Courtesy Light Mystery

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

You know sometimes how you decide you’ll attend to a simple little job... Well....

My rear (Tailgate) courtesy light is fitted to the very rear of the headlining. It’s got a constant feed (blue & green wire, blue is live), so I can ‘test power’ it simply by earthing it; therefore presumably its the earth that’s switched.

Then comes the real strange-ness, the wiring appears to go across the rear of the headlining towards the offside of the vehicle; even though the switch is situated in the tailgate opening (not on the gate itself) on the nearside .

The switch has two wires to it, white & green, neither of which is live regardless of the status of the switch, or the light. Removing, disconnecting or shorting across the switch connector has no effect, including doing so with the temporary earth in place.

Any ideas before I head back to the scrappers and attempt to trace the path of the wiring? [I’ve already removed the tailgate area trims from the scrapper, but haven’t yet removed the headlining and found no sign of any wiring]

A simple courtesy light repair shouldn’t be so difficult!

NB: any ideas also where to look for Earths around the boot area, with the luxury, it being a scrapper, of being able to destroy it at will.... in addition to those around the Tailgate lights, which don't appear to have anything to do with the courtesy light?

NB: if you were the owner of P577 SMW, many of its parts are stored to keep mine on the road... and you appear to have forgotten to claim back your road tax which expires December 2017 !

[Gibbo2286]

I can't remember the colours but the interior light switch has three positions, off, on while the tailgate is open and also on with it closed, this is achieved by using a back feed through the loom with the third wire.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

....a back feed through the loom

Hmm, yes, so I am potentially running it from the 'Back Feed' rather than the main feed... although, possibly it doesn't have one, as the tailgate light, unlike the other three, only has two rather than three wires.

Memo to oneself, never treat any job as 'simple', as this is just encouragement for it to bite you on the behind.

NB: half-reasonable way of getting these out without breaking the fragile 'Tags'..... use feeler gauges rather than a screwdriver.