Wow Michael, what a diagnostic journey! Sounds like troubleshooting an electrical problem I had with my 1976 911E years back... That being said, if only one of the door lights comes on and the other stays dark, then this would be indicative of what you encountered and only then would I start getting into door panels, etc. What a find though! On my 911E, it was a funky short where the metal behind the interior light was grounding to the body. I fixed it with a bit of electrical tape covering the metal...
Fixed my intermittent switch today. The silicon spray worked brilliantly. This is the first thing to try if you have issues with the switches. But as has been said before be very careful when removing the switch as it's very delicate. The spade connector on the end of the switch can get caught in the rubber grommet and snap off while you're trying to wiggle the aluminium cover past the rubber door strips. I learned this the hard way The cables were pretty tight in the grommet and stopping the switch from moving against it's spring but after a few sprays of silicon lube they now move in and out easily and after putting everything back together the door switch works perfectly every time the door is opened. Viola !!!!! Thanks for all the advice.
Great news!... On the spade connector, did this actually break off the circular bit to which it is attached or did the whole lot separate from the switch (meaning that you got a small metal donut with a tab still attached)? If the latter, this happened to me as well and it was a simple case of super gluing it back on to the brown insulating bit (think I mentioned this earlier on). I forgot to mention that my approach was to remove the switches while the cover plate was still in place and then gently pull the female connectors off the spade while holding the latter with needle-nosed pliers so that it does not stress the tab where it connects to the circular bit. Wish I had mentioned this earlier!!!... Best, John.
Hi John, The tab was still attached to the donut...it was the insulating washer that disintegrated. Probably on it's way out anyway. I glued it back together and all works perfectly. Thanks for all the advice. Another niggly job done
Got mine to work. I first did the silicone spray in the wire hole and that helped a bit. Especially for the passenger door. Driver door was still intermittent. I installed a 5mm washer (split it myself) as suggested, which was no easy task getting in there, and bingo! Dome lights work again. Also there was a good amount of black gunk on the spade connector which I sanded off with fine grit sandpaper. I'm sure that didn't help with connectivity either.
Glad to hear you got it fixed Steve! The washer is a bit of a pain but worth the effort as I think that it does away with the intermittent tendency of the electrical connection, especially if the spring is weak. Furthermore, cleaning that whole contact area doesn't do any harm either...
Can someone post a pic of where this switch is? Can't seem to locate it. I'm curious to see why my buzzer not working. It's connected at buzzer in footwell.
here you go ignition lock and backside switch wiring with "key-in-ignition" part on the left . Image Unavailable, Please Login
I don't know if any of you folks are still around, but I have a slightly different problem. 1984 308 GTS Euro - only one switch on the driver's door. I removed the switch and the light is still lit (not on the passenger side). I think I have a short on one of the two wires, but I NEVER FIGURED THE WIRES WERE ALSO IN THE DOOR!! Your picture shows them there all right! Now, which way should I start hunting? I guess remove the inner door panel, but what if it's the wire that leads back to the fuse?? Which is more probably to be shorted? Hoping for an answer and hope you are all well, too! Quasimotor
Is the light still on if you remove the wire connector from the button? The door button merely makes the ground connection for the light circuit when not depressed. If the light stays lit with the wire disconnected from the button, then that wire is shorted to ground somewhere.
