Escort dome light riddle

[john112deere]

Friday night I parked my Escort in the driveway and went to bed shortly after.

Saturday, I went out twice, but took the truck both times.

The second time I got back, it had gotten dark, and as I drove up the street, I saw that the dome light was on in my Escort. The switch was set to "on," not "door".

Now...I remember looking for a CD case under the seat when I got in on Friday night. I do not remember whether I flipped the switch or just opened the door...but it's entirely possible I left the switch on.

What I can't figure out is why the battery was still fine this AM, if I left the
light on for 22 hours.

Only other thing I can think of is that if it has a timer (as my Ranger does) to shut the light off after a while (45 min in the truck), so the light wasn't on all night...but then someone would have had to have opened the door within, say, an hour of when I got home, and I'd been out for 2+ hours. While that's not totally impossible (it wasn't locked)...I live out in the middle of nowhere. And, there was some valuable stuff (GPS) laying right on the front seat that would have taken NO time to grab, but nothing was taken.

Maybe I'm just going

 

[smokey]

I have left the dome on in my zx2 over night and she started right up. It must be a small bulb I know it is a dim little light.

 

[john112deere]

Huh...wouldn't have guessed that.

It is a pretty pathetic dome light, but I always figured that was as much because it's placed so that the light it does throw doesn't go where you're likely to want light, as the actual brightness of the light.

The battery in that car is only a year or two old, anyway...that can't hurt.

 

[LEB Ben]

I've had that happen to me in a few vehicles...just did it in the E350 as a matter of fact. I think it's more to do with a weak draw on a good battery.