Interior Illumination mod/tweak (simple & cheap!) FWIW
03-23-2012, 11:37 PM
#1
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Interior Illumination mod/tweak (simple & cheap!) FWIW
I know, I have more important things to be working on, but one thing that bugged me about the interior illumination of my 85 S3 was that I wanted to be able to leave all interior lamps set on the "auto" setting, but really didn't want the rear hatch lamp to come on when only the cabin doors were opened... I don't know why that bugged me, but I was determined to come up with a solution...
Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference!
Stock wiring works this way: If all lamps are in the "auto" setting, all 5 lamps when a cabin door is open, or both hatch lamps and the front roof lamp (sunroof car) when just the hatch is opened. (Note: The hatch-open-only condition avoids lighting the door lamps with a diode in the jumper behind the CE between F11 and S25 which is not documented on the schematics, or the copy that I have anyway...)
Anyway...
After studying the schemos I added a length of wire and 2 diodes and have modified the function of the lamps as follows:
Having a cabin door open illuminates all lamps except the rear hatch lamp. Opening the hatch only illuminates both hatch lamps. Just what I wanted! It seems more logical to me, if only me.
This mod retains the feature that the hatch release motor will still only function with a cabin door open.
The diodes are inserted into the circuitry at the fore (upper) hatch lamp wiring. A single conductor must be run from the fore hatch lamp to the hatch pin switch.
Attached is the "modded" schematic. If anyone is interested I can post photos or go more into depth about the mod. I'm really happy with it, particularly that the upper hatch lamp operates in dual-mode, turning on with either the hatch or cabin doors!
Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference!
Stock wiring works this way: If all lamps are in the "auto" setting, all 5 lamps when a cabin door is open, or both hatch lamps and the front roof lamp (sunroof car) when just the hatch is opened. (Note: The hatch-open-only condition avoids lighting the door lamps with a diode in the jumper behind the CE between F11 and S25 which is not documented on the schematics, or the copy that I have anyway...)
Anyway...
After studying the schemos I added a length of wire and 2 diodes and have modified the function of the lamps as follows:
Having a cabin door open illuminates all lamps except the rear hatch lamp. Opening the hatch only illuminates both hatch lamps. Just what I wanted! It seems more logical to me, if only me.
This mod retains the feature that the hatch release motor will still only function with a cabin door open.
The diodes are inserted into the circuitry at the fore (upper) hatch lamp wiring. A single conductor must be run from the fore hatch lamp to the hatch pin switch.
Attached is the "modded" schematic. If anyone is interested I can post photos or go more into depth about the mod. I'm really happy with it, particularly that the upper hatch lamp operates in dual-mode, turning on with either the hatch or cabin doors!
