Map reading light bulb blown/gone-will it still draw power from battery!?

[Spencer69]

Hi, Pretty much as title says!

The map reading light on drivers side went this afternoon. Passenger side still working.

Am worried that as I do not know if light is currently turned on or off, if it will still draw power from battery. I worry due to the fact that on couple of previous occasions when light has been left on (un-noticed) overnight, there wan't enough power in battery to start car and had to resort to 'battery booster' gadget!

Any help would be greatly appreciated & many thanks.

[VicW]

If the light is not on then it is not drawing anything from the battery. If you want to make sure then swap the bulb from the good side to the 'blown' side to ensure yourself that it is switched off. Don't bother to switch them back just put the new bulb in the side that doesn't work.

Vic.

[Spencer69]

Hi Vic, That is certainly 1 way to solve immediate issue...this is the problem...too dark now to do anything!

However, I have found a Halfords 501 12v 5w bulb and wondered if this was the type needed. Again, too dark to check now & will have to wait until tomorrow to do anything. It was just the immediate issue of car battery being 'flat' tomorrow morning!

Thinking about it, if bulb from driver map reading light above rear view mirror has blown, would this not mean that the circuit is not complete & therefore similar to light being switched off! (I am obviously not a electrician!).

TY for anymore advice and help.

[Jocko]

would this not mean that the circuit is not complete & therefore similar to light being switched off! (I am obviously not a electrician!).

That is correct. A blown bulb will not draw any current so don't worry.

[Spencer69]

Jocko, you are a lifesaver :-)

Grateful for your reply and confirmation. Least tonight I should be able to sleep & this gives me a couple of days grace to deal with problem.

So, if car doesn't start tomorrow, can I charge you for new battery...or 2nd hand set of jump leads!

Cheers, Jocko and also Vic. Many, many thanks.

[guest4871]

Look in the manual under  Interior Lights/ Spotlight to see how to do this.

The bulb type will be listed in Specifications as Spotlight (it seems!) in the list of bulbs.

It seems to be a 12V-8W festoon bulb  but you'll need to check.

[Spencer69]

Hi zzaj, yep you're right. the type of bulb I quoted was a spare I found and was hoping might be correct type, but as you say correct sort is 12v 8w and is festoon (1st time heard of that description) bulb. Will be able to grab a fw from local car spares shop down the road.

Just glad Jocko confirmed it won't hamper the battery as have few things that need dealing with 1st, causing more stress than the bulb/car battery issue-1 thing too many to make life equal balance!

Have viewed couple of youtubes and seems to be an easy fix. Many thanks again for your and all above responses. Much appreciated :-)

[culzean]

You can get LED festoon bulbs for interior lights,  better than the filament ones, unlike the filament which sends light in every direction the LEDs tend to be on one side  so you can angle them for maximum light - and of course they draw a lot less current for more light output ( so will take longer to flatten battery, )

Beware there are several different lengths of festoon bulb ( cylindrical shape about 8mm diameter with a contact on each end ) they come in 30, 36, 38 and 41mm long to name but a few ..... measure it before you order..

[Spencer69]

TY Culzean, Good idea with LED type bulbs. As for ordering, will be taking old type with to local car spares shop. Who knows, with this new found information on task to be handled, I may even try again to spend some time on the dome light in middle of car roof & try to get this to illuminate!

Has always been a tiny bugbear of ours, is that when car doors open no interior lights come on, aiding entry/exit in dark conditions. Never really been a major problem, but would be nice to correct :-)

This week interior lights, next week changing 1.4 for V8!

[Jocko]

Dome light usually has three positions.  Off all the time, on all the time, or operated by the doors. Have you checked the switch is in the right position?

[Spencer69]

Aye, Jocko, checked all positions for the middle dome with on/off/door operate and checked with doors. In honesty that is as far as I was abe to go with it, when I did check (always something else crops up, not necessarily with car!)

So, whe I remove the covering with small flat screwdriver/flat blade, for map reading will do same for middle. Know they are the same bulb and have chekced the manual kinldy provided by link from previous poster, albeit some years ago.

Will come back with results/any further help required. Again, really appreciate the amount of help already given, in what might otherwise be a simple fix for some, but to others...

[Spencer69]

Well, well, well! Goes to show you never now unless you try!

I tried prising off the centre lens but almost pulled full unit out...left this and went to my map reading light near rear view mirror. Came off very easy and could see bulb had blown. having seen how easy this came off, back into rear to do centre again...came off easy also, knowing which tool best. Again this still didn't work, but bulb looked OK! Then unscrewed unit to make sure it was correctly/tightly plugged in..it all looked as it should (whatever that is).

Tried this centre light console bulb in my map reader, and it worked. So, at that stage, had both driver and passenger map readers working. So, then decided to take bulb from passenger to try in centre console...pushed bulb in, as you do with a fuse & plug, and bugger me, it worked! :-)

So, currently have centre console light that stays on for 15-30 seconds once doors are open/closed, and also have driver map reading light unit working. I now need to get a new bulb for passenger map reader and all will be well...If only other things in life were as bloody easy!

Really am very grateful for all replies and responses with advice and help. Hope rest of week is good for you all.

[Jocko]

Must have just been a dodgy/dirty connection between the dome light and the bulb. Doesn't take much on a 12v system.

[guest4871]

Bill is in the post 

[culzean]

Must have just been a dodgy/dirty connection between the dome light and the bulb. Doesn't take much on a 12v system.

Took even less on the old car and motorbike 6V systems.... there has been talk for decades now about making cars 24volt systems, but it has never happened.