so ive been fixing everytihng i find wrong on moms car before she takes it back on monday. when i open the rear hatch the light in the cargo area will not come on. the hatch ajar light in the dash does come on when the hatch is open and the rear cargo light does turn on if i click the switch to on but wont come on when the door is open. is this some kind of common issue could someone possibly point me int he direction to fix this?

sirtokesalot,

On that age of car I would suspect that there may be a broken wire in the rubber gaiter that the wiring harness for the tailgate goes through at the tailgate hinge area. Pop the gaiter off the body and the tailgate, gather it all to one end of the wires or other, and inspect the individual wires carefully. You may find the culprit.

If not there, you might take the light assembly entirely out of the ceiling headliner, take it apart and check that the switch isn't corroded or carboned up in the "door open" position. A cleaning with fine emery paper might do the trick.

Not sure what else to suggest if these ideas don't work out?

4 hours ago, gbhrps said:

sirtokesalot,

On that age of car I would suspect that there may be a broken wire in the rubber gaiter that the wiring harness for the tailgate goes through at the tailgate hinge area. Pop the gaiter off the body and the tailgate, gather it all to one end of the wires or other, and inspect the individual wires carefully. You may find the culprit.

If not there, you might take the light assembly entirely out of the ceiling headliner, take it apart and check that the switch isn't corroded or carboned up in the "door open" position. A cleaning with fine emery paper might do the trick.

Not sure what else to suggest if these ideas don't work out?

ill have to check these out. wouldn't the fact that the hatch ajar light comes on mean that the wire in that loom is ok or is there a separate wire for the cargo light vs the hatch ajar light?

Light fixture is bad.  That sliding location of the switch isn’t working.  Repair contacts as he said or get another one. 

well i replaced the whole light assembly with a known working one and i still have no door light function from the rear light. it works with the switch on but not on door still. i did notice the front light comes on when i open the hatch today as well. as a side note i took the one from my moms car and put it into my 1998 outback and it worked in my car. i did some more digging into the wiring and theres for some reason 4 wires under that light. 2 of them come in from the hole the light slides out of and 2 other ones coming in from the side both sets of wires appear to be factory one of them was cut and spliced into the other one.

 

 i dont know maby ill just add a new wire to the door switch side of the light from what ever wire it is thats working the front light so the rear will work too.

Edited October 6, 20187 yr by sirtokesalot

On 10/4/2018 at 8:44 PM, gbhrps said:

sirtokesalot,

On that age of car I would suspect that there may be a broken wire in the rubber gaiter that the wiring harness for the tailgate goes through at the tailgate hinge area. Pop the gaiter off the body and the tailgate, gather it all to one end of the wires or other, and inspect the individual wires carefully. You may find the culprit.

If not there, you might take the light assembly entirely out of the ceiling headliner, take it apart and check that the switch isn't corroded or carboned up in the "door open" position. A cleaning with fine emery paper might do the trick.

Not sure what else to suggest if these ideas don't work out?

^^^^^^^

seems like you are handy enough

i had a problem with the rear locking mechanism and it turned out to be a broken wire in the bundle mentioned above.

 

well i figured out a way to make it work. the wiring harness in the rear had been messed with before every wire at the 2 main connectors to go to the hatch was spliced and crimp connectored with tape around them. i did manage to find the gound wire that signals when the doors open at the main plug and followed it up tot he top and spliced into it / extended it to the light. 2 of those 4 wires that were at the light were not connected to anything they were simply cut off about 12 inches into the ceiling from the light.