Rear Dome light, 01-lw300

Rear dome light went out again on the lw300. In the past I found that
wiggling the diode in the left side fuse panel brought it back on. Tried it
in the dark last night and the top part of the plastic package broke off in
my hand. After managing to extract the remainder of the diode, found that
the actual diode was only crimped into the terminals and that there was a
poor connection that overheated the contacts and caused the plastic to get
brittle.

Anybody know if the diode in a mini fuse package is available at an auto
parts store or only a dealer item?

Thanks - Oppie

 

You mean like this?
http://store.solar-electric.com/diod1ampwitb.html
Yeah I dont know who would have those locally.

 

That's the one. Haven't been able to go shopping yet but $2.50 plus shipping
gives a good starting price.
Thanks for the reply.

 

Found this part
http://www.littelfuse.com/part/02400113.html

Now just looking for stock somewhere.

 

This is completely nuts! I tried several auto parts stores and nobody had or
even knew of the diode. One mechanic said to try Radio Shack (you know, the
place where they say "you have questions, we have answers") and no dice
there either.

Finally gave up and made one from an old mini blade fuse. ripped out the
fuse link and with a razor blade, cut off the top 1/16" of the plastic
housing. This exposed the pins at top for soldering in a new 1N4005 (1 amp,
200 piv) diode. The new assembly does not have the polarity protection that
the original had. I made sure to add the polarity (the diode symbol) to the
fuse box cover so it does not get confused.

Haven't tried it yet but would assume that if the diode is in reversed,
opening a door will not turn on the rear cargo lamp (conversely, turning on
the cargo lamp at the dome light will turn on the other interior lights).

Oppie

 

Cobbled up diode assembly I made in about 5 minutes with materials on hand
works fine. The lamp actually runs brighter since the voltage was not being
lost in a bad crimp in the original diode assembly. New diode also runs cool
where the old one got so hot, it cracked the plastic case.

As written earlier, my homebrew part does not have the polarity key. Looking
at the fuse panel, the polarity key is at the bottom of the diode socket.
This would make the cathode (the side with the line on it) point to the
left.
Cathode ---I<I----- Anode

At closer inspection, the original diode has a number on it 12135037.

Googling for this comes up with Mouser selling them:
Stock $3.29/ea $2.43 @ 25 pieces
http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=JdmRl75CwTo/G1AIRqTYnA==

Looks like it is made by Delphi Connector systems although it appears to
have a Littelfuse logo on it.
http://connectors.delphi.com/DCSGDMCS/DCS/Catalog/PartDetail.aspx?PartNumber=12135037

Oppie