Panel Van Load Area Lighting

[sparkzer]

My van was camper converted by the previous owner, it was originally a trendline panel van. It's not a complicated conversion, but I'm working my way through a few jobs to make it better suit my own preferences.

One thing I'm keen to correct is having the roof lights (non standard, currently on a switch fed from leasure battery) in the back light up when a door (side or rear) is opened.

Now, I don't know what's normal on a T6 but currently if the side door or either front door are opened the cabin interior light comes on along with the side step light (which I suspect has been retro-fitted). If my rear doors are opened nothing happens.

My questions are

1. Should the step light be tied in to the cabin interior light circuit or operate independently?
2. Do all panel vans have a rear door switch if so where is it for the barn door variant (I can see nothing obvious so wondered if it was contained within the lock?)
3. Do all panel Van's have a load area light, if so where would it normally be. My roof has been retrimmed so I can see none of the stock setup.

My intention is to add a small relay driven off side/rear door switches and use a NO contact across the existing light toggle switch (which will remain, so I can overide the relay should I want to keep the lights on). The roof lights will remain fed from the leisure battery, the only additional load on the VW side of things is a few miliamps of relay coil.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Deaky]

Step lights are std in a Kombi and come on with the courtesy lights. There is no switch to turn them off. If you have a PV then they have been retro fitted.

The BCM knows the open/closed state of all the doors and the BCM turns on the courtesy lights. There is no separate switch at the doors for the courtesy light circuit.

as standard there would have been two load area lights in the back. These I guess have been disconnected during your conversion



You’ll need to rewire your rear lights as follows and change your existing switch to a 3 way.

Connect the +12v of your lights directly to the leisure battery.
Connect the -12v of your lights to the common pole on the switch
Connect position 1 of the switch to ground
Connect position 2 of the switch to the brown/red wire in the courtesy light circuit.

There is a few places you’ll find this wire-
Behind the cab light
Behind the step light
In the connector blocks behind the glove box
In the wiring loom behind your roof soffit on the passenger side.

 

[sparkzer]

cheers for the info...i will do some digging. i didn't want to assume it would have had rear lights and lifting panels only to find out it was an option my van didn't have!

Fully understood regarding side step light, wiring looks like it was probably a retofit it.

just double checked what happens when i open rear door and i see now the interior light/step light does come on (which is bloody useless as neither are anywhere near the back of the van, thus i didnt ever notice them previously when going in the back doors!

 

[Dellmassive]

Some more back ground...


Led Rear Interior Lights - How I Done It.

 

[Dellmassive]

The standard PV has 2 rear load lights that come on with the courtesy light (key out, door open) and BCM timer controlled as @Deaky said.

The have prob been removed on yours, .... but the loom and connectors should be above the roof lining.... see pics in the above thread..

Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread

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[sparkzer]

Thanks @Dellmassive, very helpful, will look in to this.