Strange Elecrtical Issue

I

interj

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exMember
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May 7, 2003
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11531
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By no means am I electrically inclined but normally figure things out.

After spring commission this year the light on my Aux rocker switch is lit when the switch is off. It powers the stereo which is now on all the time. I check the wires, everything looked good so I decided to replace the rocker switch. When changing out the switch , the stereo was still powered on when the switch was disconnected and the new switch was in the same situation - light on when switch off. Any thoughts where to go from here ? This one may be for a professional. Or I just leave it. Lol
 
If you unwired the switch and it was still powered what else is connected to the stereo power wire.
 
Any idea where to check. With the stereo wires for to a power bar or anything before the switch?
 
Replace the wire from the stereo to the switch. Somewhere along that wire it's being powered.
 
Isn't there a separate very low-power (+) wire for settings, clock and or channel memory... which is kept on all the time?

If so , maybe the main stereo power supply wire from that switch and the memory circuit supply wire were erroneously combined near the stereo, so there is back-feed to the switch light when in Off position?

That just a 1c WAG as I'm not sure how these items should be wired.
 
I agree these sound like a logical source for the problem. Is there anything else powered by this switch? If everything worked last year and no wiring changes have been make this year you may want to unplug the stereo and see it the switch power light goes out there could be an internal problem with the stereo causing it to back feed power as stated there should be a constant power source to maintain memory and clock. I'm guessing work has been done and some miss-wired something to cause the issue.
 
A "Carling" type Rocker Switch with Indicator Light like this?
31zEXAHHd8L._AC_US218_.jpg
?
All I remember, and I hope this helps, is that there's an extra terminal just to make the Indicator Light work. In other words, just connecting Source and Load, will let you turn the Load on, but the Switch won't light up.
I'm surprised your Stereo is on a Panel Switch. On most of them, the Stereo can't go ON till the main Battery Switch is ON. From there, it turns ON from its own knob or button. The "keep warm" feature for station presets and clock time, is straight to Battery. Bypasses Battery Switch, like the automatic bilge pump.
I agree something's back feeding. I wonder if that "something" has a bad ground connection, and is finding ground through the stereo circuit.
 
No recent wiring/electrical working completed. Nothing else on the search that I'm aware of. Up to this point I've lost all stereo settings with the switch off. Just been used to it.
I'll start by pulling out the stereo and checking the power source. Thanks for the feedback.
 
If as you report , normal for you is loss of memory when switch is Off, J-d is likely correct that there may be a lost ground connection some where down the line on the negative daisy chain, causing a back-feed connection to more convenient available ground through that switch illumination circuit.
 
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