Interior Dome Lights Work Only When Door Is Opened

[6SPD]

Just like the title says. My interior dome lights work only when the doors are opened. When it comes to driving (with the doors closed) the lights won't turn on if I attempt to switch them on. Is this a familiar issue for anyone?

It's an 87 325E

Also to note, central locking is not working. I'm going to be doing that trick where you cut the constant hot loop that goes into the drivers door from the A pillar next week when I'm home from school.

[e30jake]

The plastic switches (the part that you actually move) might have just broken. Can you turn them off so the lights don't come on with the doors open?

[archie]

Posted this today about my 87 M3, very similar problem.
My interior lights work perfectly as they should when the key is on in the Aux mode or car is running.
But when the key is turned off or even taken out he lights in the delay mode just stays on constantly.

[monty23psk]

The black switch that you move has 2 legs. Depending on the position of the switch it will make contact with the bulb that is receive 12v to close the circuit. If you, you place the switch in the middle position, it will turn the light off, but if a leg is broken it will also keep the light on. Also, if door switch is bad or making a bad contact it can feed the 12v to the bulb housing in a different way.