Passanger footwell light
 

The passenger footwell light and red light in the door of my 1998 pre facelift don't work when opening the door. I've checked all the fuses and the bulb of the footwell lighting and those all seem fine. I was thinking that the problem would be the micro switch in the door, but the weird part is that the dome light is working when I open the passenger door. Furthermore the drivers side footwell light is not coming on when I open the passenger door, and the passenger side light not when I open the drivers door, I don't know if this is by design of a further indication of my problem.

Further I've got a different problem in the boot, the light is coming on, but it sometimes takes till I've opened the lid all the way. Probably because it needs the small shock the let the microswitch work. Is there any way to lubricate the switch? Or do I need to look for a new one?

From my experience with boot latches it's more likely to be a broken (plastic) part of the mechanism inside, requiring a whole new latch - cheap enough from our sponsors. If you leave it the whole thing can jam extremely inconveniently.
To reinforce that I have a small collection of those exact microswitches, left over from fixing broken boot catches. It's the one part that didn't fail.

My advice would be to buy a spare latch first then start investigating when you have it and can see exactly how it works.

I think boot light switch is a separate switch on PF and integrated in latch on FL. Interior lights are a bit hit and miss for me as well, good workout of door switch usually restores functionality for a while, I think they get corroded due to lack of us on mine (I think it was 1200 miles between last 2 MOT's) Is it showing door open on instrument cluster when it's open (you need to move gear lever in gear as well)?

I've only looked at FL ones, didn't know or expect them to be different TBH.
The FL version microswitch is a component of the latch so in a sense is integrated, but in practice is easily separated (unclipped) and replaced.
It is actuated by a plastic component of the latch that is rather prone to failure and can't be replaced as it's within the body which is riveted together.

Here's a picture of a microswitch removed from one of my (now binned) collection of dodgy boot latches:

I've checked the whole boot area, but couldn't discover any other sensors, so I'm guessing it will be a microswitch. I will look some more into it once I'm done with the timing belt since the battery is disconnected at the moment. Thanks all for the suggestions.

So it turns out there is a separate switch for the boot light in the pre facelift, only in a quite unique design which I didn't recognise as a sensor at first.

http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscwaqcexo.jpg

So I think late engagement is part of the design, but I will try to polish the inside, and lubricate it a bit.

I suspect you need to clean but not lubricate, it probably needs to be dry as any lubricant will slow down the rolling ball.
Intriguing design. :rolleyes:

Good point, thanks +++ .