Todays project: Dome Lights

[firefighter7128]

Ok well I have been doing all these little projects on the car and everyday i feel more comfortable about my purchase.

today i want to fix the dome lights. I have one above the mirror and 1 over the pass seats. I have 2 holes in my door panels that look like a dome light does go there but unsure.

Over the weekend i confirmed that i had power going to the dome light over the mirror. I have power coming FROM the dome light, but i have no light. New bulb.

Now the dome light over the pass side has all bad wires. I need to go in and basicly redo the whole mess but it is in my understanding that if power goes in and then out not only is the bulb good, but i should have light..... unless the ground is bad. Duh.

Chime in.

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by firefighter7128

Ok well I have been doing all these little projects on the car and everyday i feel more comfortable about my purchase.

today i want to fix the dome lights. I have one above the mirror and 1 over the pass seats. I have 2 holes in my door panels that look like a dome light does go there but unsure.

Over the weekend i confirmed that i had power going to the dome light over the mirror. I have power coming FROM the dome light, but i have no light. New bulb.

Now the dome light over the pass side has all bad wires. I need to go in and basicly redo the whole mess but it is in my understanding that if power goes in and then out not only is the bulb good, but i should have light..... unless the ground is bad. Duh.

Chime in.

Rid the stock ones and go with the VW GTI ones. Work better and aren't brittle with 30 year old plastic.

Porsche 928 Forums dot com - View topic - Dome Light Changeout

[tlsmith1999]

There are also LED festoon lights that you can replace the bulbs with. The LED lights do not get as hot or use as much power. Much better when you leave the doors open for awhile working on the car, as the normal bulbs can melt the plastic, or run your battery down.

[firefighter7128]

I will most likely go with an LED option, but i cant even get the halogen one to work. Im baffled.... again.

[Mrmerlin]

make sure you understand how to connect each light housing there is one hot wire and then 2 grounds,
the brown wire is chassis
and brown white stripe is switched
the hot wire connects to the end of the light housing opposite where the switched wire connects the switched and ground should be close to each other the chassis ground wire connects to the light housing frame

[Landseer]

Did you clean the two door switches and the hatch switch? As well as where the threads contact the body? This is the pathway to getting light when doors or hatch are opened. It represents itself as the brown wire with white stripe, ie, the "switched ground". It also manages to ground the little red door edge lights (both of them at the same time) when either door is opened.

The brown wire is the all the time ground, which comes into play only when any given light fixture is positioned in the "on all the time" mode. Yes, it needs to connect to a good ground. I forget which of the 4 cockpit body ground points it runs to.

[Alan in AZ]

The red wire is always powered and goes to the bulb end. Its the grounds that you need to check. the Brown wire & Brown/White wire go to the switched end of the fixture. The brown wire is just a ground (as is the chassis). You know about the fixture switching of course...?? the lens rotates in the housing to switch... middle position is permanently off...

The brown/white wire is what is switched by the door/hatch. When a door/hatch is open it should switch to ground - the rest of the time it is open circuit.

You should be able to get the bulb on with the brown wire at least...

Alan