Interior light strange problem, help needed

[Barneyemc]

I made a bit of a rookie error: I was looking at what bulb was in the interior light (driver’s side) so I could replace it with LED, and was measuring the size of the bulb. I held a little metal ruler up to it, and inadvertently shorted something. I must’ve touched the ruler off two contacts at some point.

Now, neither the passenger side or the drivers side interior lights work.

The clock DOES work still, but oddly, stops running when the interior light should be on. Ie when the doors are open, or when the interior lights are in the “always on” position.
That (I’m fairly sure) rules out the fuse being blown.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this problem??
All help is much appreciated!

My electrics knowledge is very low, so speak slowly

1988 3.2 Carrera

[mtb001]

I'm betting fuse, they are easy enough to just look at and if the thin metal strip on the fuse is gone, it's blown.

[FrankM_]

On the wiring diagram, I see nothing in between the light and the power coming from Fuse I, box 1 (5A fuse). So that would be the first one to check (black wire).
The power for this fuse is 'always on' (bus 30).

I had some plastic based fuses in there that looked OK (metal strip not broken) but the plastic body melted somewhat, shortening the fuse body and making bad contact. So the best thing to do is to really get the fuse out, clean the contacts gently and put the fuse (or a new one) in to be sure.


The the switch around the bulb either connects the other bulb end to ground (brown wire) or to the door switch (brown/white wire) which connects to ground when the door opens.

If it is not the fuse/ fuse contacts (which seems to be the only common point between clock and lights) then :

Some of the wiring is 1 mm2, some 0.75 mm2 and some 0.5 mm2 - so you could have a wiring problem somewhere now (melted)
or
the issue is inside of the interior light switch (did you check it ?)

Since both interior lights do not work anymore, I am ruling out the door switches as they are individual to each side ?

[86 911 Targa]

pm me as needed.

Gerry

[Barneyemc]

Originally Posted by FrankM_

On the wiring diagram, I see nothing in between the light and the power coming from Fuse I, box 1 (5A fuse). So that would be the first one to check (black wire).
The power for this fuse is 'always on' (bus 30).

I had some plastic based fuses in there that looked OK (metal strip not broken) but the plastic body melted somewhat, shortening the fuse body and making bad contact. So the best thing to do is to really get the fuse out, clean the contacts gently and put the fuse (or a new one) in to be sure.


The the switch around the bulb either connects the other bulb end to ground (brown wire) or to the door switch (brown/white wire) which connects to ground when the door opens.

If it is not the fuse/ fuse contacts (which seems to be the only common point between clock and lights) then :

Some of the wiring is 1 mm2, some 0.75 mm2 and some 0.5 mm2 - so you could have a wiring problem somewhere now (melted)
or
the issue is inside of the interior light switch (did you check it ?)

Since both interior lights do not work anymore, I am ruling out the door switches as they are individual to each side ?

Thanks for the reply.
Since the clock still works, does that mean the fuse is still intact? My understanding was that the clock and interior lights were on the same fuse.

I didn’t make it clear in my first post, both lights were working before i started

[FrankM_]

Yes I believe they are , easily tested, pull the fuse and see what happens ?
As said, I had recurring intermitten problems on my AC and it was the fuse that made a bad contact when more power was demanded (fuse getting hotter)


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[Barneyemc]

I’ll certainly give it a go

[phelix]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but the "face" of each interior light has 3 positions - always on, on when the door is open or off. Might you have changed teh setting without realising it?