NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

I have a 1995 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency Elite Series II. I have had an issue as of late. When the doors are locked, and I pull the door handle on the driver’s door, the interior lights will not turn on. It will work if the door is unlocked. It will work if I use the keyless remote. It will work from the inside. It will not work if I pull the handle from the outside and the door is locked. The passenger side front door still works, but it too will do the same thing as the driver’s door.

My neighbor said she has seen my interior lights come on by themselves at night with no one near the car. I saw it once.

I checked the fuses. They are all good.
I checked all the lights. They are all working.

I have narrowed it down to the door jamb switch. I could be wrong.
I would like to resolve this, but I need some assistance in figuring out what is the problem. I have looked online and in reality for the door jamb switch. Any idea where it is located?

Thank you

gearheads78

Don't know for sure on your 95 but most modern era GM cars switch is part of the door latch.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

Thank you for your information. I hope to get more information as to this issue too. Any help is appreciated...

jaunty75

This is confusing. You say the passenger side door "still works", but then you say it does the "same thing" as the driver's door. If the driver's door handle is bad and the passenger door handle does the same thing as the driver's door, that says the passenger door handle is bad, too.

I don't think this has anything to do with the door handles. As gearheads78 says, things aren't where they were in cars of 20 or 30 years earlier than yours. Everything is much more integrated, and the problem you're having might have nothing to do with the door jamb switch and everything to do with whatever "module" controls the electronics that causes the lights to behave the way they're supposed to.

I had an '02 Dodge Dakota truck, and one day the fog lights started turning themselves on and off while the truck was just sitting parked in the driveway with the engine off and the key out. I had hoped and thought that the problem would just be in the fog light switch or maybe in a relay that controls them.

No chance. I took the truck to the Dodge dealer, and what needed to be replaced was a "control module." $500 parts and labor. Ouch city. But everything is so tightly integrated, electronically-speaking, that it's not possible to replace just a single component any more. I'm going to guess that something like this could very well end up being the cause of your problem. The circuitry and control logic that allows the interior lights to light up in all the fancy ways they do when you touch the door handle or hit the lock or unlock button on the remote or when the alarm is activated are sophisticated and not often easily fixable by the casual vehicle owner.

You might end up having to take the car to a GM dealer.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

You really have offered a lot of insight. I know one thing I read about that I never thought about. That is the headlight and interior light controls. I know back in the day they recalled the cars because of the headlight / interior light controls. I just do not want to buy parts or other things only to learn that is not what it is. You really have offered some insight for me to look into. Thank you...

Any other suggestions are welcome.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

I went and looked at everything. It is not a module. It is something in the driver's door. I checked the fuses on the hood. If it was a module, some of the other features connected to it would not work. I checked the fuses underneath the dash. They are fine. I checked the relays under the hood. They are fine. Everything comes back to the driver's door. The passenger door is working fine. The keyless remote is working fine. The lights work every possible way except when I pull the driver's door handle from the outside.

I figured out what it is. I did not fix it. One of the wires that goes into the door handle is loose or something. I will get my mechanic to take care of it.

m371961

I do not know how hard it is to get the door panels off, but if you try it you can look at the wires and look for loose connections. Maybe somewhere in harness where it goes out to the door. Lotta movement there on the drivers door. Just an idea.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

Thanks guys. All of you were in the right area of being right. It was the latch. The door jamb is located in the door lock acutator and it shorted out. That is why the drivers door handle would not cause the interior lights to not work or come on the way they did.

I got this message today:

The switch is part of the driver's door lock assembly and is most likely shorted out intermittently.

The fix is going to be replacement of the door latch. I see these fail on all kinds of vehicles (I'm a warranty adjuster)

jaunty75

How much $$$? I'll guess $100. But it wouldn't surprise me if it was $200.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

Still working to resolve issue. I bought the new door lock actuator. I noticed something today too. When I swear I locked the driver's door, it was not locked. I have been double checking daily. There are many times the door was not locked when it should have been. I suspect it is the door lock actuator on many fronts causing this issue.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

This is an update. The latch was changed. The problem still persists. The drivers door light started working and then it stopped and then started again. The passenger door is doing the same thing as the drivers door now as well. Then there was a brief issue with the radio not turning off when the drivers door opened. This is similar to the brief issue with the trunk pull down motor not working briefly and started back working. My mechanic had a tech change the door latch. I worked with him and checked all the fuses. Sadly, it is now down to the body control module. I bought one and it is on the way to my home. Jaunty 75 I think is right.

jaunty75

Do let us know if replacing the module does the trick.

It's like I said. Everything is interconnected now, and there are no more discrete components.


I had a similar issue with a 2002 Olds Silhouette minivan I owned. We bought it new, and only a month after we got it, the instrument panel lights began to behave weirdly. When the headlight switch was turned on, the headlights would go on just fine, but that was it. The instrument panel lights would not go on. I took it back to the dealer, and they ended up replacing....

... get ready for it...

...the body control module.



Remember (or maybe you're not old enough to remember) when radios and TVs had tubes, and you could service them yourself by replacing tubes when they went bad? Then, when solid state electronics came out, radios and TVs came with warning labels on the back stating "No user-serviceable parts inside. For service, consult qualified technician."

Cars nowadays need to come with the same kind of label.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

I will let you know. I did some reading and I know I have to disconnect the battery terminals and then install the module. It is a low mileage used part. I read that it does not have to be reprogrammed. I was worried it did. I was reading that pre 2000 Devilles and other Cadillacs did not have to be reprogrammed. I suspect it is the same for Oldsmobile. After a certain year, they have to be reprogrammed. I saw they still sell the 1996 Oldsmobile 98 BCM new. I saw them online. It will not work with my 1995 98 sadly. I wished it did. Those BCM's are not cheap either. I wonder if that has something to do with OBD II. The 1995 is OBD I. I know 1996 is OBD II even though the body is the same.

I will keep you posted.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

Update:

The door lights were were working all week with doors locked and closed. It stopped working yesterday. Now both doors do not work when you pull the door handles. I was waiting for the BCM, and the company said it failed the test and I had to order it from elsewhere last night.

I found this online once I got the GM part number:

donf
09-08-2004, 04:52 PM

First Post.........Great forum!
Here goes.........I have a 92 PA (winter beater) but a great running car until now. Bought it in 1994. I went out the other day to take it for an errand and noticed the battery was dead. No problem it has been sitting for awhile so I run a charger to it and charged it up. A few minutes later I fired it up with no problem. NOW here is where the fun starts. The interior lights will not shut off, hence the dead battery, the radio is dead, the heat/ac display is dead, buttons beep but no controls working. The light bulb monitor system is lit up like a Christmas tree. I replaced what I think is the BCM with one from the wreckers (odds are it can't be gone too) but no go. It is not the part GM says is the BCM (their number is 25646511) but there is no such number on any modules. So I took it to a dealership and confirmed it was the BCM. Black box about 5x7 with two plugs in one end and one in the other #25602655. Any ideas before I put the old girl to sleep.........thanks................Don


It is looking like Jaunty is right.....


I am waiting on the module I ordered last night. I will let you know soon.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

I am here with the final solution. It was the drivers door handle. The door handle has a wire that connects to the door handle to the interior lighting system. Due to the fact the drivers door handle wire was worn out, it stopped working. Before it went out, it was causing those issues I mentioned earlier with the flicker interior lights, and lights turning on when they were not supposed to turn on and other issues. I bought a new door handle and connection with a wire and had it installed. The problem has been resolved.

jaunty75

Very good to hear that the problem's been solved and that my first comment that the problem "has nothing to do with door handles" was shown to be completely incorrect!

I'm interested to hear that you were able to buy a new door handle for a 19-year-old car. Where did you get it?

More interestingly, how come it's five months since your last post that you're telling us this? Did you just fix it yesterday, or did you fix it four months ago and just now remembered that we were all waiting with bated breath to hear how it all turned out?

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

I took my car to a body shop for some exterior paint work. While they had it, I asked them to look into the issue. I had to buy a new door latch for the drivers door. That was one of the problems. The door was not closing completely or opening completely because of the latch. That is why the radio was not turning off when I opened the door. The car door is now flush with the body where it was not before. The door handle was the other issue. When I had the door lock actuator installed several months ago when I first starting having issues, someone else had installed it wrong. That had to be fixed too. It still had the interior light problem, and we realized the door handle was the only thing we did not change. It was done. I found the parts I needed on Ebay. I also replaced the passenger side door lock switch too. That went out also. That is new also. I got lucky with that. There is something the sellers on Ebay do not realize about the door lock switches. They may lock and unlock, but there is a light in the switch that is supposed to light up when the headlights are on. I ended up buying eight switches until I got the right one that worked. I have another one that worked, but the interior light color was Buick's interior color. GM made that switch with three different part numbers. One is specific to Buick, the other two are for Buick and Oldsmobile. They also sell the door handles online all over the place from auto parts places and more without the wire connection too. Ebay has some used ones too. Some of the ones I saw on Ebay, people cut the wire by mistake. I just installed the passenger side door lock switch recently. I just finished this project as it took time and money.

jaunty75

Thanks for the story. It's one of perseverance for sure.

Allan R

Glad your problem is fixed. Sucks that I just found this thread. I had a 1995 Regency Elite with the Series II also. Fully loaded including digital dash. I know the issue you're describing and the solution. My 98 rusted out 3 years ago, but I've had to deal with enough electrical and AC problems on the car the door handle would have been the first area to check. This is the same issue I had with my 1983 Regency Brougham and it was an easy fix. Those interior lights are supposed to stay on until - they time out, or the key is inserted and engine switched on. You probably also have automatic locking when the car is put in D, and unlock when Park. I really miss all the whistles and bells that car had.

If the lights wouldn't go off, that's a lamp control module that's faulty.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

You are most welcome! I just want people to know so they do not have to go through what I went through.

NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY

Thank you so much. It is a 1995 Series II with digital gauges and all the features you described. I wanted to make sure people had that information in case they come across this issue.

MDchanic

If I ever pulled the door handle on my car and the lights went on, I'd take it to an exorcist.

Glad you fixed it!

- Eric

Rocketguy

rOFLMAO!





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Allan R

First car of mine that had illuminated entry (also illuminated the key hole on the outside before the days of keyless entry) was my 78 Caddy Coupe de Ville. I really liked that feature, especially when it was really dark and no other lighting around.