Hi. I'm new. I have a 1996 Caravan SE (with 3.3L, and no fog lights)

Last week, the instrument lights died and the parking lights too (all 4 corners and the tag light). I have been trying to track down the culprit. I checked all the fuses and they are good. I removed the headlight switch, then disassembled it and cleaned the contacts (all continuity checks were correct). Still no luck.

The headlights still work (both low and high beams), so do the brake lights, turn signals, hazards, cruise control, interior lights, power locks etc. (I thought it might be the BCM, but only the parking lights are affected).

The chime works when I turn on the parking light switch when the key is off.

In my Haynes manual, (page 12-37 Typical Exterior Lightning System) it shows there is a "Park Lamp Relay" in the Power Distribution Center that is between the 40A fuse and the BCM. I looked in the PDC this morning and did not find a relay with that name (or anything else that could be similar/related).

After searching this forum, I came across some information from others who are experiencing similar problems. The general advice was replace the Parking Lamp Relay. I would agree, however, I can't find it. I also looked in the Junction Block under the dash (on the left side near the emergency brake). There are some relays there, but none of them are labeled (only the holes are numbered... relays 1 thru 13).

So my main question is Where is the Parking Lamp Relay? (please be as specific as possible, since I've already looked in the place where it is supposed to be.)

I came across this post that offered additional insight...
However the diagram suggests that the park lamp relay is in the Junction Block. If it is, then which one is it?

If nobody knows, then I would like assistance on how to test for a bad relay. I already removed each relay (in both the PDC and the junction block) and checked for burned or corroded contacts. Everything looked fine.

I also tested the voltage on the 40A fuse (in the PDC) and that was ~13V. Then I tested the voltage for the fuses for RT PARK and LT PARK (in the junction block, 15A each) with the parking light switch both ON and OFF and measured almost 0 volts in each condition. If I knew which pin/wire was the output for the BCM, I would test the voltage there to determine if the relay control voltage is present when the switch is on.

Please, anybody with information/knowledge about this please help me. I need to have this fixed as soon as possible (and I'm going out of town next week for Thanksgiving).

 

Alright, since I haven't received any replies, I tried to find the relay myself.

Using my voltmeter, I removed each relay in both the PDC and the junction box. All of the diagrams that show a park lamp relay have pins 86 and 30 tied together with the output from fuse 6 (40A, always hot). So I checked for any relay sockets that have 12V on slots 86 and 30. Of ALL the ones that I checked, only the High beam and Low beam headlight relays had voltage on 86 and 30.

This is really baffling. Where is the park lamp relay?!?

 

Somebody out there has to know something... I can't have 15 views and nobody has an opinion or some advice.


Please... anybody?

 

Ok, well I can't keep driving around with no parking lights in the rear, so what about connecting 12V to the fuses for left and right parking lights and just installing a switch for on/off. Will that damage anything?

In the wiring schematic, there appears to be a 10A fuse between the Body Control Module and the 15A fuses for the parking lamps. If I pull that, there should be no feedback to the BCM from applying 12V to the 2 15A fuses for the park lamps (thereby minimizing risk of damage to the BCM).

Any thoughts?

 

I will check my manuals and car tonight to see if I can find anything about this. I have the same car.

Are you sure the fuses side is not grounded so that when you connect the bypass it will not be grounded out? Otherwise the work around might work will you find the original problem.

dlm4ut

 

On the alldata site it says that the park lamp relay is in the junction block as opposed to the Power Distribution Center. I am not quite sure where this is yet, but I would guess it is below the steering wheel near/with the BCM. I will continue to check about this, but look in that area for some relays.

The parking lights and license plate light is tied to the same circuit from this relay so it very well might be this.

dlm4ut

 

Okay, I finally found it. It is located in the junction box. It is the bottom most, left most relay (Relay 10). It should be right above fuses 3-5.

dlm4ut

 

Now THAT's the kind of info I was looking for.

THANKS so very much.

I'm going to check that out asap!


Can I ask how you found the info? Also, what is alldata? Do they have wiring diagrams?

 

Alright, I found and swapped out the #10 relay and still nothing. The #10 relay was a small rectangular relay whose contacts were numbered 1 thru 5. As opposed to the larger, cube relays with contact numbers 30, 58, 86, 87, etc. that appear in the wiring diagrams for the "park lamp relay".

 

I think most of the lighting stuff runs through the BCM. I know blinker relaysdo as well as headlight controls. You may have a BCM problem.
ALLDATA is a fee for info service where you can buy access to all related info for a given vehicle for a year. Gives you TSB's and schematics and breakdown and assembly procedures as well as diagnostic trees. I found it minimally helpful. Diagrams were aweful and their tech support was slow and not very helpful (they just reitereated their info and or sent links to same stuff. Kind of reminded me of a parts store....I mean if those guys were so knowledgeable they'd be out diagnosing and putting the parts on for $40 hr instead of $10 behind the counter)). I've probably had better luck with a $15 Haynes manual that covers multiple years/engines/models for many years and not just one year access like Alldata gives.