Courtesy lights

[deanrosc]

were you going past duxbury golf course along wigan road the other day? I was turning towards adlington and saw a volvo like yours.

If the courtesy lights were on it was definitely me lol!

[cootuk]

I believe the microswitches are inside the door locks themselves.
Looking at the wiring diagrams they are all interconnected so how would they isolate the fault? Would they deliberately wire closed the other locks (to fake the door being closed) whilst leaving one open, closing that door and checking the lights going out...then do that for each lock?

I think that is why they would not commit to a time to isolate which lock is at fault. Yet another example of carefully designed in faults!

Chris

Cootuk,

You are right about the switches. On Saturday, we disconnected the plug to each door in turn, but the lights remained on. The thought process then was that maybe the delay timer for the lights was stuck open.

After much ringing around, and checking on t'internet, we (wrongly as it happens)came to the conclusion that the fault was in the alarm control module as this is where the courtesy delay is?.

After some shouting and indignation again with the dealer, they agreed to look at the car again. I asked to speak with the technician to tell him what we had found and within a few minutes we found the problem!

BOTH door switches on the rear doors had failed. This was ascertained by opening each door in turn, and using a blunt screwdriver to 'close' the doorlock with the door still open. As you do this, each doorlight should go off, but both my rear doors remained open circuit.

I had a choice, leave the interior overhead lights switched off permanently and remove the bulbs from the rear doors to stop the battery drain, or have 2 new locks fitted at about £200 EACH. I thought long and hard about it (well at least 1 nanosecond) and decided to pull the bulbs out. Everthing OK now!

If anybody knows if it is posssible to repair/replace the switches, please let me know.

Thanks

Chris

[Chris_Rogers]

Give the locks/switches a good squirt with penetrating oil/ WD40. Work the latch back and forth with the door handle operated as you have when testing.
This will usually free the door switches up, may take a while.

[cootuk]

The rear doors don't need a key, so why not try a scrapyard?
Obviously you can't guarantee the switches inside will work....

Or maybe alter the wiring so the rear doors are out of the system completely, or linked to the front doors, or something like that?

Chris,

Funny you should say that. I read a thread on brickboards today saying the very same thing. They recommended removing the lock. Do you think it will work without removing them?

I stupidly told my local breaker today that Volvo wanted £200 each for a lock. He now thinks that asking 'only £50 each' is a bargain! If the door is included as well, it probably would be.

Gonna try the WD40 me thinks.


Chris

[Chris_Rogers]

Nothing to loose, it works on my tailgate.

You need to get the fluid well inside the the lock to where the switch is and be persistant with moving the latch back and forth.