its a bitch, a butter knife slid between the light buttons and the cover helps alot), then take the 3 screws out that hold the dome light to the roof, and disconnect the plug on the back. Now the two smaller screws that hold the metal bracket with the "door" switch need to be removed, and the entire switch needs to be bent out of the way as shown in the picture.

Now heres the fix. The aluminum rivites I circled in red need to be re-crushed. The two at the switch, and the two grounds for each bulb. I did this with a two punches, a vice, a hammer, and a friend to hold the dome light. Then dome lights should work, just make sure you have the two screws in that ground the dome light when you test it. Ive heard you can drill out the rivets to fix this but its much easier this way, Solder wont work either because the rivets are aluminum and the solder wont hold.
If your dome lights still dont work, dont fade out after the door is shut, or other interior lights still dont work, here lies the next problem.

This is the integration relay. Its located behind the fusebox on the drivers side kick panel. If your good with soldering electrinics it can be fixed, I just bought a used one from a junkyard for $25, but new from Toyota its almost $200. I checked my used one before I bought it by this:

This 1 ohm resistor I circled was visibly(and smelled) burnt out. This one appears grey but its actually supposed to be blue. I tested mine with a voltmeter before i purchased it so i wasn't throwing money away. Hopefully this helps some of you even tho it is a minor problem, more or less annoying
 
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#27 ·
Great write up. I was also tired of my dome lights working intermittently but the only difference in my repair I did not re-crush the rivets. What I did was go to my local hardware store and got 2 of the smallest screws 2 small nuts and 4 small washers I could find and used those after I drilled out the old rivets. If you do go this route just make sure to cut the screws so they do not stick up above the gray plastic and short its self out on any metal. It works better than new and its a guaranteed tight secure fit.
 
#28 ·
Hello SF, new member here. Thanks for this write-up; I finally got the dome lights to work on my 87. Only one wire going to a ground rivet was loose but I went ahead and punched flat the rivets for both grounds (connected to mounting screws) and for both 12v power (plug-in connection) and got the dome lights working as they should. Cheers!
 
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