Door lights not working (DOME LIGHTS) - JOB COMPLETE

[irish-e30]

Hi,

The function of the lights above the doors (Dome lights?) coming on when the door opens and going off again when the doors close does not seem to work. Again this is a project on the car id like to have fixed. I noticed tonight that on the passenger side when the button on the light is down, that when the door opens the light comes on, when the door closes the light goes off, great!!!!! BUT on the drivers side when the door opens the light on both sides come on, but do not go off again when the door closes, and remain on both sides. I cleaned the sensors on both sides of the door with sandpaper and a bit of oil. I noticed that when i hand press in the sensor the lights dim slightly but dont go off.

Any advice here on this??

[irish-e30]

Ok I took off the kick panel on the drivers side (right hand side for me) thats the plastic panel down by the accellerator etc yeh??? I could not find the relay you were on about so I took two pics to help me out. The relay you show in the pics looks like the ones in the fuse box???

Let me know if its one of these that i need to look at in the fuse box or the bundle of wiring in the other pic






Thanks!!!

[smithy318i]

i "think" i know exactly whats wrong.

One or both of your dome lights are wired up wrong.

remove the plastic lights from the roof and make sure that the wires are pluged onto the right connectors...


you should have the red/green wire connected to one end of the light bulb, and both the brown wire and the brown/purple wire connected the the switch end terminals.

if yours is different, you should swap them over.

i can take a picture if your still confused.

[irish-e30]

thats dead sound smithy cheers man. ill go out and have a look and take a pic if im still stuck ill get back to u thanks man

[irish-e30]

Heres the story. When i have the switch in the down position (to allow the lights to come on when the door opens and off when closed) if i open the passenger door the light comes on, when i close the passenger door the light goes off. however the problem happens when the drivers door is opened, in this case both lights either side come on and will not go back off!!!!
HERES THE WIRING, is it correct

[smithy318i]

the lights are wired correctly.

on the door switch, what are the blue wires for ?
and the yellow one?

you should have a brown/purple wire to the switch.

have you tried unplughing the yellow or the blue?

[irish-e30]

heres the wiring on the door switch changed the wires......still no difference...

[kam-325i]

All of my door contacts only have one brown wire.......

The problem i had with mine was just a bad contact to earth on the door pins.

[irish-e30]

where is the earth on the door pins?? the left works fine but when the right drivers door opens both come on and wont go back off.....

[smithy318i]

where is the earth on the door pins?? the left works fine but when the right drivers door opens both come on and wont go back off.....

faulty light relay?

[irish-e30]

any idea where i can find the relay??

[irish-e30]

Switched the wires around - no difference
left just the yellow one on, and disconnected the other - no difference
switched the door switches - no difference

Must be the delay switch or Relay.
Does anyone know where the relay is and what to do about it???

[irish-e30]

JOB DONE - HERES FOR YOU GUYS IN THE FUTURE IN CASE YOU NEED IT

Let me know if this helps, it was just a case of cleaning the contacts on the switches on the doors, checking the wiring on the light itself was correct which it was and then removing, opening and cleaning the relay. It was the relay in the end i believe, just a bit of crud in there cleaned up with methylated spirits and dried. Now works a charm!!!!!!!

First fully successful E30 project

Thanks to everyone that helped especially Enis and Smithy!!! Legends!

[smithy318i]

Sorted?

That corrosion is caused by water getting into the relay (obvious you say!)

the relay needs to be mounted upright, next to the c/l relay on a bracket.
if you don't have a bracket, a wire tie will do.

and you may want to check the hole in the bottom of the wing/sill for drainage.

[irish-e30]

Yeh ill have to mount that in there, as both it and the c/l are not mounted. ive them wrapped up and tie wrapped in sandwitch bags!

check the hole in the bottom of the wing/sill for drainage.

Is there another hole there to unblock (how many more drains is there!!!! ) how to i access this one?