Zafira: interior light not working

I've got an '04 Zafira GSi and a couple of days ago one of the interior
light bulbs in the central pair stopped working. So I popped the cover
off thinking it was a blown bulb, but when I pulled it out the filament
was intact. So I put the bulb back in and it lit when fully depressed by
my finger, but when it popped back to it's normal position it went back out.

So, thinking it might be a dodgy connection I pushed the bulb back in
again upon which it lit up, and then all the interior lights went out,
including the glovebox...

'Blown the fuse' I thought, so I pulled the fuse only to find it intact.

So, before I start to really mess about with the car's electrics, any
suggestions as to what the problem could be?

 

Re-check all the fuses cos they have a funny habit of not listing them
correctly.

 

Yeah, I've seen that before so all the fuses were checked

 

It is fuse 28 in the car, a 5 amp, but this is fed by a large maxi fuse
under the bonnet. Have you got a voltage at fuse 28? If the maxi fuse had
gone you would have lost more than your interior lights.

 

I start to really mess about with the car's electrics, any

Try swapping another festoon bulb from any other location in the car; it
could be that you have a fractured element in the bulb letting it work
intermittently.

Chris

 

Yeah, I'll have a look at that later. But since all the interior bulbs
are now out something is wrong somewhere. I was thinking maybe the
dimmer is damaged, keeping the bulbs permanently dimmed (ie off)?

 

Might be the multi timer that is cream crackered.
It lives inside the fuse box ( is actually part of it ).

 

Cheers for that, I'll get a multimeter on it when I get 5 minutes