How do you replace the door switch on a 98 beetle?

Answer 1

finaly. I have my drivers door all tore apart. I am trying to fix my door switch. The one that tells you if the door is open or not and turns on the interior lights and the door light on the door. I have determined that the little switch that does this is bad since it fell apart when I removed the lock assembly! Does any one know where I can get a replacement switch from? I hate to replace the whole assembly when just the little switch is bad. I figure Cherry electric must make a switch like this one. Someone must have found the part number/vendor for this little switch. It will be a piece of cake to fix just this switch.

Ok, we can fix this door switch for $3 USD! You need to go to Radio Shack and purchase Part number #275-016A. This is a Submini Lever Switch. It has NO and NC contacts. Now here is what you need to do.

1) Tear the door down to the door lock assembly. This is detailed in the Bentley.

2) Remove the door lock assembly from the door carrier assembly you just removed. You will need to drill out a rivit to do this as detailed in Bentley.

3) Once you have the door lock assembly out, you will see the switch in question. It is the one that has a red and blue wire going to it. Mine was ruined as outlined above.

4) You will need a dremel tool to slot out the holes that hold the switch in place to the new switch fits in.

4) Observe the posistion and how the old switch works.Then remove the old switch. It is held in place by two plastic plugs that are melted to hold the switch. Pry it out with a small flat bladed screwdriver and clip the wires at the switch. Then slot out the holes for the new switch with your dremel. You will be able to see what you need to slot by comparing the two switches.

5) Take the new switch and remove the lever by slowly twisting it out with a pliers. You don't need it, just the main body of the switch.

6) You will need two tiny screws and nuts, which I had laying around, otherwise you can get them at the hardware store. Attatch the new switch and solder the red and blur wires to the switch. One to the Common and one to the NO (normally open). Plug the electrical plug back in and test the operation of the switch.

7) Button it all back up and rejoice in the money you saved!

I also lubed the new switch with electrical grease and hopefully it will last for awhile. Now that it is all modified, I can slug a new one in if it fails again in the future. (hopefully I wont have to!)

I know these instructions are very basic, but if you have the ability to get all of this apart, you can change out this switch.

taken from the tdiclub forum.