Kevin in Atlanta

Not sure all these are related.

Let's start with the lights.

DS and PS lights do not work in any position.
Rear hatch turns on with PS door open and turns off after delay when PS door is closed.
Rear hatch does not turn on with DS door open.
Rear hatch light only turns on with PS door or hatch open - does not turn on in other position.

Power to PS door jam light and it lights up when you open the door. You can actually see it light as you open the door. Suggests the door pin is working.

Power to PS door light is present.

No power to lights on the DS door. No power using continuity tester.

Power to roof light. Continuity to the bulb, through the bulb to housing and switched ground and to roof proper. That one is strange. But no light. I will get new bulbs or maybe a different hatch light. When I manipulating the bulb briefly lit up. Not repeatable. Strange.

Read a thread about proper wiring in the roof mounted light switch where Alan said the white striped brown wire should not be connected to the housing. When I pulled the light down I found the red wire connected to the connector nearest the housing ground. I moved it to the opposite side and made sure the brown with white stripe was connected to the non-housing ground. I think that is right. Somebody will correct me if I am wrong.

Tested the roof light switched ground with PS door open and waited for the relay to click and power to go away after the door was closed - it did.

Same test opening the DS - switched ground did not open.

Tests seem to point toward the DS wiring.

Hatch release:

With DS door open the DS release will not work unless I open the PS door or manually open and close the hatch. I can open and close the PS door and then DS hatch release will work. If I open and close the hatch the hatch release will work.

Historical info: When the DS window failed to work we traced it to a broken wire in the DS door harness. I may have pull the door panel to see if there were other wires broken.

Alarm locking:

Central locking works from console button. Does not work from either door. Have to manually lock both.

Thanks for reading...

DuncanF

I have just recently been going through much the same problems on my 87 S4.

I had a break in the switched earth going to my DS door pin. That gave the same symptoms as some of yours as the car doesn't realise when the door is open so no lights are triggered. The door pin comes out very easily but the wire runs under the carpet behind the ecus so they had to come out to find the end and splice in a new bit of wire.

The hatch release should just be a symptom of the door pin. If I understand it correctly they only work when one of the doors has been opened so if the door pin isn't working then the hatch release won't work.

The door lights do share an earth with the central locking so there may be a link. In my case there was a break in the wire where it was joined in the bundle of wires just before it exits the door. I didn't have the same symptoms as yours (light didn't work in the permanently on position and central locking only worked from the other side) but I did find a testing procedure in the WSM that should allow you to work out which of the central locking wires have a problem. The door card will have to come off.

Best of luck. I had other problems as well but just worked through them one by one and now have working lights and central locking. I had three wiring faults, one seized hatch release, one broken light and one missing bulb.

Regards
Duncan

Kevin in Atlanta

Well done.

The wire at the door pin is broken.

-Kevin

Kevin in Atlanta

The PO's alarm folks pulled that wire off the pin and into the cabin.

How is the wire routed from the pin connector into the cabin?

Kevin in Atlanta

I found the hole, ran a heavy gauge strand of copper through it to the door jamb hole.

Kevin in Atlanta

A bit of success - fixed the switched ground and hatch switch on DS now works. And when the DS door is open the hatch light goes on. Have power to both DS and PS interior lights. And the car locks work.

Woohoo.

No lights, but the kid replaced them with LEDs and who knows if they ever worked. Off to the parts store to get the correct bulbs now.

Kevin in Atlanta

So, upon replacing the LEDs the kid installed with non-LEDs I have interior lights in the doors that work properly.

Mrmerlin

Kevin make sure the roof lamps are properly wired,
the HOT wire should go towards the end where the chassis ground is .

NOTE the hatch lamps have different colored wire for positive .

NOTE putting this wire on the other end of the lamp will make light operation non functional or cause other operation issues.

NOTE the lights in the door can be wired just about any way since they dont touch the chassis.

NOTE all of the lamp wires should have heat shrink installed to the connectors so they dont short out to the other connectors if they should break off.

NOTE dark colored cars have a higher propensity for melted roof lamp housings due to higher heat absorption from sunshine. If you find a melted lamp housing its best to replace it as it is brittle the best replacement is the VW lamp housing.

NOTE the red lamps in the door edges should be removed and deoxit100 applied to the connectors, then silicone RTV applied to the wires where they come from the boot to prevent water ingress.
Then the lamps should work for the life of the car

Kevin in Atlanta

Thanks, Stan. The roof light is making me smile because the switched ground is doing the exact opposite of the door lights. In other words in the auto position the roof light goes off when I open the door as the door lights go on. The red wire is connected to the white plastic side, the switched ground is attached on the other end and the brown wire is attached to the housing.

What am I missing? :-)

Mrmerlin

get the volt meter out and see what wire is positive in the hatch,
and what wire is switched ,
the ground should be easy to figure out.