Westy Kitchen Light-Sliding Door having to be open

[amishman]

Have my 1987 Syncro at a shop in Sacramento being serviced.

Kitchen Lights that run off the new house battery they installed last year did not work so had them looking at that.

Tech called me back and said the kitchen lights above the stove will not work unless the sliding door is open.

Is that true the way VW wired them up?

I have owned 2 Diesel Westies and one 89 Syncro westy in my days and don't remember having to have the slider open for these lights to work.

Sounds loopy to me.

I seem to remember past westies lights working fine with slider shut. Unless I just lucked out and every one I owned someone disabled that wiring or something.

TJ
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tj (the Amishman)

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[MarkWard]

Yes Loopy.
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[dobryan]

Maybe a PO wired them up so if he opened the slider the kitchen lights would come on and provide interior light to enter by? Definitely not a stock setup.
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Dave O
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[amishman]

[MarkWard]

No their excuse is loopy. On our 82 from the factory, the kitchen light shares the power supply of the domelight, but the domelight is switched on and off via grounds being completed at the door jams or if the actual domelight is switched to on. In other words the dome light always has power, just no ground. I am pretty sure the kitchen light is the same.

So, it sounds like a ground needs to be added for the kitchen light to me. Easy enough to run a short ground wire to the chassis once you verify how the switch on the kitchen light is wired.
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[amishman]

What I find off is he said 3 other Westies in the shop same thing..... only kitchen lights work if slider open.

Either he is fibbing or??

Anyway, said he can wire it so the slider does not have to stay open but I find it all odd and not stock, unless my camper a PO did something to it.

Could have sworn my lights worked fine when connected to main battery with slide shut before they installed a new house battery.

TJ
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tj (the Amishman)

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[danfromsyr]

it is difficult to reach over and turn them on w/o opening the door 1st
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[geo_tonz]

This one comes on when the door is open if the switch on it is in the right position. It can also be turned on with the doors closed with the switch on it, or set to be off all the time (centre position on switch). It has power all of the time (red wire) and the manual switch and door switches interrupt the ground (brown wire).

This one is not wired to the door switches and only turns on with it's switch, though it is on the same circuit as the other light (iirc). I believe it also has power all the time (red wire) with the switch interrupting the ground (black inside this light, but probably connected to brown if not grounded directly to the chassis).

Neither of these light styles require the key to be on and either one can be turned on without opening doors, but only the dome lights (top one) can be switched to turn on when the door opens.

Your shop doesn't know how to wire the lights. I'd question their ability to fix them.

My guess is they pulled power and ground from one of the dome lights for your kitchen light. They attached the ground to the terminal (or spliced to the ground wire) controlled by the door INSTEAD of the constant ground (the one that lets you switch the dome light on with the doors closed) or the chassis. Wired wrong. If you explain this and they can't see what they did wrong you have your van at the wrong shop!
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"Ron Burgundy": 1991 Vanagon Multivan (Weekender) 2.1L Auto - Driver/Camper

[geo_tonz]

This image is from a beetle but it's the same. Only one ground (brown wire) terminal is being used in this instance (plus the + red wire of course) but you can see there are 2 ground terminals and these are both used in the Vanagon. One is for a constant ground. Switch it to that and the light comes on regardless of door position. Your kitchen light ground SHOULD be wired to that or grounded directly to the chassis. Kitchen light power should be drawn from the red wire (spliced or duplex connector). The other ground terminal is where a ground from the door switches connects. Switch it to that and the light only comes on when ANY door is opened. This is where your kitchen light ground (or maybe your power ) is WRONGLY wired to. If they really messed it up and drew power from the door ground circuit instead of the red wire it would only turn on with the doors open and it will be drawing power through the bulb of the dome light. If they did that pack your van up and leave!

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"Ron Burgundy": 1991 Vanagon Multivan (Weekender) 2.1L Auto - Driver/Camper