O/D Rocker Switch Engagement Light (Amber) Stays On

Gilly11277

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
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Oct 13, 2021
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158
Location
Dekalb, IL
Hi everyone,

I tried searching for a thread on this but it seems people were having a slightly different issue.

Today I noticed the overdrive rocker switch light on my 05 TJ was burnt out. The switch still functioned, and when I engaged O/D Off, the little amber light came on so I figured maybe the larger LED I put in there blew out (less than a year old). When replacing the LED I noticed that the little amber light was on even though the ignition was off. I took the smaller amber bulb out and verified that it was the one causing it to light up ever so dimly. Unless you cover the switch with your hands or are operating the vehicle at night you can't really tell the little amber light is on, that is how dim it is.

Is this normal? I would assume power is completely off when the keys are out of the ignition but perhaps there is a small amount of voltage making it's way to the switch and because the little amber light is LED, it has enough to turn it on, but really dim. I don't recall this happening before. My defroster switch doesn't do this, and it too has been upgraded with LEDs (white and amber).

I can try to take pictures but the light is super dim I'm not sure if my phone will pick it up. I did the hardtop wiring mod, but the set of wires powering the O/D switch were not touched, and nothing was spliced into them.

Keys out of ignition and switches off (not that it matters because the Jeep us turned off). My phone makes it look worse than it really is but you can see the little amber light is lit up.
CA2DAADF-A2DC-42FD-A67E-A4C467125437.jpeg



Keys in ignition, turned to accessory with O/D Off turned on. You can see the amber light is actually lit up how it's supposed to be. This is normal.
722BFEB8-0A62-48B7-BA63-553F76A97E6D.jpeg


Jeep running, dash/center console lights on, O/D Off switch not turned on. This is how it should look.

27F90D6B-82DA-460D-8CAA-444FE19F4A81.jpeg


Jeep is running, dash/center console lights on, and O/D Off switch turned on. This looks normal.
3EC42751-81B4-4C57-BC1F-AB5874634393.jpeg
 
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Not exactly sure what's going on, but that light normally gets its power from the PCM.
You could unplug the harness (at the PCM) and see if it's still getting power from somewhere else.

Do you know which one I would need to unplug? Wondering if maybe it stays on for a while and then shuts off but I have never noticed this before.
 
No but that wouldn't really explain why there is power being sent when the Jeep is off. Depending on what voltage is required to actually get light, that may explain why the LED is on (dimly) but a halogen bulb is not. One might require more punch before actually lighting up.