Ignition switch replacement

[geoz]

I recently had a few electrical issues that seemed completely unrelated but basically meant I could not drive the car. In my case I lost the headlights, high beams, fog lights, the brake lights, the fresh air blower did not work and neither did the heater.

Looking at contact 75 on the headlight switch I had 3V and the connections for the brake light switch looked like they were shorted.

I was expecting to find a major breakdown somewhere along the cabling when luckily a fellow Pelican suggested the ignition switch could be the issue ... so I quickly ordered one and long story short it turned out that the switch was indeed the issue. In hindsight it seems logical that a short in part of the switch could then also lead to voltage leakage which then causes all sorts of other issues, quite possible different ones as well depending on which part of the switch ends up being damaged. The switch should be considered a consumable when you think about how often you operate the ignition.

So if your electrical system is producing weird problems and there seems to be no logical explanation to connect these issues consider changing the switch. Our host has 2 varieties in stock.

Replacing the switch is not a hard job, as long as you have long, thin, flexible fingers and don't mind spending an amount of time crouching in a seriously confined space under the dashboard, mostly on your back.



This is what the switch looks like in situ. You can see the steering lock going towards the steering column (I own a RHD car in case you were wondering why it is the wrong way round), then a silver/black part sitting in the middle and the brown connector at the end.

The silver/black part in the middle is what needs replacing. It is connected to the steering lock using two small (I think M4) bolts, in my case they had a Philips #1 head but your might have a different head.

The first step should be to disconnect the battery. Then you can pull the brown connector right off. I found it helps to disconnect the 3 plugs in its close vicinity to give the cables a bit more slack.



Once the plug is off you can remove the lower bolt. That is relatively easy, I used a screw driver with a flexible shaft but you should be able to get any normal screwdriver in, albeit at a slight angle.

The one at the top is a lot more tricky to get to. There is very little space as it sits right up to the dashboard and behind it the firewall leaves very little space to get any tool in. I initially tried it with a 90 degree flexible joint but could not get the philips bit to connect properly. In the end I found the perfect tool among my push bike stuff.



I used this tiny reversible wrench about 9 cm long and attached a philips bit. That was just long & thin enough to squarely connect to the screw and short enough at 5 cm to allow me to extract the bolt without being constrained by the sheet metal. Below a picture of how it connects. I think this is probably the best possible fit.



Once you got both bolts out the switch falls right out. Don't worry about the orientation, there is a protrusion on the flat side that fits in a hollow in the receptor. The switch will stick out if you get it wrong. Also there is a half moon protrusion on the connector side of it which will not fit if you try to mount it upside down.

It is also impossible to put the plug in incorrectly as some of the pins are differently spaced and at a different distance to the center, so if it does not go in easily just rotate it a little back and forth.

That's it, the new switch is in, the ignition plug is reconnected, just reconnect the other 3 adjacent plugs and the battery and you should be good to go.

30 minutes to one hour depending on how often you have to stretch; add some time if you don't have a pianist's hands and if you can't find a tool that looks like it can reach the upper screw maybe hand the car over to your favourite workshop and let them suffer.

Good luck.

[jlex]

Really nice write-up and pix. Did you need to take the driver's seat out?

[Oheggem]

Great stuff. Saving this thread for later

This is also a post that would`ve been perfect for a Porsche DIY website. Think of one with categorised fixed and repairs. Would save each Pelican hours and hours searching for the correct searchterm.

[brianlay]

Glad to hear you fixed the problem, however I've never advise anyone to replace a part because it "might" be the problem.
Consider yourself lucky

[geoz]

Originally Posted by jlex

Really nice write-up and pix. Did you need to take the driver's seat out?

No, I was too lazy to do that but it would certainly make the work less back breaking.

[andybullen]

did mine earlier this year, I took the driver's seat out completely to have more room - but yes, +1 on the back time!

[Ton504]

Does anyone know the size of the screws? I would like to pick them up at the local hardware store.