Interior Lights

[Jarv]

Hi guys,

Not sure if anyone can shed any light (yeah, I know) on an electrical problem that I have with the front interior light and drivers side foorwell light.

When the drivers door is opened the footwell light doesn't come on (could be the bulb gone, haven't checked that out yet), but, more worryingly, the front central courtesy light fashes on and off repeatadly, about every second.

When the front passenger door is opened, both the passenger footwell light comes on and the front central courtesy light works fine.

I ran my mates VAGCOM on the car this evening, and one of the errors that came up with was the following. I'm not that conversant with VAGCOM errors, so if anyone is, do they think that it may be ralated to my interior light issue:

Address 35 -------------------------------------------------------
Controller: 8D0 862 257 E
Component: CV-Pump, Alarm, RC D17
Coding: 15178
Shop #: WSC 63251
3 Faults Found:
01371 - Alarm triggered by Door Contact Switch: Driver's Side
35-00 - -
01374 - Alarm triggered by Terminal 15
35-00 - -
01370 - Alarm triggered by Interior Monitoring
35-00 - -

Cheers

Jarv

[shineydave]

they all look like fairly common errors which are just reports of the alarm being triggered. not come across a problem like this before but as far as i know the interior light and footwell lights are seperate systems. they both seem to share a common feed from the alarm unit. when we worked through grahams problem with fottwell lights we found the FWL were fed 12v which appeared to be switched off by the same timer that switches off the interior lights. the earth of the FWL is also switched by the door switch which breaks the earth when the door is closed to turn the lights off. both FWL are fed by the same supply so i would guess that if one light was working then the other should also be working (not withstanding that the bulb may be blown). if the problem only happens on one door i think we can discount the FWL circuit as the problem. the interior lights are also switched to earth by the door switches but reading your post it seems again that it's only one door that's causing the problem so i think we can eliminate the interior light controller as the problem, if it was the controller i'd expect to see the fault on all doors. knowing the issues with the door switches i'd be looking at the drivers side door switch as the probable cause.

[GrahamS4]

Dave is now an expert on foot well lights, trust me!

I think some testing/elimination of the drivers door sitch is required. Shame it's integrared in the door lock.

[Jarv]

Cheers Graham & Dave,

First thing I'll do is check the footwell bulb tonight to elimate that problem (hopefully). I did have a quick look for the door switch last night and put the fact that I couldn't find it down to it being dark. Sounds like that wasn't the reason after all. Do I need to take off the door card to get to it then?

Jarv

[shineydave]

yup, they don't design 'em for easy maintenance these days.

[Jarv]

I had a look at it last night. First thing I did was swap the left hand and right hand footwell light fittings, including bulbs, over and the right hand footwell bulb still didn't work, while the left one did. So, I eliminated a possible faulty bulb or fitting.

I then thought I'd see if one of the wires going to the bulb holder was live. I tested one of the terminals with a tester and it was indeed live. I checked the wiring diagram and noted that the other wire, presubably the earth, went straight accross to the earth terminal of the other front footwell light. I assumed therefore that there may be a break in this wire so bypassed it with a new one. But this is when I realised that I was pushing the corners of my auto-electrical repair ability envelope, and blew the fuse.

I don't think that the flashing interior light and faulty footwell light are linked. The interior light started working again properly for a while, but isn't now. I think I'll get my local auto-electrician to look at it.

Jarv

[GrahamS4]

The drivers side foot well lamp has 3 cables. Two coloured likewise. The two coloured likewise are +VE NOT ground. The drivers side then feeds the passenger side. They are grounded independantly by the door switch.

The fact the passenger foot well lights up PROVES there is no break in the cable from the drivers foot well light to the passenger side. It also means there is a live supply to the drivers side lamp.

So if the drivers side lamp has a +VE feed and the bulb is good, then it is the ground at fault. The ground is controlled by ..........the drivers door switch!

I really think you need to check that switch.

If you fancy more testing. Drop the drivers foot well lamp out again. Take your test wire and hold it on the -VE terminal of the lamp - the side with a SINGLE cable. With the door freshly opened (interior lights on) hold the other end of the cable on definate ground - the door latch on the car should do it or pull off the fuse panel cover at the end of the dash and there is a screw onto some bare metal that will work.

This should make the bulb light.

I think your problem is a grounding issue, closely related to the drivers door switch or cabling to it and both your problems likely to be related.

Don't forget to replace that blown fuse first.

Graham

[shineydave]

as Graham states, the conection with 2 wires is indeed live. the reason the earth conection appeared to be live is down to the factory fitted earth not being made so the element in the bulb would be just an extension of the live cable and testing would show voltage at both ends of the bulb. As Graham has pointed out, if you earth the terminal with a single wire then the bulb should light.

further to my first post about the Vag-Com faults, once i'd sobered up and re-read it i noticed a little clue

01371 - Alarm triggered by Door Contact Switch: Driver's Side

looks like the door panel needs to come off