To the "dodge man" or anyone else who can help with my neon...

Question

Before my mom handed down her 2000 neon to me, we had a problem with the interior light (the one on the ceiling). it never wanted to go off. so she just took out the light and now since i have the car, i want a light in there...i took it to auto zone and they told me that i need to replace the whole system behind the steering wheel because i also mentioned to them how sometimes the light on the inside that comes on when you put on headlights has a shortage and i usually have to fool around for them to come on...no problem with the headlights though... but my question is: how to fix the light on the ceiling? and since that light has been removed, now the cloth on the ceiling is falling and how do i fix that.

thanks u guys!

Answer 1

The courtesy light in a car is controlled by switches in the door frame (one on each side)  The most common method is a simple grounding switch, when the door is opened it completes a circuit.  With this type of switch you have one of two problems: either the wire supplying the switch has a short somewhere that is allowing an always on condition or the switch itself is broken creating the same condition.  Another system is more complex.  If the courtesy light used to stay on for a short time after you closed the door,if just moving the door handle would turn the light on, if inserting the key into the ignition would turn it off, etc.  Your car uses a computer to control the light in which case you need to check all switches associated with the dome light as well as the computer module.  I hope you have the simpler system of the two.  Unfortunately I am not all that familiar with neon's setup so I can't tell you for certain.  As far as the headliner goes if the foam backing on the headliner is still intact: buy a can of 3m super 66 spray adhesive, pull down enough of the headliner so that you can respray all of the sagging areas and press the headliner back into place (a small wall paper roller helps a lot), allow to setup at least overnight before driving with the windows down.  If the foam backing has turned to dust go to your local fabric store cut a piece of replacement material big enough to cover your headliner spray and apply.  You will have to remove some trim parts to do the job right but it really isn't bad.

Answer 2

on the head liner you have to remove the board and replace the material on it ,that usually runs around 130 bucks to have shop re-do the board on one,on the light part though all that it may need is replacing,you need to replace the headlight switch on it ,that should take care of the over head light as well,and make sure that when the door is shut the light goes off,the switch is in the door on that one,and that was usually what caused the problems on those.id replace the light then see what it does,and please don't try to re-glue the old back up it wont hold,believe me i have seen it done too many times,most of the time replacing the light switch will repair the overhead light,the light problem should go away when you replace the switch,the headliner any trim shop can install new piece of material on it, for you,then that will look good again,those are minor problems ,if that's all that is wrong with it your really lucky,less than 200 bucks will repair everything,good luck.