Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all. I have one cab light in my ‘85 panel conversion that is above the driver’s door. Does anyone know if this is meant to come on when I open the cab door? It doesn’t but works if I move the small plastic lever off centre so bulb is good.

Be good if it came on automatically when I open the cab door, although suspect I might be being optimistic!

So, by moving the little switch mine is off central, down for on all time, and up for on when door opens with a soft off after about 10 seconds when door closed.

hope this helps.

Yes it should 
the switch on the actual light should have three positions, the one that switches the light on now , 
middle , which is off and the third position which should be only when the door is open , which is switched by a contact switch in the "A" pillar , just near the top hinge , a press button that pops out when the door opens , making a neg connection to the body to complete the circuit . 

Thanks both, that’s something else to fix then Thanks for the technical detail Mocki, should help me sort it out.

Further to my somewhat hurried reply last night , you are looking for brown wires onto the light unit , one onto the bottom connection from the constant neg for when the switch is on the manual position, and one from the door switch onto the light unit , which you can check is onto the door switch by removing the screw on the door switch and gently pulling the switch out of the door pillar in a dog leg movement to allow the terminal connection out of the hole . Contacting this brown wire to chassis should light the light . It’s common for the switches to tarnish and not make a good contact against the spring pressure 

Also necessary to have it working if you have an alarm system that detects a draw in current, so that when the light comes on it activates the alarm when armed.

Resurrecting this for my own query, passenger side door has a non working cab light switch but does have a wire not connected to the switch, this wire is brown and is live showing 12.5v via a test using a multi meter. But when I open the drivers door which does activate the light the passenger side wire shows approx .5v.  I need a new spring switch on the passenger side but am confused as to the voltage and why this is. Reading Mockis explanation above ref the negative feed but still a bit confused as to where this live wire should be connected to.

TONYT25T25 wrote: ↑06 Feb 2021, 17:28 Resurrecting this for my own query, passenger side door has a non working cab light switch but does have a wire not connected to the switch, this wire is brown and is live showing 12.5v via a test using a multi meter. But when I open the drivers door which does activate the light the passenger side wire shows approx .5v.  I need a new spring switch on the passenger side but am confused as to the voltage and why this is. Reading Mockis explanation above ref the negative feed but still a bit confused as to where this live wire should be connected to.

It’s the voltage back feeding , connecting it to earth will light the interior light , you can’t chase earth faults with a fault meter like live faults.

Thanks, ill start with fitting a new switch and go from there.

If you took the bulb out of the working light there wouldn’t be a voltage reading on that wire . 
elastic-trickery ! 

Thanks, the only courtesy light I have is above the drivers side, should there also be one above the passengers side.  Do not understand reply ref removing working light.

TONYT25T25 wrote: ↑06 Feb 2021, 21:28 Thanks, the only courtesy light I have is above the drivers side, should there also be one above the passengers side.  Do not understand reply ref removing working light.

Not the light the bulb , it will stop the false voltage reading, they are all connected so the light position doesn’t effect anything.

Thanks again, am i correct in thinking that this is a case of connection in parallel or series, vaguely remember this from school days, must admit electrics even the basics are a bit of a minefield sometimes.

Forget the meter ! 
earth the brown wire to chassis and the interior light should come on if the switch is in the correct position . 
all Vw brown wires are neg . 
the interior lights should all be connected to all the door pin switches , depending on van spec , you may have only one light, but at least two switches ( front doors ) high spec vans have switches on all doors and three or four interior lights ( the loom runs along the top in all vans ) 
my Caravelle has one above each front door , one behind the slider and one the opposite side in the rear and a pin switch on each door including the tailgate , any door opens all lights can come on if the switches are in the correct position.

Thanks will give it a go with new or repaired switch.