A few electric gremlins in camaro????

[Erik Beckett]

I was finally able to bring my new to me 68 Camaro home. The car has a few electrical issues I am trying to chase. The first one is when I apply the brakes, the front driving lights come on faintly. could be a simple ground issue maybe or worse? Second is the dome light smelled really hot and the plastic bezel not the lens was starting to melt. This was when the door was open for a while why I was messing with Dakota Digital fan controller. I am not an electric guy at all but if you tell what to check out that would be great. How many grounds should a camaro have?

Thanks, Erik

[anthonys 69]

First make sure you don’t have faulty brake light bulbs. Next You need to check the ground on the brake light bulb sockets the power when applying the brake is feeding back through the running lights. You can let someone apply the brake and watch the running lights then touch the side of the bulb casing with a grounded wire and when the running lights go out you’ve found you problem. For your dome light check to make sure the bulb is not a bulb with too high of amp. The higher the amp the brighter the bulb also the hotter the bulb will be ….good luck hope this helps..

[MyFriendScott]

The dome light melting the lens is a common problem. Sometimes the bulb just gets too close to the lens while in its metal contacts, other times owners replace the bulb with a higher amp bulb to get more light. I'm not a fan of the lens myself because it's not transparent enough, but since I couldn't find a clear replacement, I went with a brighter LED bulb to cure the dim light and heat problem. I use a LED festoon bulb with 6 LED's in the dome light, P/N 3710-xHP6 from superbrightLEDs.com.

[Erik Beckett]

My issue with the dome light is not that it was melting the lens, but it was melting the plastic base that the connectors mount too. Not sure how or what is causing this issue.
Seems like a pain the ass to half to pull the headliner to replace it all though.

Thanks, Erik