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Interior lights remain on with doors and hatch closed
I've tried the light switches in both the "on continuously" and "on until doors closed" positions but in both cases, they remain on. Manually depressing the door buttons has no effect. I do have some concern about the hatch not closing completely. If that is ajar, will the interior lights remain on? Is there a way to manually tell the car that the hatch is closed as can be done with the doors? How do I proceed if the car isn't receiving the closed door/hatch signal?
Regards,
John
81 928 Chiffon White over Cashmere A/T (127k)
Try un-mating the connector for the wires to the hatch switch. It is at/behind the rear tool panel off a little towards the right side (on my '87, anyway).
Thanks Geza….that worked!
Now I need to fix that circuit. It appears that a PO had a problem with this switch. The metal area within the larger ellipse appears to have been melted perhaps from an electrical short and the area within the smaller ellipse shows a breach in the insulation for the power wire. Other than sliding the latch receiver forward or backward in an attempt to get the hatch to fit more snuggly, are there other things to try?
As always, thanks in advance for the spot on help offered in this forum.
Regards,
John
81 928 Chiffon White over Cashmere A/T (127k)
I’m having exactly the same problem with my S4, will try unplugging and checking circuit. I only realized it was still on as one of the red lights in my doors caught my eye... I’ll end up with a dead battery at this rate and I would have wondered why !!!!!
Any issue I have had like that was fixed by spraying a bunch of contact cleaner on the door switches then cycling them in and out as far as they go with my finger. My intercooler pump is wired to the window power so it will run when the car is shut down but will turn off when the door is opened...every now and then it continues to run when I open the door. ......it always has been the plunger switch on the door jam.
How do you see the red light with the door closed?
good question, you can just about make it out but then when you open the handle on one click and the door opens about a centimeter you can see it. I can’t imagine the door switch would operate at such a short distance. Anyway the rest of the interior lights stay on unless I switch them off by hand and I assume it’s in the same circuit ???This is a fair indication that somewhere there is a switch failure. i’m still suspecting the rear hatch is to blame but I thought disconnecting the two leads would highlight the problem but have realized that potentially that won’t make a difference as when the door is shut it would break the signal anyway? I think I need to sit down and think this through👍
Interior lighting on this car is pretty simple. Power goes to all the lights, always there.
Switching is down on the return side, through the door switches to ground, and all the switches are tied together on that side.
Each light has a 3 position switch, center position off, one way feeds that switch to ground for constant on, the other way feeds to the common circuit that goes to ground through the door switches and the hatch switch.
Either you have a bad wire somewhere going to a door switch that is shorted to ground, or you have a switch that if bad and is shorted, or someone has miss-wired one of the lights.
Do all the lights work?
With the doors shut, does each light go on in both outside switch positions or only one way?
They should only light one way and be off in the center and the other way.
Sorry, just noticed you have an S4, don’t know if you have delay shutoff or dimming functions, which make a more involved circuit. Don’t have any experience directly with those, but if you have a relay, pull that and see what happens?Olders cars don’t have a relay.
The light above the rear view mirror has minimal clearance and is a known spot for terminals shorting to ground. Pop this one out and see if this solves the problem.
Try this and report the results.
Last edited by Billu; 11-05-2019 at 11:15 PM.
Reason: Change
Interior lighting on this car is pretty simple. Power goes to all the lights, always there.
Switching is down on the return side, through the door switches to ground, and all the switches are tied together on that side.
Each light has a 3 position switch, center position off, one way feeds that switch to ground for constant on, the other way feeds to the common circuit that goes to ground through the door switches and the hatch switch.
Either you have a bad wire somewhere going to a door switch that is shorted to ground, or you have a switch that if bad and is shorted, or someone has miss-wired one of the lights.
Do all the lights work?
With the doors shut, does each light go on in both outside switch positions or only one way?
They should only light one way and be off in the center and the other way.
Sorry, just noticed you have an S4, don’t know if you have delay shutoff or dimming functions, which make a more involved circuit. Don’t have any experience directly with those, but if you have a relay, pull that and see what happens?Olders cars don’t have a relay.
The light above the rear view mirror has minimal clearance and is a known spot for terminals shorting to ground. Pop this one out and see if this solves the problem.
Try this and report the results.
im getting some very useful info here thank you. If I’m honest, I can’t remember if my S or S4 had delayed lights... Answer your question though, the lights to stay on with all the doors closed. I have tried switching all the lights in all three positions and unfortunately the only time I can get them to go off is it in the actual off position and that applies to the ones in the roof and doors. I’ll get busy with the contact cleaner and report. I would have thought corroded contacts would have made it so they didn’t turn on but that clearly not the case. This problem, like the instrument cluster illumination are really the only two things that are giving me grief at the moment. I’m still thinking the hatch is to blame. I had to disconnect the battery as the little red lights are on in the doors and I think it’s only a matter of time before it runs flat. This can’t be that hard. Will try all advice and report. Cheers. Al
Have you taken any of the lights out of the housings 'recently'? if yes - take that one out again and remove all connections - do the rest then work correctly?
Pull the delay relay and see if all the lights go out in switched mode? - if not its a wiring issue, not a switch/relay issue. Most likely a broken or miss-wired fixture
Follow up to my OP on 10/31/2019: I removed the rear latch receiver to clean, lubricate, and verify that the small spring loaded pin in the bottom moved freely. I cleaned the ground connection at the bottom of the rear latch receiver. Then, in case the upper lid and latch were not coming down sufficiently, I pushed the white cylinder inside the latch receiver down fully with the butt end of a screwdriver. Alas, no joy. The interior lights remain on until I un-mate the hatch switch connector as suggested by Geza. Afterstudying the applicable wiring diagram and quickly realizing that my ability to read those things is at kindergarten level, I once again turn to this forum.
Any suggestions for what to do next.
Last edited by JHC928; 12-03-2019 at 09:14 PM.
Reason: formatting and spelling
Likely your hatch switch under the white plunger has self destructed. Test the connection continuity to ground as you operate the switch - probably always grounded - it seems to be a relatively common issue - also relatively easily replaceable and parts are available.
Alan: Thank you very much for this suggestion which makes perfect sense to me. When I acquired the car a few months ago, the rear lid had to be slammed down quite forcibly in order to latch. I imagine several years of doing so would have shortened the useful life of the hatch switch!
I'll reply back after performing the continuity testing. If I do need to replace the hatch switch, where might I find it? Do you have the part number?
Regards,
John
1981 928 Chiffon White over Cashmere A/T (127k)
10-31-2019, 12:45 PM
Interior lights remain on with doors and hatch closed
