shahedC

So... I took my car in to the dealership to get the heating system checked out (the 3rd time!), and also the erratic passenger side window.

When I got the car back, the main cabin light was not working... all the other lights seemed to be fine: headlights, ambilight (both sides), under the door lights, illuminated door sills, etc

So I asked the guys to look at it, and one of them performed some sort of reset after clicking around, and my settings were reset... and the light was back to normal.

Does this make sense? Has anyone else had this happen?

p.s. my heating system still seems to take too long to heat up, and the window seems to work just fine.

Racin_fool

are you talking about the dome lamp assembly? If that is the one you are talking about, you can set it to not turn on when you open the door.

Open the door and watch the light come on. Now click the button that shows and overhead view of the car with the doors open. The light should turn off. Click it again and it will come back on.

shahedC

Is that what it's called? If so, then yes. I tried the doors and all the buttons, but it didn't come back on until the guy clicked through some reset sequence while in the driver's seat.

I guess I should've asked exactly what he did... maybe he just pressed down the reset button on the left of the gauge cluster housing. FYI, the reset that he did also reset my GPS preferences. I set it to "always align map so that north is up". This was reset to "always align map so that my forward direction is up"

Here's a picture I found on the internet, so I circled the area of the light I'm talking about.

bloflin

shahedC, check/read your manual.

He didn't do any "software reset".

All cars (that I'm aware of) have a method to either CAUSE or PREVENT the interior light from coming on when you open the door. This has been the case for years and years.

On some cars, the "control" is the switch on the dome light (i.e. a three position switch, On, Off, Door Controlled).

On our SLK it is one of the switches in the overhead console (number 2 in the attached pic).

Also that (nor any of the overhead console switches) have anything to do with changed your preferences in NAV.

shahedC

But I tried the switches too.. there are 4 switches in the overhead console, next to the SOS button.

closer to me: the switch on the left is for the light, and the switch on the right is for the light under the door sill, under the car

farther away from me: the switch on the left is my reading light, and the switch on the right is the passenger's reading light

so, I know what all the switches do.. I just don't know what he did to make the light come back on...

bloflin

NO, unless it changed for MY 2007. Pls see your manual or the pics I attached.

For MY 2005/6, that button controls whether the interior lights (including the big one in the overhead console) comes on with the door open or not.

shahedC

Oh, I have a 2007. The main button DOES control whether the light comes on when the door opens or not.... BUT, while I'm driving (with the doors closed, obviously), I can use that SAME button to turn on the light. I can press that button again to turn off the light.

As soon as I stop the car, and open the door, the light comes on even though I just turned off the light while driving. I can then press the button again (with the doors still open) to turn off the light)

It seems to have 2 modes...
(a) turn on/off light while driving
(b) turn off the lights after the lights have been automatically lit after the doors have been opened

BTW, my master dial for the lights is set to "Auto". (the dial on the lower left, between the steering wheel and door hinge)