From: Wally Plumley [wplumley@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 9:04 AM
To: 928
Subject: [928] Re: Door Lights Remain On????

At 08:19 PM 11/23/01, Biguns928gt@aol.com wrote:
>   Hey folks, hopefully somebody can give some electrical advice. As the
>subject line says, my door lights are suddenly staying on all the time. I
>drove the car Wednesday and did not detect any problems. Thursday upon
>returning from the neighbors house, I was walking through the garage and
>noticed the door lights on. I went to start the car to check the battery, and
>she barely started. I hooked up the charger and turned the door light
>switches to the off position. Today, I start troubleshooting and find a
>broken wire on the hatch release plunger for the hatch portion of the light
>system. Figured ha, this is it. Repaired, and still no luck. Checked Greg
>Nichols site, and found a few things to check. Pulled relay XXI, and the
>lights stayed on. What is up with that??? Shouldn't they go out if I pull the
>relay??? Both lower door lights and red lights on the end of the doors
>remained on. Cleaned contacts on the relay and re-installed. Looked for
>anything else on the fuse chart that could affect it, and decided to pull
>fuse #7. No change. Pulled both door plunger switches, and found nothing
>unusual, although you can't pull the plungers out much due to short a**
>wires. I don't know what else to check/look for. Any and all help is
>appreciated.


Each interior light has a constantly-hot red wire feeding the light.

Each interior light has a constantly-connected brown ground wire.

Each interior light has a switched brown/white ground wire.

When the light body or switch is turned to the "OFF" position, there is 
power on the bulb, but both grounds are disconnected, so the light will not 
glow.

When the light body or switch is turned to the "ON" position, that light is 
connected to the constantly-on brown ground wire, and that light will glow.

When the light body or switch is turned to the "AUTO" position, the light 
is connected to the switched brown/white ground wire. If the brown/white 
wire is grounded thru a door or hatch switch, or by the time-delay relay, 
that light will glow.

If the brown/white wire is grounded by one of the switches or by a 
short-circuit to ground somewhere, the interior lights that are in the 
"AUTO" position will glow all the time.

A more insidious problem occurs when the brow/white wire is grounded and 
all of the interior lights are in the "OFF" position - no visible light 
will glow, but the red lights in the edge of the doors will be always on, 
draining the battery.

The interior light time-delay relay only holds the brown/white wire 
grounded for a short period after it has been grounded by a door or hatch 
switch. (Later cars only.)

Wally Plumley
928 Specialists