Interior + Brake lights not working.

[jamesmc]

Went junkyard hunting and found a pretty decent '88 LX right next to the crusher. Pulled out a cluster w/ tach, hatch cover, badges, dome, and hatch lights. Now on to the issue. My dome light has never worked since I got it 5 months ago. I have an Escort maps light, but I have to figure out how to wire it...that will have to wait. The new dome light AND the rear hatch light (maybe I'm wiring the rear hatch one wrong? I just randomly stuck the plugs in a bunch of different ways.) do not work. The brake lights don't work either, I've been told. (The high-mounted light DOES work.) Could this be an electrical issue? The bulbs on all the lights look fine, and look like they should work. The TAIL fuse is okay. Thanks for any responses.

[muddevil01]

First off did you check the fuse marked brake as that is the one that runs the brake lights? Did you have brake lights before you tried to plug the hatch light in? Stock Festiva dome lights SUCK so your best bet would be to use the Escort light easy to install just follow the write up that's on here real easy. I went through the same thing with my 93 I replaced the dome light with 4 stock ones and they didn't work as soon as I put the Escort light in it worked first time. So now all of my Festys have an Escort dome light. As for the hatch light I don't have a factory one but I do know that you need the latch off of the car that you got the light off of. All the dome(hatch) lights run off of a ground switch. When I installed my hatch light I found an unused wire in the tail light panel on the passenger side that was hot all the time(white with a red stripe) and ran the hot on the light to that and I ran the ground on the light to the switch(latch switch) hope this helps and isn't too confusing

[jamesmc]

First off did you check the fuse marked brake as that is the one that runs the brake lights? Did you have brake lights before you tried to plug the hatch light in? Stock Festiva dome lights SUCK so your best bet would be to use the Escort light easy to install just follow the write up that's on here real easy. I went through the same thing with my 93 I replaced the dome light with 4 stock ones and they didn't work as soon as I put the Escort light in it worked first time. So now all of my Festys have an Escort dome light. As for the hatch light I don't have a factory one but I do know that you need the latch off of the car that you got the light off of. All the dome(hatch) lights run off of a ground switch. When I installed my hatch light I found an unused wire in the tail light panel on the passenger side that was hot all the time(white with a red stripe) and ran the hot on the light to that and I ran the ground on the light to the switch(latch switch) hope this helps and isn't too confusing

Where is the fuse marked brake? Also, I read that thread on the escort maps light, and I can't quite figure out what wires I'm cutting. As for the hatch light, I found the wires, and wired it up but the light does nothing when I turn it on.

[muddevil01]

I just went and looked on my 93L and in the fuse panel to the left of the steering wheel on the second row of fuses from the top third from the right is the Brake fuse right above the one marked cigar also in the same row of fuses there is one marked room that is your dome light fuse you might check that one while you are at it just to make sure it is good on the dome light swap when you pulled your escort dome light you should have grabbed about 6 inches of the wiring that was attached to the light when you take out your dome light there are two wires attached you cut those an splice them onto the two wires on the escort light IIRC there is one wire color that is the same on both lights you hook those up together and hook the other two wires up and then you attach the dome light to the car as per the write up

[jamesmc]

I just went and looked on my 93L and in the fuse panel to the left of the steering wheel on the second row of fuses from the top third from the right is the Brake fuse right above the one marked cigar also in the same row of fuses there is one marked room that is your dome light fuse you might check that one while you are at it just to make sure it is good on the dome light swap when you pulled your escort dome light you should have grabbed about 6 inches of the wiring that was attached to the light when you take out your dome light there are two wires attached you cut those an splice them onto the two wires on the escort light IIRC there is one wire color that is the same on both lights you hook those up together and hook the other two wires up and then you attach the dome light to the car as per the write up

I guess it's labeled "stop" on mine, that's what is directly above cigar. To be sure, I checked every fuse and they all are good. Also, I reseated the brake light bulbs and now...both of them work. I found it odd that they would both do that but hey, it works. For the escort light, I did grab about 5-6 inches of wire. All the wires on the actual escort light are grey, but the escort connector has red/white and blue/white wires. So, basically I'm just replacing the Festiva female connector with the Escort female connector?

[muddevil01]

Correct you are just replacing the female ends and if you hook them up wrong all that happens is that it won't work and remember that you have to cut some of the headliner to make it work

[GenevaDirt]

if you do not have the correct latch for the rear hatch light then you use one of the plugs that are already back there for the light (there are 2 plugs that are not used in the little door by the tail light on the passenger side) and then you connect a wire that is grounded to the body to the other plug on the light.

[muddevil01]

Yep that's what I did with mine it works great I just used a stock Festiva door switch and it works good

[batstiva]

Correct you are just replacing the female ends and if you hook them up wrong all that happens is that it won't work and remember that you have to cut some of the headliner to make it work

Right you are, sir. IIRC, I had to cut out about 3/4" of headliner when I did the Escort dome in my 90. Just remember, I think it's in the write-up, that you cannot just connect wires with the light dangling and have the light come on. The back plate of the dome light must be in contact with the car for the light to come on. Also, unless your car is a whole lot cleaner than mine, might not be a bad idea to pull out the two door switches and give them a good cleaning. Mine were iffy at best when I first did the dome light swap. Pulled the door switches, cleaned 'em up, and now they almost work too well. If my door is not shut tight, and I mean tight, the light will stay on. Ask me how I figured this out. :tard:

[jamesmc]

The back plate of the dome light must be in contact with the car for the light to come on.

This was very helpful lol. I was trying to make it work dangling, screwed it in and the light came on! I just wired the escort light in and that works great too, much better than the stock light. Thanks!

[batstiva]

This was very helpful lol. I was trying to make it work dangling, screwed it in and the light came on! I just wired the escort light in and that works great too, much better than the stock light. Thanks!

Yeah, I tried it that way too. ops: Glad you got it working. Definitely a vast improvement over the Festiva one, IMHO.