I live by the sea in the San Francisco Bay area.
One of the best places in the world to live! One little problem however.
The air has minute traces of salt in it. When it rains here this salt can work
its way into the car if it gets wet.
I noticed recently that the red light on the side
of one door that comes on when the door is opened was intermittent. Sometimes it
came on other times it did not. The culprit turned out to be minor
corrosion on the door open/closed contact switch. The switch unit (there are two
switches in one assembly) is on the front side surface of the door. It needed to be
disassembled and cleaned.
Before one goes about removing these contact switches, do check
that the bulb in the door is not in fact blown, Pop out the red cover with a
screwdriver and remove the very small bulb (Fig 2). These bulbs are small. I think they
can be found in electronic stores. They look like the kind used in radio station
dials on receivers.If the bulb is OK then chances are
its a bad door contact switch (Fig 3). With the door open and with your finger press a few
times the contact switches. Sometimes the contact may work. To remove
these switches, with a small Philips screwdriver open the two screws attaching
the pair of switches to the door (Fig 4). Then pull the unit out.
Pull it out as much as you can and carefully disconnect the 4 wires from the
switch itself (Fig 5). Be careful that the wires do not slip back into the door
otherwise you will have to remove the door panel to get them back out -- a
bigger job see
Repair of Window Worm Screw
The next task is to disassemble the actual switches (Fig 6). To do this one needs
to press in a small screwdriver on two sides of each switch where there is a
hole (Fig 7). The switch then comes apart and the spring is visible. (Fig
8). The interior of the switch has copper contacts that often get corroded or
dirty. I use a common battery cleaner to clean the contacts. Any
electronics contact cleaning spray will do (Fig 9). Reassemble the switch, check
contacts with an ohm meter and reconnect the switch to the door.
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