Dome light stays on. Bad switch suspected

1990 Infiniti Q45

This week I am having an issue where the dome light is staying on when the door is closed and the dashboard is telling me that the door is open.

I suspect the issue is at the driver's door because occasionally, if I manually hit the button on the door jam, I can get the light to go off.

I need to search for a replacement.
What would you call this item? What name/part am I searching for?
Black, rubber covered switch in the bottom of photo.

Any leads to one would be much appreciated.

Have you tried removing the switch, disassembling it, and cleaning it with contact cleaner?

just out of curiosity, is there a missing pad on the door that is supposed to hit that?

Honestly though, those switches live a hard life. People are not kind to car doors, often slamming them close for no apparent reason (my neighbors across the street slam their car doors as hard as they can), and this leads to a lot of stress on the switch

Disconnect the switch and leave it be? That's what I ended up doing on my last neon.

In reply to RossD:

Cleaning it is part of my plan for the weekend but until I can gather the time to do that I thought that from the desk I might research the part and the issue.
My main trouble seems that I am not sure what to call the part so not sure to find one or previous issues via forums.

I usually call that the striker.

usually the same switch on all doors. disconnect a rear door one, and put it on the drivers door and see if things improve.

My Dodge Ram has an issue with the wires breaking between the body and door.

The Hoff wrote: I usually call that the striker.

Possible, but all that ebay is showing the door sticker as the stationary ring that the door latches onto. Of course, ebay could be worded wrongly.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-96-90-Infiniti-Q45-V8-OEM-Door-Latch-Striker-Left-or-Right-Rear-/111304217273?fits=Year%3A1990%7CMake%3AInfiniti%7CModel%3AQ45&hash=item19ea3f92b9:g:af0AAOxyhXRTKeR5&vxp=mtr

I tried updating my original post to be clearer that what I need is the black switch at the bottom of the photo.

door jamb switch http://www.autozone.com/1/categories/infiniti-q45-door-jamb-switches

You are the wind beneath my wings!

Door Jam Switch and your posting even lists compatible models, excellent!
GRM delivers again in less than 1hr.

sachilles wrote: door jamb switch http://www.autozone.com/1/categories/infiniti-q45-door-jamb-switches

i've had sticky door switches that i've fixed with a couple of shots of WD40 and a series of quick pushes on the switch with my thumb.

I had a similar problem with a 1992 SE-R (also Nissan, same time period) I had back in the day. For some reason the door didn't push firmly enough on the switch. I stuck one of those rubber thingies you get to put on the back of picture frame corners to keep the frames from shifting, on the door where it would contact the switch, voila! No more problems, free fix since I had some of the thingies sitting around. Worth a quick try.

First make sure a hinge or the striker/latch hasn't come loose and thrown the door out of alignment.

I removed the door jam switch today. While seated at the dining room table and working over a paper plate, I disassembled the switch.
On the pointed head, I pushed those tabs out a little farther to encourage contact.
On all sides of the contact points I roughed but the metal with some scrapping action for the edge of a sharp straight screwdriver.

Upon re-installation, pushing in the switch by hand turned off the dome light. Additionally, closing the door properly turned off the dome light too. Great.
I'll keep an eye on it.

Additional lessons:
Just removing the switch does not solve the problem. The dome light will continue stay lit.
Removing the bulb is not the easiest solution either because this requires removing 7 bulbs.
1 Dome light.
2 footwell lights
4 bulbs from red/white lens in each door (1 per door.)

My solution this week has been to keep a 10mm nut driver in the driver's door pocket so that I have it handy at the end of the day to disconnect the + battery cable.

Oh hell. It's back to saying door open.

Another trick is to drop a washer, pieces of cardboard, etc. into the little rubber boot to depress the switch farther. Do check the striker and latch bolts/screws though, they come loose on Japanese stuff for some reason.

I thought a BAD switch would leave the light off....

In reply to wvumtnbkr: A really bad switch will drink all your booze and knock up your daughters.

My daughter is 6 days old. Not worried about that yet... Yet....