'92 525i Interior Lights do not work

[imnprsd]

My interior lights do not work at all. The rest of my lighting systems are okay, however, so I don't know where to begin. Any ideas?

[Paul in NZ]

check yer fuses,under the bonnet/hood

[Kalevera]

Assuming that there isn't some kind of operator error (ie., switch turned off), try the following:

Pull the dome light, check for power. Brown is ground, green or red should be hot (I forget what color it is). If there's power at the connector, there are a few things to check:

Pull the relay module in the rear power distribution box and stick a fused jumper between pins 6 and 10 on the harness side. If the lights still don't work, there's a wiring problem in the dome light or somewhere in the harness. If they do light, disconnect the battery, reconnect the relay module and unplug the general module. Jumper harness pin 16 for the GM to ground and reconnect the battery. If the lights work, the GM is bad; if they're still not working, the relay module isn't getting power (for any number of reasons) or the relay module itself is bad.

From experience: the dome light is a weird design and internal wiring faults can make it act up.

Good luck!

best, whit

[imnprsd]

I checked the door microswitch and it's okay.

To me the door microswitch is normally open and when you lift the lever it closes the circuit (short) which tells the CM the door lever has been lifted. You can test this without removing the lock by first removing the door pannel and separating the right-most (gray) connector and doing a continuity test; i.e., when lifting the door handle the meter should indicate a short.

In my case the door switch is okay.... So why aren't my interior lights getting power? I'm now thinking it's the relay in the CM. However, I'm always open to new ideas.

Question: There are three electrical connections to the door handle and all three are nicely accessable and color coded. There is a white, yellow, and gray connector.... but what do they do?

...I know the gray connector is the door micro switch since it shorts out when you open the door handle.

... And the yellow switch has 12V going on one side and gnd on the other, but I'm not sure what it does?

.... And the which switch is completely unknown to me.

Anyone know what the yellow and white connectors are for?

[imnprsd]

Just to clarify, my map lights are NOT getting power. The fuses check out fine, and my door microswitch seems to be opperating correctly (...the gray connector anyway).

The schematics suggest the map light should get power directly from the fuse box, but I may not be reading it correctly. At this point, I'm heading for the control module, unless someone can tell me what the white colored connector for the door handle does. It seems to be closed (shorted) all the time... and when I separate it...which creates an open condition... it does not seem to have any affectl Maybe the white connector is for the alarm system???? My car is prewired for an alarm, but there is not alarm unit installed.

Need help!

[uscharalph]

I don't think the PO of my car used the maps light at all, so they didn't seem to be working. I just played around with the switches and they started to work. Kind of funny huh?

[Javier]

Just to clarify, my map lights are NOT getting power.
Javier