916 Old Dood
New Member
My 03 EB had the door ajar/dome light on problem, so thought I'd share what I learned.
After spraying all the latches with wd-40 didn't work, I had to find which switch was causing my problems
and I didn't want to dissasemble all 4 doors. There's another way.
To do this it's helpful to have an assistant but flying solo will work too.
Start the car up and start driving. At 10 mph the dome lights will go off regardless of bad switches.
Once they go off, pull over and put car in park, and open the first suspect door from the inside. If the dome light comes on, the switch is ok. Repeat the process (including driving to 10 mph to dim the domes) until you get to the door that doesn't turn the dome light on. That's your culprit. In my case I had 2 problem switches - both passenger side doors.
After removing the swtiches from the doors, both had the same issue. The circular crimp on the metal part had worked itself off and the assembly came apart.
View media item 6200
The switches run from over 60 bucks at the dealer to around 30 each online, but since the switch itself wasn't bad, just the crimp, I decided to repair the switch with a pop rivet. 3 cents.
First I removed the spring, plunger and contacts from the metal dome. The 1/8" rivet I used is also
pictured. You need one with a short grab range on it on it. 5/32 will work too.
View media item 6201
Note where the metal contacts are inside the plastic housing. I put the rivet perpendicular to those. Clean all the parts, lube up with your favorite lube. Reassemble the 2 housings without the spring, plunger and contact, just slip the housing over until fully seated over the notch. Mark the housing where shown here.
View media item 6203
Drill through the metal and plastic (one side only not all the way through) and make sure the rivet slips in easily but dont pop it yet. Take the 2 pieces back apart and clean any shavings.
Now reassemmble the unit staring with the plunger, then the contacts, then the spring. Note where the contacts must be aligned in relation to the notch to mate with the contacts in the plastic housing.
View media item 6204
Now place your pop rivet in and snap it shut. Note that it will not slip in all the way at first as the head is touching the plunger inside. As you pull the riveter it will crunch the rivet enough to pull it tight and clear the plunger. You now have a repaired door ajar switch that wont come apart again!
View media item 6202
Hope this helps someone avoid the frustration I went through. This worked on my 03 YMMV with other models/years I reckon.
After spraying all the latches with wd-40 didn't work, I had to find which switch was causing my problems
and I didn't want to dissasemble all 4 doors. There's another way.
To do this it's helpful to have an assistant but flying solo will work too.
Start the car up and start driving. At 10 mph the dome lights will go off regardless of bad switches.
Once they go off, pull over and put car in park, and open the first suspect door from the inside. If the dome light comes on, the switch is ok. Repeat the process (including driving to 10 mph to dim the domes) until you get to the door that doesn't turn the dome light on. That's your culprit. In my case I had 2 problem switches - both passenger side doors.
After removing the swtiches from the doors, both had the same issue. The circular crimp on the metal part had worked itself off and the assembly came apart.
View media item 6200
The switches run from over 60 bucks at the dealer to around 30 each online, but since the switch itself wasn't bad, just the crimp, I decided to repair the switch with a pop rivet. 3 cents.
First I removed the spring, plunger and contacts from the metal dome. The 1/8" rivet I used is also
pictured. You need one with a short grab range on it on it. 5/32 will work too.
View media item 6201
Note where the metal contacts are inside the plastic housing. I put the rivet perpendicular to those. Clean all the parts, lube up with your favorite lube. Reassemble the 2 housings without the spring, plunger and contact, just slip the housing over until fully seated over the notch. Mark the housing where shown here.
View media item 6203
Drill through the metal and plastic (one side only not all the way through) and make sure the rivet slips in easily but dont pop it yet. Take the 2 pieces back apart and clean any shavings.
Now reassemmble the unit staring with the plunger, then the contacts, then the spring. Note where the contacts must be aligned in relation to the notch to mate with the contacts in the plastic housing.
View media item 6204
Now place your pop rivet in and snap it shut. Note that it will not slip in all the way at first as the head is touching the plunger inside. As you pull the riveter it will crunch the rivet enough to pull it tight and clear the plunger. You now have a repaired door ajar switch that wont come apart again!
View media item 6202
Hope this helps someone avoid the frustration I went through. This worked on my 03 YMMV with other models/years I reckon.
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