88guy

Okay...this is crazy. A lot of stuff was broken on our 2006 HHR and I decided I'd try to fix it myself - the driver's door handle, the AC/Heater fan switch (completely dead), and the rear liftgate latch. Other than mounting the door handle very, very slightly wrong - so it catches a tiny bit on the door trim (it had already been fixed once and was a mess with glue, etc.) - everything works fine......first time in a long time. My wife won't let me pull the door apart and try to make it perfect - that's a post for the Dr. Phil forum. When I was done with everything, neither the interior dome light nor the map lights work. At one point, while messing with the door, I had pulled out virtually all of the fuses. I thought maybe I had blown the bulbs by pulling out the fuses, somehow, so today I replaced the map light bulbs and zip...nothing. The gauges all light up, the radio, etc. - everything works except the map lights and dome light. I ran to the convenience store last night and discovered this - which is a serious pain. On a 2006, on the interior fuse block, the fuse for interior lights is #27. The fuse looks fine and I have replaced it with a known good fuse and no luck. There were two small clips in the drivers door for wires, which I reconnected. There were 2 clips on that front panel (one for the lighter and one for something else) and two clips for the AC/Heater control panel......I plugged all of this back together and everything works. The liftgate was just a plug going into the liftgate switch - I replaced the switch and plugged it in - that's it. I cannot figure how any of this rendered the map lights and dome light inoperable. Does the fuse that controls the gauge lights also control these dome and map lights....????? if so, I am really lost - because, as I said, the gauges lights work, they can be dimmed, etc. The fuse diagram I found just had one fuse for any "interior lights". This is driving me nuts....

donbrew

Did you flip the switch to OFF?

88guy

Okay.......the diagram is beyond me. Do you mean the various light switches on the dome light and on the map lights - the ones that you normally use to turn them on and off..? Or is there some sort of master switch that I don't know about...? The lights are switched on, as normal - didn't touch lights switches. I horsed around with the map light buttons, today, after I put new bulbs in - but nothing. And I never touched the dome light, at all....since all this began.

In the fuse diagram for this thing there is just one fuse for "interior lights" - #27. Does that mean that fuse is for both the gauges, and, the dome and map lights...??? Man - if it does, this is really a mystery.

88guy

Problem Solved - For Pete's sake - I'm an IDIOT!!!! I just went out to the car and fiddled - when I had pulled all of the fuses out, that time, I put the fuse in an adjoining slot that was supposed to be blank....... ACK!!!!!!! I need to stick to drywall and plumbing.