So i was closing the hood to my camaro today and i noticed the light turn off. my natural curiosity said "hey lets find the switch to turn off the hood light and play with it."

well i never found any type of a switch! im sure i missed something

How do the lights under the hoods of third gen camaros switch on and off?

i looked at the wire going to the light and there was only one, so it must be grounded to the hood, is the a way the hood only grounds when its open???
Could it be some kind of tilt sensor? or a Mercury switch?

 

i believe theres just a contact/switch that once the hood gets to a certain point the switch/contact either grounds or gets power and turns on/off by itself. some cars have an actual button that once pressed down by the hood it turns the light off.

 

Yes.

JamesC

 

I think there's a metal ball, rather than mercury, inside the center contact for the bulb. I think you can push the center (with the wire) out of the socket (when you have removed the bulb).

 

Try a search on "mercury switch" and you should find enough info to satisfiy your curiosity.

JamesC