Re: Spider Interior Lights and Door Chime Help

[Hal Taylor <taylor@domain.elided>]

Ken,

The courtesy lights in the foot wells are operated by switches in the door
jambs.  Look around the door hinges and you should see some little posts
sticking out, which will readily press in if you push them with your finger.
The back of these little posts are a simple switch that grounds the a circuit
and turns on the courtesy lights.  THese switches routinely get dirty and
corroded.  Try some electrical contact cleaner or WD 40  to clean them up, and
it'll likely solve your problem.  Same goes for the door chime (which is more
like a "door buzz" on my '86; don't know how yours should sound).

Note also that the courtesy lights are switches themselves.  They should rock
left to right.  THe center position is automatic, on a timed relay triggered by
the door switches.  If I remember correctly, left is always on, and right is
always off (but it might be vice versa).

The coupler in your glove box was most likely for a map light option.  I don't
remember if the courtesy light in there works unless the running lights are on.

Hal

Ken Ross wrote:

> My "new" 1990 Spider doesn't seem to have any working interior courtesy
> lights and the door chime doesn't work (manual says the car has a door
> chime).  The three courtesy lights that don't work are the two lights under
> the dash for the driver and passenger, and the light in the glove box.  I
> checked the fuses and the bulbs and everything seems ok.  Does anyone have
> any ideas as to what could be wrong?  I checked one ground in the engine
> compartment, but I really do not know what to look for and where the other
> grounds are located.  In case it matters, the courtesy light in the engine
> compartment and trunk do work.  My rear fog lights also stopped working
> yesterday, so perhaps this problem is somehow related.
>
> Another interesting thing I found was an electrical coupler in the glove box
> which wasn't plugged into anything (it runs behind the glove box but was
> sticking in the glove box compartment and the two wires that ran out of the
> coupler were red and black). Perhaps this is for a power antenna option?  If
> not, any suggestions would be appreciated since I have no idea where to
> start.  TIA.
>
> Ken Ross

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