Rover Mini interior light

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Hey guys,

Since I finally decided to do some work on the little bastard, I figured I'd work on the small things until parts arrive. One of the things that drives me nuts is that the interior light works, but doesn't turn on with the door open. I decided to pop it out, and I'm not getting a 12V signal on the wire, even with both doors open. I figured with both doors open it shouldn't be a switch issue, but I don't know how to trace the wiring since I can't figure out how to remove the headliner. All the fuses are rock solid.

Any tips? I don't want to remove the dash to trace the switches until I have to, since apparently I'm having a hell of a time taking the cluster out of the dash.

Cheers,
LDS

[Willie_B]

With a door open it provides a ground to the light, not voltage. Do you have voltage on the wire at the back of the door switch with the switch pushed in or the wire removed?

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

It's one of these http://minispares.com/product/Classic/Electrics/Lamps/Auxiliary/AFU4092.aspx?090902&ReturnUrl=/search/classic/interior%20light.aspx

It's a 3 pole switch with 2 positives and ground.

Essentially

ON (DOOR)
OFF-------------------(BULB)----------------- GND
ON (CONSTANT)

If I switch it to on, where I get a 12V, it works fine. If I switch it to door, there's no 12V signal. If I swap the wires around for door/constant, the switch still works (albeit the other way).

I can't see the switch controlling the ground in this scenario. I'm also having a hell of a time finding the proper wiring diagram in the haynes manual.

[Willie_B]

How many wires are connected to the light assy? Should be 3, one straight to ground, one to the door switches and the hot 12vdc wire. Do you have a test meter, check to see if one of the wires has continuity to the door switch. With the door closed the wire should show none, open the door to see if it changes.


http://www.minimania.com/images/wiring/PDFs/wiring12.pdf

wiring diagram from MM site

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Ok, so light is 20, door switches are 21/22. From what I can see, they're still supposed to provide power, not ground.

Here's the light. You can see the ground on the far right (black), the hot on top left, and the door on bottom left.

Switch set to off


Switch set to on (hot)


Switch set to on (door)


I was playing around, and if I put it to on (hot) using the door wire as a ground, I could initially get a dim light out of the LED, and sometimes I would see a 5v difference between the two, but it eventually disappeared.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Not surprisingly, you were right. The switches both had bad grounds. Popped em off, sanded off some paint, rewired the light so it's Hot -> switch -> door, and it works like a charm. The problem now is that since I'm using an LED instead of a 2-way interior bulb, I can't use the hot on the right, and the ground/door on the left, which means I've effectively lost the always on position.

Thanks 1-way current LED bulb.

[Willie_B]

Great. One thing off the list, now on to mini many others.