Interior Lights Problem

[Ojai911]

I've looked through the listings but can't seem to find a thread with the same problem I'm experiencing. My problem is that the interior lights stay ON in the door open position whether the doors are open or shut. I have read that closing the door makes the ground which the lights need to work but clearly I'm getting a ground or have some other problem. The issue exists with both driver and passenger door so i'm not expecting both switches to be "hard-wired" or shorted.
It may be a clue but there is no door buzzer on my car or at least it never works.

Thanks

[Joe Bob]

The lights have position switches. Press on the fixture and they will toggle in three different positions.

[Ojai911]

Thanks. I know that but the problem is that the lights are on permanently on two of the 3 positions. The 3rd position is off and that thankfully works.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by Ojai911

Thanks. I know that but the problem is that the lights are on permanently on two of the 3 positions. The 3rd position is off and that thankfully works.

All it takes is one of the two door switches/connections to be faulty for both lights to remain on, and the odds are it's the driver side because of the constant use. Remove the rubber cover from the switches and loosen the hex nut to remove the switches from the door pillar. Carefully pull the switch out and look to see if the wire is still attached. If not, that is likely your problem--a wire has worked loose and is making contact with metal. If wires are still attached, remove them, one at a time, and note when/if the lights go out (be very careful that you don't lose the wire back into the pillar!) If the lights go out when you remove one of the wires, the switch from which it was removed was bad. If both wires are disconnected and the lights remain on, there is a short somewhere in the wiring.

If you run the above diagnosis, be sure the lights themselves are in the position where they are activated by the door ground switch.

[Ojai911]

Thanks ossiblue. Just taken the door switches out sanded the contacts and sprayed with contact cleaner. I now have a situation where the lights stay on all the time but they dim a little bit when the door switches are closed -- both doors. The switches are working I believe...the wores were attached and they do respond in some fashion to the switch closing.

[Joe Bob]

I brought mine back to life by removing them......hooking up a 12v battery inline with a bulb. Vigorous on/off clicking with liberal use of contact cleaner.

If you get a clean on/off with the bulb then you have either fixed the problem or eliminated the switch as the issue.

Be sure you clip something onto the wire going into the panel as if you drop it inside, it a bvitch to retrieve.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by Ojai911

Thanks ossiblue. Just taken the door switches out sanded the contacts and sprayed with contact cleaner. I now have a situation where the lights stay on all the time but they dim a little bit when the door switches are closed -- both doors. The switches are working I believe...the wores were attached and they do respond in some fashion to the switch closing.

PLEASE, clarify these questions.

1. Have you moved the position of the lights themselves (meaning, did your rock them into the three different positions?) If so, do the lights ever go out?

2. Have you tried removing the switches from the wires and taping the wire ends so they don't make contact with the chassis? (Follow Joe Bob's advice to avoid losing he wires inside the pillars.) If so, do the lights ever go out when you rock the fixtures into the three positions?

3. If the above two sets of questions don't change things, have you tested for voltage and ground at the lights themselves, via the brown and black wires? Does the ground continuity go away when the door switch is pushed in?

[rpc356]

I don't know what year your car is, but I've seen weird interior light problems caused by the wires being reversed. Don't recall the details, but the photo shows how my 73 lights are wired (both my '73 and my '65 356 had the wires misattached when I got the cars -- clearly someone didn't know how to attach them during a reinstall). Note the brass clip on the right that grounds the fixture to the chassis at the left edge of the mounting hole that is bare of headliner. That ground is necessary for the "always on" position to work, but not for the "door open" position to work, which can be confusing. The black wire(s) in the photo are always hot at 12V.

HTH,
--Richard

[drleah]

Richard, thanks for the picture! I needed it too. Proved that the PO had the fixture wired backwards!
Leah


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[rpc356]

Originally Posted by drleah

Richard, thanks for the picture! I needed it too. Proved that the PO had the fixture wired backwards!
Leah


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Happy to help. So what behavior are/were you seeing with the fixture backwards? What was backwards, the wires on the fixture, the fixture in the chassis (i.e., not making ground contact), or both?

[drleah]

Light was very dim. Still sorting the wires out (i.e. Old burnt wires interrupting the continuity). I started a thread on my new to me '82 911SC
Thanks again, Leah


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