Davidvette67

My sons 1992 coupe has two electrical problems. First problem all the courtesy lights in the car will not go on when he opens the drivers side door. When you open the passenger door courtesy lights work fine. Headlight courtesy switch works fine. When you open the rear hatch courtesy works fine.

Second problem is the Hatch button on drivers side door doesn't work. The hatch button in center console and passenger door works fine.

Here is what I've done/checked so far:

I removed the drivers side door panel and checked the courtesy light wires and it has power. When i touched the test light to the hatch switch leads the hatch opened without hitting switch. I checked the ground leads and they look ok. Door locks, window and mirror switches all work fine in door. When I insert key in drivers side lock with door closed and turn it, courtesy lights go on. Car has two DAB relays in fuse box i have no way of checking to see if they are bad but I swapped both of them to see if it solved the problem but it didn't. ( I can buy two new ones and see if it solves problem.

More information:

Stock radio had been repaced with an Alpine by a previous owner. I purchased a new alpine that has an Ipod hook up and swapped it out. Car also had a K9 aftermarket alarm which didn't work properly. I carefully removed it and repaired any cut wires during original. installation. Radio does turn off when you open passenger door (DAB Relay) but not when you open drivers side door. ANY recommendations to solve the problem would be appreciated. Thanks in advance David

pkazsr

I have the exactly the same problem with my pass. door. I haven't tried to fix it yet but if you try a piece of wire from the ground on the door to the frame you might narrow the problem down to a bad ground in the harness to the door.
You might get a few more ideas in the Tech/Performance Forum

Davidvette67

I'll try adding a ground. When he got the car both items did work. Then it would work intermitantly and now finally it doesn't.

Davidvette67

I just pulled out hatch switch. There are two leads a white and brownish going to switch. I took an aligator clip and clipped it to the door striker on jamb and touched white lead and courtesy light came on. So it looks like a ground problem. How do I fix it ? and where do I attach gound lead.

kingcato

exact same thing is happening to my car right now, any help?

Old Ben

The problem is with the door ajar switch on the door. It controls the lights and enables the rear hatch button. It is a simple fix but does require a little caution. A simple check to verify is to look at the dash with the ignition on and see if the door ajar light is on when the door is open.

The switch is about $20 at auto supply stores. There is a certain sequence that you need to follow to change it. Do you have the FSM?

I have replaced these on my 1992 LT1 and it is very easy.
In case you don't have a manual on this you can change them without removing the door panel as follows.
1. You need to get another screw the same size as the ones holding them in but longer. Remove the top screw and replace it with the longer one so that the longer one sticks out.
2. Remove the bottom screw completely
3. twist the switch to the side enough to uncover the bottom screw hole and replace the oroginal screw in the bottom hole and tognten it down.
4. Remove the longer top screw and pull switch out of it's hole and replace the short screw in the top hole and tighten down.
5. When pulling out the switch, the clip on the wires will want to hook on the hole but with care you can pry it enough to pull the connector and wires through.
6. Unplug the wires and plug on the new switch.
7. Push the wires and connector back into the hole.
8.Remove short screw from top and replace with longer screw through door ajar switch.
9.Twist switch to the side and remove short bottom screw and replace it through the switch.
10. Remove longer top screw and replace with oroginal screw and job is done.

The entire job takes less time than it took to write these instructions.

kingcato

do you know the part number for the new switch by chance? thanks for the help

Old Ben

Sorry but I do not remember the part number. All you need to do is tell them what you want at the parts store.

Also just noticed this is an old thread. It is policy that a new one be started instead of reactivating an old one.

One correction on the how to is that #5 needs to be done before #3.