Interior LED Lights Flash When Opening Door to Whirlpool WRS325FDAM02 Refrigerator

[leafman60]

Okay, what the heck is going on?

When I open either door of this side-by-side, the interior lights strobe on and off for a few seconds and then stay on steady.  After doing that, sometimes I can close the door and reopen it quickly and the lights come on as they should without the strobe flashing.  They appear to be LEDs.

Any ideas???

[Slav]

If the light flickering problem begun after you worked on fixing the drain issue, maybe one of the wire harness connectors got loose.

Try to disassemble, and reassemble checking all wire connections, and make sure nothing got pinched or damaged. 

[leafman60]

No, the flashing lights have been going on for over a year now.

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[Vance R]

The upper LED assembly in the refrig is the driver unit for the other 2 LED modules.  Pull it down and there are 2 connectors, the larger one is the 120 vac input from the door switches. Verify 120 vac into the driver module with door open. The small is the dc output for the other LED modules, one lower in the refrig and one in the freezer.  These two module are wired in series.  If one of the 2 modules are dim start by replacing that one.  If both are the same brightness or out completely, verify voltage out. Think it is 14 vdc.  You can try unplugging the 2 other modules to see if driver will work. Now the bad news these modules are all very expensive to replace. 

[leafman60]

20 hours ago, Vance R said:

The upper LED assembly in the refrig is the driver unit for the other 2 LED modules.  Pull it down and there are 2 connectors, the larger one is the 120 vac input from the door switches. Verify 120 vac into the driver module with door open. The small is the dc output for the other LED modules, one lower in the refrig and one in the freezer.  These two module are wired in series.  If one of the 2 modules are dim start by replacing that one.  If both are the same brightness or out completely, verify voltage out. Think it is 14 vdc.  You can try unplugging the 2 other modules to see if driver will work. Now the bad news these modules are all very expensive to replace. 

Oh lord, Vance.  Okay, I have a crack at it.  Thanks.

[leafman60]

Well, how about this.  I pulled the refrigerator cabinet light down (didn't wanna come) and unplugged both connectors to the unit.  I plugged both connectors back up to the light unit and the darn thing works properly now.  The circuitry of the led light is such that it brings the light up gradually when energized instead of just popping the light on when the door opens.  I guess some engineer thought this was cool,  My lights were flashing during this period in which they were to be gradually brightening.

I can't explain my problem other than maybe a connector had a bad connection.

I hope the fix holds.  I looked up the price for this little light and it was like $150 retail!  Pretty absurd for a cabinet light.

Thanks for your help again, Vance.

I'm on a tear trying to fix all the little gremlins in my appliances and I am almost there.

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[leafman60]

Well, I spoke too soon.  Tonight my fridge went back on the flashing fritz.  I unplugged it again and re-plugged it to no avail.

Sigh.

 

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[leafman60]

I ended up ordering a new refrigerator compartment light module that fixed my problem.  About $125 delivered, tax, tag and title from Amazon.

 

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[remedy510]

Which light did you replace that fixed it? Do you have a part number? Any tips to uninstall/install?

[darren412]

On 8/15/2020 at 9:20 PM, leafman60 said:

Well, I spoke too soon.  Tonight my fridge went back on the flashing fritz.  I unplugged it again and re-plugged it to no avail.

Sigh.

did you ever happen to narrow down what the light issue was with the fridge ?  I looked at the same model fridge that a customer of mine owns and the issue was that the both freezer and fresh food led lights were not coming on. once in a great while the lights would work when you opened the freezer or freshfood doorbut 95 % of the time the lights were off and they wouldnt comwe on when any door was opened. I replaced the door switch for the freshfood section. even though the lights worked when I messed with the FF section door switch  the issue came back 3 days later. I replaced the ADC board that powers the lights and it worked when I messed with the ADC board but the lights acted up again a few days later.    so the refrigerator basically has one new FF section door switch and one  New ADC board and the lights still went out again and stayed off and never comes back on.