Cadillac Repair: Interior lights wont work, vanity mirror, door switch

Question
We have a 1997 Deville we just bought and none of the interior map lights, vanity mirror lights, the ones in the doors, or overhead lights work.  My husband checked out all the bulbs, tried replacing the fuse which immediately blew again.  He thinks it may be a door switch shortage, but is hesitant to try to check them due to airbags being in the doors.  Can he take them out to check them without taking the door panels off?  Do you have any idea what could be our problem?   Thanks very much.

Answer
Hi Lonnita,

       Your husband is smart not to go inside the door panels with-out disarming the airbags. There was a tech back in '94 that was trying to find a rattle in the dash and using a hammer hit the wrong place too hard and caused the airbags to go off. Aprox. $2200.00 to repair everything as I recall and it didn't have side airbags.

      In looking at the wiring diagram it appears that the wiring goes to alot of places in the car and without a good wiring diagram to isolate the different wires and lights there is no telling where the problem is. Whenever you are trying to do repairs in and around the airbags it is a good idea to deactivate them and then unplug the airbag in that area. Only then can you feel safe working and that you won't set off an airbag.

     What I would suggest is to get ahold of a good wiring diagram and shop manual so you can deactivate the airbags and then trace the wiring. Alldata.com or autozone.com has the alldata shopmanual like your mechanic has and subscribing to it for a year you can get all the info at your computer that can be printed out and then taken to the car.

     I have seen some sunvisor map light wires rub through above the headliner. So I would start by removing the sunvisors and inspect the wires as best as you can. If nothing is found then I would go the alldata route. Otherwise maybe the person you bought it from might be able to tell you what repairs were done and then this problem happened. If you bought this from a dealer/car lot then talk to the owner or salesperson and see if they will offer to fix it for free of for partial payment. Of course you could have your mechanic look at it but it could turn out to be an expensive repair. Bill