My 328 has trunk lights? WOW, Hi tech!

I just discovered today that my 328 has a pair of trunk lights, one on each side. Only took me 6 years to discover that. Now…if I could just figure out how they turn on!

I looked all through the owner's manual and couldn't find any mention of them. I'm not saying it isn't in there somewhere but I couldn't find them in the section about lights or the section about the trunk. There doesn't appear to be a switch that is activated by opening the bonnet.

So…how do you turn them on? Don't tell me it's got anything to do with the headlight stalk; I haven't figured that thing out in the last 6 years either!

No, I can't think of any reason I would actually use them but I would like to have them working and know how to illuminate them.

 

If you mean the rear trunk, are you sure those aren't the number (license) plate lights? (I.e., are they on the underside rear edge of the engine bonnet?)

 

Those are the license plate lights.

 

No there are trunk lights. Every 328 had them. They use the parking lights to illuminate the trunk.

 

I'll be darned! Yep, parking lights illuminate the two trunk lights. Thanks RD!

As RD noted, these are TRUNK (or bonnet, or luggage compartment - whatever you choose to call it) lights. They are not the license plate lights. I had never noticed the little clear plastic lenses on the portion of the trunk liner that fits against the back side of the taillights. I have had the driver side liner out in the past, when I switched the microplex from the US to the Euro timing setting, but I didn't notice the little lens or, if I did, I dismissed it as some unknown Italian thing.

 

I'll be darned! Yep, parking lights illuminate the two trunk lights. Thanks RD!

As RD noted, these are TRUNK (or bonnet, or luggage compartment - whatever you choose to call it) lights. They are not the license plate lights. I had never noticed the little clear plastic lenses on the portion of the trunk liner that fits against the back side of the taillights. I have had the driver side liner out in the past, when I switched the microplex from the US to the Euro timing setting, but I didn't notice the little lens or, if I did, I dismissed it as some unknown Italian thing.

In the future, if I ever buy another 328 I'll be sure to check to see if those lights are working and, if not, I'll reject the car based on the obviously poor maintenance!

 

I still suspect that even with those lights you'll feel like Ray Charles groping around in the trunk at night.

 

Just turn on the headlights....they should come on

 

Now if I could just find a replacement for the magnified map light bulb in My GTB the lighting would be awesome.

 

yip. mine comes on with the parking lights..

 

I remember wondering about those a while ago and looked at the wiring diagram to see where they were fed from. Fairly useless in fact, they would not be lit at any time when you actually needed them!

 

andy, its for night time driving, when you park off the road, needing something from the trunk, no torch needed,

 

Well, you got the portable light that plug under the dashboard for that; wait, if it is in the tool kit or in the jack kit, you have to find it in the dark before...

Rgds

 

yes the test light, very rare...

 

LOL!

In addition to not being able to figure out the light stalk in 6 years, I have also never figured out that trouble light in the sense of "who thought this was a good idea?" I suppose one could argue that your flashlight batteries might be dead so the trouble light would always have car-battery power. I guess you would use it to replace an alternator, AC, or water pump belt with one from the tool kit some dark night on the side of the road.

 

Nowhere.

They don't come on with the parking lights. They *are* the running lights.
They just added a couple of lenses that let the running lights shine through into the rear storage area.

Notice that, in cars that have the rear lights swapped, those lenses would be illuminated from the back-up lights.

 

That is not the configuration on my '89 US 328. The "trunk lights" are a specific/separate bulb/socket on the back side of each taillight assembly for the sole purpose of lighting the trunk.

Added a few minutes later: I just found the specific wiring/listing in the US '89 328 wiring diagram shown as "luggage compartment Illumination" and specifying 5W bulbs for that purpose and showing that they illuminate, as RD said, with the parking lights.

 

Same here on my two '89 euro cars, Mike; 80515, the GTS; and 81085, the GTB, have these lights, just like your car: two small plastic lenses inside the trunk, with their specific bulbs, in the middle of the carpeting, on the rear bulkhead, facing the inside of the trunk to "illuminate" it.
Perhaps our cars, being '89, are the "Lusso" version of the 328? ("Lusso" meaning: "luxury").
Well, if Rifledriver says all 328 have these, that is the definitive word for me.
Rgds

 

Neo - yep, just like mine. Also…concur with your comments re RifleDriver. And I totally agree with his observation re actual light supplied. Those "Luggage compartment illumination " lights constitute a serious stretch of the word, "illumination."