Electrical

Door Light Switch Cleaning/Replacement

One of my door light switches is inoperative. If I unscrew the nut will it fall off into the void and never to be seen again? And, can I access the circuit from inside the car for testing?

Thanks in advance
Ian F
'88 S4 Auto



that's not a nut, it's the switch body itself. they unscrew towards you. when you do unscrew it, don't pull hard, they're on a short lead.

once you have it out, you'll see the wire is crimped in a terminal on the end of the plastic plunger. the wire side of the switch body is slightly conical, so that the wire terminal centers itself when making contact.

take a very pointy craft knife and scrape the entire area where the end of the terminal makes contact with the end of the body. even though i bought two new switches, they've worked fine since scraping the corrosion from them. it's a pain if the wire is very short, mine barely pulled out of the door. they're not accessible from inside the door frame.

David R. Hendrickson
'88 S4 AT Silver Metallic
Kent, WA