Can I Prevent Interior Lights From Coming On When I Open Doors 2003 Suburban?

[Fitz98]

Trying to save some wear on my battery reserve in between charges as I am working in and out of my 2003 Suburban during the day.
When I open the doors, the interior lights come on and stay on for a period of time, every time I open the doors.
This may be contributing to some of my battery issues, since I am in and out of the vehicle all day getting tools and supplies.
Is there a way to disable this feature, but retain the ability to turn them back on in the evenings?

 

[GSCJR]

If you don't have a dome off button, try turning the dimmer switch/dial down to the lowest cluster setting.

 

[fantastic]

Trying to save some wear on my battery reserve in between charges as I am working in and out of my 2003 Suburban during the day.
When I open the doors, the interior lights come on and stay on for a period of time, every time I open the doors.
This may be contributing to some of my battery issues, since I am in and out of the vehicle all day getting tools and supplies.
Is there a way to disable this feature, but retain the ability to turn them back on in the evenings?

If the fuse only powers the lights then just pull the fuse & use the switched overhead lights. Problem is most fuses control more stuff.
another option would be to re-route the door switch to the console area & put in an on/off switch.

 

[Aredeeem]

People make fun of my Versa but it’s got that figured out

 

[Timmastertech]

Theres a dome override switch below the headlight switch that kills the dome light when pressed

 

[Jethro_Bob]

Another option is replace interior lights with leds, much better visibility at night and the power is insignificant compared to incandescent bulbs.

 

[Dave9]

Another thing you can do is trace the door switch wires to the body computer and put a single throw, multi-pole switch in series with all doors/gate you want deactivated. Usually when the door is open, it grounds the switch signal so you just make it open circuit to deactivate and closed circuit at the switch to activate and have lights come on when doors are opened.

Example 4PDT switch would do 4, though you really only need a 4PST to do that but a DT will be fine too:

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This may be the best solution because (or I could be wrong that in '03 they weren't that advanced yet) the body computer could go into a higher power state, woken up from its lowest consumption sleep state, every time you open a door even if the lights are LED or don't even come on. You can measure this with a multimeter. In lowest power state, around 20mA is typical (but can vary per vehicle) while higher power woke state could be in excess of 200mA even without the lights on... again, varies by vehicle.

 

[redhat]

Theres a dome override switch below the headlight switch that kills the dome light when pressed

This exactly.

 

[Fitz98]

Theres a dome override switch below the headlight switch that kills the dome light when pressed

If I could find a face palm emogi, this would be the place to use it.
Sorry to waste your time, but thanks for providing the simple solution.

 

[researcher]

If I could find a face palm emogi, this would be the place to use it.
Sorry to waste your time, but thanks for providing the simple solution.

hey it's all good! nobody is perfect, kinda funny isn't it? That you have someone tell you about the switch.. I've had those issues before and laugh at myself, doh!!

 

[paulo57509]

If the Suburban is like the Safari, the Dome light switch can temporarily kill the DRL's when necessary:

When necessary, you may turn off the automatic
headlamp system and the Daytime Running Lamps
(DRL) feature by following the steps below:

1. Turn the ignition to RUN.​

​

2. Press the DOME OVERRIDE button four times​

within six seconds. After the fourth press of the​

button, a chime will sound informing you that​

the system is off.​

​

To return to the automatic mode, push the DOME
OVERRIDE button four times within six seconds
(the chime will sound), or turn the ignition to off and
then to RUN again.