Door Switch / Interior Light

[jslot]

The driver door switch wasn't working either the interior light or the electric windows, removed switch and replaced rusty screw and the switch works now, however the wire that turns the interior light on isn't working when I bridge it to ground. Its a yellow wire i think.

The passenger side switch turns the light on no problems.

Where will i find the other end of this wire?

There is only 2 wires going to the driver side switch, but there is 4 going to the passenger side, is this correct?

[Brianmoooore]

If you mean brown/yellow, then you have an interior light delay unit option fitted.
The other end of the wire is underneath the 'speaker in the driver's foot well, where you will finf the delay module on the same bracket as the locking ECU.
Does the central locking work?

[jslot]

Well up until this morning, I didn't think I had central locking! (I was going to get round to investigating what that thing was in the boot)

Did the red black wire mod, now I have central locking and interior light.

Only problems now:

The delay unit is not giving any delay?, and

There is no actuator in the passenger side door.

Should I want to disable central locking, is it just a matter of cutting the power to the module?

[Brianmoooore]

There is a second switch attached to the exterior door handle that is involved with triggering the delay. It's possible that the wire to this switch is corroded where it goes through the A pillar plug and socket. Easiest solution to this is to cut the brown/green wire a couple of inches from the delay module's socket, and to splice the two inch piece to the brown/yellow wire.
Of course, the module could have simply just failed.
Disconnecting the power feed to the central locking will disable it, by why would any sane person want to? Non working central locking puts a lot more strain on the locking mechanism, which will accelerate wear.

[e30Passion]

Mine doesn't delay either. Maybe because i have the lockheating element in place instead of the delay switch?

I wouldn't disable the CL. Get a actuator for the passenger door and enjoy central locking

[Brianmoooore]

Mine doesn't delay either.

Try the mod. in my post above.

[jslot]

Thanks Brian I will investigate this switch in the handle and maybe do the wire splice.

Reason I was suspicious of the central locking was because the key seems a bit more stiff in the lock, and I have snapped 2 keys in this lock, but this extra stiffness may have been imaginary.

I don't have any of the original keys for the car, is this perchance remote central locking?

To be honest central locking on an old car is cool but is of little use to me, I never carry a passenger and I rarely lock the doors or the boot.

[Brianmoooore]

The key will be much harder to turn if the central locking is inoperative. With working locking, as soon as the linkage begins to move, a switch closes and the lock motor does the rest of the work.
Remote central locking was a dealer fitted extra combined with an immobiliser, which connects to the lock and unlock request wires behind the glovebox. The original immobiliser is ridiculously easy to defeat, and the original remote fobs will be well past their best by now, so a good solution is to fit a £20 odd remote locking kit from Rightclick, which comes with two new BMW key shaped fobs, whose blades can be cut to fit your ignition switch.

[jslot]

Spliced the brown green into the brown yellow, now have the light delay. Its only about 3 seconds is this normal amount of time?