Under Hood Light

Hello,
The light under the hood won't turn on when the hood is opened. I checked the owners manual, and it didn't help. It didn't even tell the right bulb to put under it. Luckily, Auto Zone had it in their computer. I checked both fuse boxes, only to find nothing that was for it. Ideas?

matt270avian wrote:

Hello,
The light under the hood won't turn on when the hood is opened. I checked the owners manual, and it didn't help. It didn't even tell the right bulb to put under it. Luckily, Auto Zone had it in their computer. I checked both fuse boxes, only to find nothing that was for it. Ideas?

The underhood light only comes on if the parking lights or headlights are also on and hood is opened.

Ok, thanks.

matt270avian wrote:

Ok, thanks.

you're welcome. reason is that if it had power all the time the light would come on if you parked on a steep enough hill. There was a thread about this a while back - I think it got merged with other things.

That would need to be one incredibly steep hill. Are you thinking of the seat locking mechanism/release?

ohh thanks for the info on the underhood light albertj.I didn't know that and i remember asking myself what's going on....Thanx

AA wrote:

That would need to be one incredibly steep hill. Are you thinking of the seat locking mechanism/release?

No. The hood light. It's installed at a funny angle anyway. It would have to be almost a 30% grade nose uphill but yeah, it *can* come on parked like that. Not because the hill is so steep but rather because when you fully open the hood it does not open that far in the first place.

The hood on my Riv opens 40º. Are there actually roads with grades steeper than that?

It's hard to believe the engineers could not figure out how to mount a sensor at the proper angle.

AA wrote:

The hood on my Riv opens 40º. Are there actually roads with grades steeper than that?

It's hard to believe the engineers could not figure out how to mount a sensor at the proper angle.

No, not at all. But if you turn on your parking lights and open the hood you will notice that the light comes on when the hood tilts rearward and the angle is substantially more acute than 40 deg. Basically, the light can come on when the hood is open a little. Then what you notice is the angle is not that much and it is not unthinkable to park the car at that angle.

In some ways it does not matter all that much because all the Riv lights go out after ~10 minutes anyway. I'm just passing on what I was told some years ago by a GM engineer I was on an editorial advisory board with, because I thought it might be interesting.

The other advantage of the setup is it increases your conspicuity at night. Only issue is a sleepy driver "following the tail lights" if you're broken down on the shoulder of an interstate might well cream you, and you'd never see it coming.

I mean, if it bugs you it's not difficult at all to wire the light to an 12v line that's hot all the time, and I considered doing that - decided not to bother. It was in talking about the quirk (gee why did they wire it that way) over dinner at a Mexican-theme restaurant in Clear Lake, TX (after touring Johnson Space Center) that I learned that otherwise not-real-useful fact.

Albertj

Quote :

The other advantage of the setup is it increases your conspicuity at night. Only issue is a sleepy driver "following the tail lights" if you're broken down on the shoulder of an interstate might well cream you, and you'd never see it coming.

For that reason it makes sense, and I have no problem with the set-up as it is. I just can not accept the idea that Buick was unable to make this happen, so took the short-cut of activating it from the headlamp circuit. Roadside safety is a better reason, but I wonder how many Riv owners know they need to turn on their lights for the hood lamp to work? It's not a very intuitive solution, imo.

AA wrote:

Quote :

The other advantage of the setup is it increases your conspicuity at night. Only issue is a sleepy driver "following the tail lights" if you're broken down on the shoulder of an interstate might well cream you, and you'd never see it coming.

For that reason it makes sense, and I have no problem with the set-up as it is. I just can not accept the idea that Buick was unable to make this happen, so took the short-cut of activating it from the headlamp circuit. Roadside safety is a better reason, but I wonder how many Riv owners know they need to turn on their lights for the hood lamp to work? It's not a very intuitive solution, imo.

At least now we know, thanks to Albert. I certainly had no idea.

I'm guessing that Buick owners who actually read their owners' manual know how to get light under the hood... Hell, I found out fast enough that I replaced both trunk & hood bulbs with a single unit that puts out much more light than either stock, (idiotic) bulb.

Having said that, don't you think that if even a small percentage of owners had their cars disabled by unusual parking locations triggering the underhood light, GM might do what they did? It would certainly explain why our seemingly pedestrian TRUNK lights - mounted to the top of the decklid, like so many before them, are fed by a lever-switch off of the latch...