Driver door always thinks it's open...?

Here's the back story:
I have had for the past 3-4 years the typical microswitch problem with my drivers door. If using the key fob the car never recognized that the door was open and wouldn't turn on the interior lights or chime at all. Researched it, determined that I had the microswitch fail and lived with the problem until I decided to fix it.
About a month ago I parked the car and I left my windows down most of the way and it rained pretty hard - directly into the driver side of my car. What immediately happened was that when I was driving down the road my dashlights went out. (Headlights and everything else were fine.) I wiggled the headlight switch because I could think of nothing else to do. They came back on and did this intermittently for my short drive that night. Next day, lights were functioning just fine.
I'm thinking that it is not coincidental that my driver door started turning the light on when I opened it. And it started chiming and the puddle light was working. But it stayed chiming even after I started the car and drove away.
Last weekend I tore the door apart and changed out the microswitch and lubricated the door latch which was very rusted and sticky. The door handle pull feels awesome now . Problem is that now the car still thinks that the door is open because the interior lights stay on (I flipped all the switches so they don't) and the door ajar light is on. The chime does it's thing for a minute and then stops. The key fob will not lock the doors but will unlock them.

We used a test light on pins 7 & 8 and functioned the latch before we reinstalled. I'm quite certain that the switch replacement is proper. I don't want to go back into the door if I don't have to.

Does anyone have an idea here? Am I looking for a bad ground? Maybe a broken wire? It would be fantastic to have a properly functioning door again!

Is the puddle light on the door you repaired on when closed? If so then the switch is bad or incorrectly installed.

did you get a door lock module? after all, it comes with new door latch

I was trying to spend time and $3 before I shelled out over $200 for a new latch. I also don't want to spend the money on a latch only to find a bad ground or broken wire.

Yes, the puddle light is on all of the time. It does eventually shut off after a few hours but that seems to be a VW feature where it'll shut off interior lights if left on accidentally.

n8ronJ said:

I was trying to spend time and $3 before I shelled out over $200 for a new latch. I also don't want to spend the money on a latch only to find a bad ground or broken wire.

Yes, the puddle light is on all of the time. It does eventually shut off after a few hours but that seems to be a VW feature where it'll shut off interior lights if left on accidentally.

Click to expand...

Brand new, revised, control module is $125 from German Auto Parts. I'll probably go this route again (did so with the wife's car) rather than sending one in for a professional rebuild, which is $75 (5 year warranty though, which is pretty impressive).

Any update? I'm having the same problem and the lock module is new VW part. The wires between the door and chasis seem OK, but they are wrapped in tape which I did not unravel. Same with the harnesses behind the hood release handle pane.

The wires are known to break from bending when the door opens and closes.
Tape wont fix that.

Did you scan for codes?

Yes, 01358 was the DTC using VCDS. This is mostly a cold weather problem. It happened last Winter, but not again until recently when the temperatures are in the 30's.
So I'll have to unwrap the wires to see for sure?

That is what is left if your superman x-ray vision doesn't work and you don't have a good way to put a multimeter on each wire to see if it is still in one piece. Sadly, the ability to easily diagnose such things is something the engineers left out.



Cheers,


PH

I seem to recall there are 3 microswitches in the entire unit.
Only 1 that is for the light but if the wires shorted in there maybe it could cause the light to be on?

I tried my new latch assembly before installing it.
Used a big philips screwdriver to latch it closed and pulled the trip to see the results.

Hope you have a warm garage to work in.

Unfortunately I don't. Yesterday the light did go out once the cabin got a little warm. Same thing today. I will have a better look at the WD's in Bentley and see what wire goes to this door ajar light. Thanx for the input.