[tjs72lemans]

Door light switches are hanging along with door lock switches on driver side. Passenger side are in place (never removed).
First question is, my under dash lights stay lit when I push the button in. I also hooked a ground wire and they still stay on. The light switch is not turned to the left to cause these to light. My door locks work as should. Where should I trouble shoot?
Next, my rear passenger side panel lights do not light. Even when I rotate my light switch. How do I get power to them?

[tjs72lemans]

Anyone have any ideas on where to look for solutions? I have power door locks, that's why I mentioned those.

[tjs72lemans]

Got it. Even though my passenger door was closed, the switches were not getting pushed in. I need to figure out how to adjust them out for contact now. It seems one could put washers on before screwing it into the door jam, causing the switch to stick out further.

[MescaBug]

The door jamb switches are self adjusting. You pull it out completely, close the door, and it should self-adjust and stay in that position.

[tjs72lemans]

Not sure how they can be self adjusting. They screw into the jam and the door doesn't contact the push switch at all.
Now today, I went to feed the wires through the driver side through the hole and hook the switch up and it doesn't work. I put a piece of foam in between the passenger door and switch to get that side to close. Under dash lights go off. They should've stayed on because I had the driver side hanging and not pushed in. Now I'm not sure where to check. If I rotate my light switch they come on as they should too.
Maybe I broke a wire inside the sheathing as I was working the two wires through the hole. Is there a way to check for power or does this work only by grounding?

[Shiny]

With passenger door closed and both courtesy and dome lamps "off", I would expect to measure 12V at the white wire connector that mates with the switch on driver side.

The body of the switches will be ground. Screwing them into the door pillar should tie the switch bodies to ground. This seems to be working on the passenger side.

If the lights are "on", I would NOT expect you to measure any voltage as the current flowing through the lamps (resistors) will drop all the voltage.

If you think the driver-side switch may be "bad" (ie is always "open"), you can simply ground the white connector to bare metal on the chassis and the lamps should illuminate. If this doesn't turn the lamps on, then yes, you may have an open wire or bad connection on the other end.

[tjs72lemans]

Thank you. I'll try this tomorrow.
If I remember from my checking things yesterday, I took my test light on the white wire and the other to ground and it didn't light. It sounds like it should have. This is why I thought I messed up the wire (broken connection) when I threaded it through the cavity under the dash and out the hole in door jam.

[Shiny]

With passenger door closed and lamps off, disconnect the driver side white wire from the door switch and ground it.

If the lights don't come on, there's an issue.

A test light may not work well because it will be in series with the other lamp.

[tjs72lemans]

Thanks Shiny. I got it working. Not sure what the issue was. The driver door also has the right clearance to shut the light off when closed. The passenger door is too far away from the switch by about and 1/8" to shut light off. I think I have to adhesive a shim to door there to make it work properly.

[Shiny]

Great news! Glad you avoided crawling under the dash.

[gto4evr]

Originally Posted by tjs72lemans

Not sure how they can be self adjusting. They screw into the jam and the door doesn't contact the push switch at all.
Now today, I went to feed the wires through the driver side through the hole and hook the switch up and it doesn't work. I put a piece of foam in between the passenger door and switch to get that side to close. Under dash lights go off. They should've stayed on because I had the driver side hanging and not pushed in. Now I'm not sure where to check. If I rotate my light switch they come on as they should too.
Maybe I broke a wire inside the sheathing as I was working the two wires through the hole. Is there a way to check for power or does this work only by grounding?

Just to be clear on this, Mescabugs, right, they are self adjusting, but it’s a one time adjustment. See the distance highlighted in blue? See how the one on the right is shorter than the one on the left here? The tube piece highlighted in red slides inside of the threaded nut portion. When they’re new and unadjusted, that tube is up all the way out of the nut. When the door hits the contact post, and it’s too long, it forces the tube to slide into the nut and stops when the doors closed setting the perfect adjustment for it. If the door gets moved or changed afterwards, if it’s closer to the switch then the adjustment happens again first time closed, but if it’s moved away, then the switch would be too short and not make contact so you’d need to get the tube slid back out without killing it so it can reset the adjustment.

[tjs72lemans]

That's interesting. So, the power door lock switch for the seats must be the same design.