Courtesy light switches (Again)

[paulio]

Hi All,

X reg 1.4 petrol. 

I had a problem with the starter motor not engaging so I made sure everything was off, closed all the doors, waited 10 mins, unhooked the battery, took the filter box off, undid the bolts on the starter motor, undid the nuts holding the wires on, cleaned & lubed the sliding cog & shaft, put everything back, connected the battery, waited 10 mins, turned on the headlights, waited a few seconds, and tried to start the car. The starter motor worked fine (  ). It caught & fired up for about half a second then died & has refused to even think about starting (it turns over fine) ever since.

I have tried all of the 'correct' methods for bringing the BSI/Immobiliser back up that I have found (various wait times, various lights, etc.).

One thing that's bugging me though is that every method says that all doors must be shut when you do this.

Now, my Berlingo always (with very rare & short-lived exceptions) thinks that there's a door open & I'm wondering whether this is screwing up the reboot process.

On the drivers door pillar there is a courtesy light switch. I undid the screw, pulled it out, and found that there were no wires clipped to it. They must have been pulled off somehow, I thought. I removed the trim in the footwell, and the rubber gromit around the wires going to the door, and still couldn't find the switch wires.
A quick Google says that the front door courtesy switch is part of the lock. There are indeed two wires going to the lock.
(Why put a door switch in a car when it isn't used/wired up????)
I put a meter across them & sure enough closing/opening the door opens/closes the circuit. 
So the driver's door's ok. Tested passenger door, also OK.

The sliding doors ALSO have courtesy light switches in the pillar. Now then, as there're no wires going into the door I'm assuming that these actually work, but I don't know as I can't get them out.
They're covered by a circular rubber gromit that pulls off to reveal a circular plastic switch with three semicircular notches around the edge.
I've tried carefully levering it out. I've tried rotating it as far as it will go in either direction & levering it out. I've tried rotating it to the point where it feels loosest & levering it out...
The bugger won't budge.

Now then, the questions: 
1: Given that that the front pillar switch is there when it isn't used, and given that there are no wires going to the sliding door, what's the chance that the courtesy switch for the sliding door is the one that I'm trying to get out?
2: How do I get it out so that I can see whether there are any wires attached to it?

Any and all help gratefully accepted.

Many thanks.

[brodfather11]

As an x reg (2000) does your berlingo have a Bsi ?, I though they were fitted  from 2001 onwards .  (I may be wrong !).

Have you rechecked the wiring on the starter solenoid.?,  a wire off or bad connection can cause a lot of confusion . Seems strange it only gave trouble after you fixed the starter and as for the correct  procedure refitting a battery I found that it never gave me any problems if it was thrown on and just started and didn't go through the rigmarole.
 As for the courtesty light switch in the door pillar there should be wires attached, if they are not and are just hanging there  they could be  earthing through the inside of the pillar  causing the light on all the time.   The two wires to the lock could be the central locking wires.

[paulio]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Yep, it's got a BSI. It seems to be a real mix of 2000 / 2001 designs. Although the front doors have the central locking style locks, all but two of the connection points on them are blanked off and there is no central locking system.

I did eventually get the switches in the centre pillar out. They're designed to be fitted & never removed. The lugs that expand behind the hole when fitted do not in any way match the little cutouts there are around the hole. The only option is brute-force levering.

So, all of the switches on the front & side doors check out OK. Everything I've read (including the Haynes manual) says that there is a courtesy light switch on the back door (single lift-up type).
There is no switch set anywhere on the body around the door. There is no switch anywhere on the door itself. There are no wires going to the lock mechanism (believe me, I looked!). There are no wires going to the lock catch.

Is there actually no switch? Or have they done something so cunning that you could pin a tail on it & call it Mr Fox?
[Update: Saw someone planning to fit a 'pin switch' as his didn't have one, so I guess some don't]

Also, if all of the switches are OK, I guess that means one of two things. Either the positive line to the switches is earthing somewhere (not fun as it's a common positive), or my BSI is just bonkers.

Very occasionally, for a day or so, I get no 'door open' light, and the courtesy light works exactly as it should.
The rest of the time the 'door open' light comes on when you turn the ignition on, and stays on.
At the end of a long journey it will be off, but I've never actually timed how long it takes to go off.

Paul
 

[paulio]

Hiya,

Regarding the wires to the solenoid question...

They're all back where they were & don't feel broken,

There are two that attach to the big bolt on the top (one a bit bigger than the other), and a little one that connects to a smaller bolt off centre.

I'm guessing that the small one comes from the ignition to pull the solenoid and feed the power from the big one to the motor.
What would the other one attached to the top of the solenoid be for?

Would any of these three not connecting properly cause it to turn over OK but not fire?


Thanks

[brodfather11]

Hi , You can get it scanned and see what trouble codes there are , gives you a clue as to the problem.