I was recently installing a security system on my cousins 2001 Grand Am, an while working on it the dome light simply stopped working... no bad fuses, and the bulb is good. I tested the plug with a meter, and there is no power even reaching the light bulb. Any ideas on what might have happened.

BTW when it stopped working I was not even doing anything to the wires on the car....

what were you doing when the light went out?

Well, actually I was looking at the wire on the dome light to see if I could trace them back to a better location on the car to connect to the alarm system. I was not using anything that could have shorted something out; just sort of pulling down on the case and looking at wire colors (which are black, white and orange, black and white are ground and orange is the power I think??) I am totally baffled by this. I was able to trace this wite back to the massive wiring block by the dash fuse panel, and there is no power there either.

ok i dont think that black AND white are grounds...should just be the black. Theres no need for 2. Orange is usually connected to a switch or relay so that should be ur hot wire. White is usually an ignition wire but that doesnt make sense in this case. I dont know how you couldve caused it to quit unless while pulling on the cover you somehow pulled a wire loose. But that doesnt make sense either since you have no power by the fuse box. Is there anything else thats not working properly?

ok i dont think that black AND white are grounds...should just be the black. Theres no need for 2. Orange is usually connected to a switch or relay. Im thinking that the white should be ur hot wire. I dont know how you couldve caused it to quit unless while pulling on the cover you somehow pulled a wire loose.

I pulled the light out completely after it stopped working and checked the connections. Black and white show 0 ohms to ground and the orange is open.

I pulled the light out completely after it stopped working and checked the connections. Black and white show 0 ohms to ground and the orange is open.


BTW.... The dome light has a switch on the light it self to turn it off/door/on, and there is also a panel switch to turn it on/off (this is the usual on in with the panel light dimmer)

I pulled the light out completely after it stopped working and checked the connections. Black and white show 0 ohms to ground and the orange is open.

Black should be ground and Orange should get power when the key is on and the lights are turned on; I think maybe white powers the 2 lights for the rear passengers and the orange might go to the main one to turn it on when door is open. But Black should be gound.

Is it just the dome light or all the courtesy lights? b/c i know that on my car all the courtesy lights stopped working and i checked everything, and turned out that the switch on the driver's door was stuck and thats why the lights werent going on? just a thought