Rear step light

The courtesy light in the rear step on my 1990 Tailsman GL does not appear to be operated by a switch to the door. I can only switch on/off manually. Is this correct? Seems odd to me if it is.

Our Pollensa has one in the hab door footwell that you swivel one way or t'other to switch on, is yours similar? I wouldn't expect a hab door light to have a door switch as it could remain on all the time the door was open, which could be for hours on end in the summer and this would flatten the battery. But I guess it wouldn't be a difficult job to add a door-mounted switch, similar to the one used for the alarm circuit. Or maybe a magnetic proximity switch might be easier?

What we have is one of these mounted by the back door, which also comes on when I get up in the night. Have the same in our ensuite loo at home:

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The standard step light fitted (bulb in a rocker switch) is not a lot of use so I ran an led strip down the side of the door surround, took the cable through the wall and wired it to the existing rocker switch after removing the bulb - result we have an effective step light.
Idea copied off Murphs van of which there may be photos somewhere on the forum

Hi Minky58.

The black swich in the door frame of your van is part of the van alarm system and not connected to the habitation door entry light that just switches on and off manually. So your van is as it should be.

Cheers. Whisky.

Hi Whisky.

I just replaced the habitation door light 5w bulb on our Clubman for a 1w LED as it was showing signs of overheating in the past (photos). It worked fine. I then moved on to try and work out why the courtesy light switch was not working (it works fine manually).

As the alarm had proven unreliable and the cab courtesy lights didn't work either, I suspected that the last owner had disconnected anything that might be triggering it. Having removed the fridge grill, I was expecting to see a disconnected wire but did not. Reading your post above, I wonder if the door switch is actually for the alarm only. Do you know if the Talisman and Clubman (1998) are the same in this respect?

Cheers,
Andy
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Unfortunately you won't get an answer from Whisky - he left the forum 5 years ago. I would imagine that your Clubman is the same as the Talisman in that the plunger type switch is for the alarm and nothing to do with the step light.

Thanks Paul. I guess that make sense. Crosses another job off my list with zero effort!