93 e34 Interior lighting issues

[Byron]

Hello everyone,
I have a weird interior (map and rear reading) lighting problem on my recently purchased e34. First off, the passenger side rear reading light does not work at all, tried replacing the bulb but no luck. Second, according to the owners manual, the front maplights each have a three position switch that enables each light to be always on, off, or on when the doors open. For some reason, the only time any lights turn on when I open the doors is when the center map light switch is set to the "on when doors open" position and the two other map light switches are set to off. Even then, only the driver's side rear reading light comes on. If I turn either of the left or right map lights on or set them to turn on when the doors open, nothing comes on. The center map light only works when I set either of the side map lights on while that light is set to turn on when opening the doors, and it's a very dimm light at best. I'm going here, anyone have any input? I would greatly appreciate it.

[talltorontoguy]

Hi Byron,

I had a similar but not exactly the same problem. My map lights would only turn on if the center light was on, and sometimes they wouldn't work when the door opened. They should all be able to set to come on when the doors open.

I took the light out and found that the switch terminals had worn a little so they no longer made contact with the metal strip they are supposed to touch against. I bent the strips a little, and in one case had to put a drop of solder on the strip to get contact.

The light comes out by prying the panel out of the headliner and disconnecting the clip. Once removed, you can take the lens off the light by pressing in the little clips that you see around edges... I think there are 4.

Rod

Hello everyone,
I have a weird interior (map and rear reading) lighting problem on my recently purchased e34. First off, the passenger side rear reading light does not work at all, tried replacing the bulb but no luck. Second, according to the owners manual, the front maplights each have a three position switch that enables each light to be always on, off, or on when the doors open. For some reason, the only time any lights turn on when I open the doors is when the center map light switch is set to the "on when doors open" position and the two other map light switches are set to off. Even then, only the driver's side rear reading light comes on. If I turn either of the left or right map lights on or set them to turn on when the doors open, nothing comes on. The center map light only works when I set either of the side map lights on while that light is set to turn on when opening the doors, and it's a very dimm light at best. I'm going here, anyone have any input? I would greatly appreciate it.

[Byron]

Thanks Rod, I'll give that a try.