Club 80-90 Forums

Hi everyone, sorry if this is already answered somewhere, but I’ve done a search and looked at the Wiki and can’t find an answer.

My courtesy light does not come on when the door is open, but does when switched to the on position manually.

The switch itself is in good condition and rust-free. The wire between the switch and the light is in tact. The light itself is in reasonable condition and making contact with the terminal in the ‘door open’ position - again, no rust.

I’ll post some pics in a reply to this post, but to describe the setup... there is a brown wire attached to the door switch. This passes through a plastic connector, although is one continuous piece (ie not split and attached to the connector either side). The connector also houses a green/yellow (household earth) cable, which runs behind the pillar somewhere and is attached to something (it doesn’t move when pulled). Not sure how this works as it is separate to the other cable as far as I can see.

At the light end, there are brown cables one end, connected to the ‘manual on’ position, and red cables to the other end. The brown wire from the door switch is connected to the ‘door open’ position.

My assumption is that this is an earthing fault... but wanted to seek experienced advice first!

Thanks in advance!

Dan

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The red to the light fitting is your live 12v and is constantly on - the brown wires earth to the chassis via the door switches to turn the light on.

The yellow/green wire is just splicing into a factory brown earth.. probably so that the light can be turned on by another switch, possibly the other cab door? Not all vans were originally wired to turn the centre light on with both doors, only the driver's door.

I'd unscrew the door switch by the hinge, and check that the brown wire in the pillar is still connected with the spade terminal, or making a decent contact with the chassis ground there.

Thanks slowcoach!

There are no other door switches on the van, so I’m wondering if the other cable has been piggy-backed for something else. I’ll just pretend I haven’t seen it for now!

Have managed to get it all working... but it’s intermittent. I’ve found the fault lies within the switch on the light itself - it’s not making great contact and sometimes works and other times doesn’t. Going to have a closer look later and see if just needs cleaning or if the contacts need realigning. Otherwise, for the sake of a few pounds I’ll get a new one!

Yes, I'd only recently refurbed my two switches, so it was fresh in mind. One I saved by fixing it up, the other was toast so bought a replacement. The door switches are worth checking too fir intermittent symptoms

New light installed (with an led bulb) and all working well! Bit of searching in the back and found the courtesy light for the sliding door hidden under the headlining... and all in working order

Well done Dan [THUMBS UP SIGN]