Rear dome light wiring

[Rizz280s]

Hi all (again),

I have a short between the rear dome light and the rear dome light switch. My question, what path does the live wire run from the switch to the dome light? Where is it most likely to be shorting?
Pulling out the dome light, it appears to run to the passenger side, despite the switch being on the driver's side next to the steering wheel. I dont want to pull down the roof liner, because it was re-done a short time before I bought the car and it is in good condition (a rare feature in this car!)

Many thanks

Rizz

[Bartman4800]

It should be easy to measure a short between the wire and earth (car body) using a multimeter.

If it has shorted, use the existing wire to pull in a new one...


Bart

[Rizz280s]

Wow, that's a great idea - simple and effective. Probably better than just patching up an old wire too.

Cheers Bart!

[Rizz280s]

I finally learned how to use my multimeter and autoelectrics don't seem so daunting anymore. Woohoo

Turns out that there is additional wiring on the rear dome circuit: rear door jamb switches that turn on the dome light when the rear doors are opened, bypassing the rear dome switch. These were fed in to the rear dome switch and were causing the short (image, switch on the right).
The original rear dome wiring is fine thankfully.
The switches look like aftermarket Hella "door contact switches". Any idea if these were original in the 280S/8?

[Bartman4800]

Hi,

The door switches in my finnie (predecessor of the W108) look very similar.

Hella is a German manufacturer and I would not be surprised it was on of MB's suppliers for this particular part

I thought only the front ceiling light (near the rear view mirror) comes on with opening the doors

By the way: the denominator /8 is used for the W115/W114 chassis. Yours is a W108

Bart