Interior light wont come on when I unlock/open car door..

[Damoegan]

The Mrs had the car yesterday and said 'the interior light wont come on when I unlock/open car door and the alarm went off when I was getting some bags out of the back seat'..

I can manualy turn it on thought! At first I thought it was the door switch solinoid but the headlight warning buzzer still works.

The solinoid was only changed about 6 months ago coz it didn't work when I first got the car.

Any ideas before I go and pull the door apart??

 

[NickLCR]

Mine has done this 3 times now, been dark and got out the car and no interior light. Then all of a sudden when I come to drive it again, it worked

 

[Damoegan]

Well I'm too busy at work to have a proper look at it. I'll try again tomorrow.

Hopefully its just a sticking solinoid or something and I can free it up.

 

[Nath.]

Doubt it will be a solenoid as the central locking is not solenoid operated, it is motorised.

I would go for the interior light itself, the contacts inside can become bad. the switch inside the light has 2 positions, door switch activated and manually activated. we know that the door open switch works (buzzer works) so by switching over to the other contact inside the light the light comes on.

get the light removed and open it up, then bend the contacts a little so that they touch more positively.

If you switch it over to the manual position before you remove it and take the lid off you will find that the contact not in use is the faulty one.

good luck, any more info give me a shout.

 

[Damoegan]

I never even thought abouth the actual light itself, Nath. Good thinking batman..

I've got some electrical cleaner in the house so I'll dig it out and wip the light off tomorrow and give all the connections a good clean.

Have you had a similar proble Nath?

 

[Nath.]

Have you had a similar proble Nath?

Yes exactly the same problem on my mk4 and again some years ago on a mk3 escort XR3I

 

[g8rvn]

If that doesnt work, a quick vag-com scan should flag it up.
I have the same problem on my passenger door, i've pretty much decided its one of the microswitches in the door catch itself, the security ecu can see the catch status (door open/closed) but the central locking one cant. this also seems to be quite a common issue.
The vag com code was something along the lines of contral locking module pass. door switch sporadic signal (not seeing it properly)

 

[Damoegan]

Yes exactly the same problem on my mk4 and again some years ago on a mk3 escort XR3I

Fingers crossed its just that then..

I'll wip it off tomorrow and let you know how I get on.
Cheers mate.

 

[Damoegan]

I would go for the interior light itself, the contacts inside can become bad. the switch inside the light has 2 positions, door switch activated and manually activated. we know that the door open switch works (buzzer works) so by switching over to the other contact inside the light the light comes on.

get the light removed and open it up, then bend the contacts a little so that they touch more positively.

If you switch it over to the manual position before you remove it and take the lid off you will find that the contact not in use is the faulty one.

good luck, any more info give me a shout.

No joy mate. Had it all off and in bits and all looks good. Put it back togeather and its still the same.

If that doesnt work, a quick vag-com scan should flag it up.
I have the same problem on my passenger door, i've pretty much decided its one of the microswitches in the door catch itself, the security ecu can see the catch status (door open/closed) but the central locking one cant. this also seems to be quite a common issue.
The vag com code was something along the lines of contral locking module pass. door switch sporadic signal (not seeing it properly)

I didnt think vag-com would pick this up I realy must get vag-com working on my stupid laptop.

If it was the microswitch it would also affect the headlight buzzer and the alarm but that works fine.


Might just order a new one..

 

[Damoegan]

Cuffing stupid thing......

Left work tonight and the light was still not working, drive for 15 mins to pick up the other half, stop car and when I took the key out the chuffing light come on.. Got back in car and drove home with the light working as it should do!

 

[st10587]

sounds like it could be a dodgy door catch switch. at work we have this problem on the older MINI's

 

[Nath.]

^^^^^^^I doubt it as in an above post he says that the lights on buzzer works fine.

I'm sure it will be the contacts inside the light itself, maybe get a new interior light or borrow one from a fellow SCN member that has upgraded just to see.

I upgraded my interior light after removing, repairing and refitting my original one so I have one in my garage that works fine and is only 1 year old. ££££

Go to a scrappy yard and get a golf GTI one with the map reading spot lights built in the same as the cupra one you have, it will be under a tenner easy

 

[luig]

Mine has stopped working too, but the 'lights on' buzzer doesn't work either?

Is it this door catch solenoid you mentioned? If so is it easy to fix yourself?

 

[Damoegan]

Yes mate, it will be the door catch solinoid. Its built into the door catch so you need a full new catch.

 

[luig]

Is this easy to do? How much are the catches?