Interior lights not working

[mk5Eire]

Hi folks. 08 mk5 Gti here.

I’ve noticed the interior lights have stopped working. The footwell lights work and the red LED’s are on in the dome lights but they don’t turn on, regardless whether it’s set to door or just manually. Haven’t checked fuse yet. Boot light and glovebox also not working. Any ideas? If it was the fuse I’d imagine the footwell lights wouldn’t work? Thanks for any help.

[Paul_nicol]

Not particularly helpful, but I have a similar think in my 2005 GTI. Here's what I do know. The lights in the headliner i.e. rear reading light, lights in sunvisor etc are all connected via the same wiring loom. I know this as I replaced my entire headliner wiring loom as it was in tatters, but they still don't work! The lights in the overhead console at the front appears to be connected to a separate harness/connection, seemingly separate from the other lights above your head. In this console as far as I can ascertain, there are 3 bulbs, one for each reading light, controlled by the push switch. The 3rd bulb being the courtesy light controlled by the rocker switch/door opening. My boot light and foot well lights are working (not checked glove box) and I've been through fuses and all in tact! Currently at a loss myself, if you get any joy, let us know.

[mk5Eire]

Thanks Paul.

had a quick look yesterday and noticed the fuse was blown. Swapped it out but after a minute or two the fuse blew again. Same happened again. So now I just need to figure out why it keeps blowing?

[Paul_nicol]

In some ways that's a good thing. It could be any part of the interior light circuit that causes the fuse to blow, but if the lights works for a minute or 2 and then they stop/the fuse blows, it would i think suggest that it could well be related to a bulb i.e. if there was a short circuit in a component, you'd expect the fuse to fail as soon as the short circuit was made e.g. switch pressed, bulb on etc. If i were you, i'd start by removing all of the bulbs in the overhead console. If the fuse still blows with the overhead bulbs removed, i'd then remove all the other bulbs, make sure the fuse doesn't blow, if it doesn't, you know it's one of the bulbs and you can replace one at a time, if it does blow, then the issue is elsewhere, but i've no idea how you'd track it down!

     Good luck.