the passenger front lights stay on even though the doors are close, should i just check the fuses or is there some trick i'm missing. searched the forums with no real concrete info

edit: sorry It's a 99.5 audi a4 1.8t. automatic

 

Are they the footwell lights that stay on?

 

yes just the passenger footwell light and the light on the edge of the door. i went to check on it a little bit ago and they went out so no idea. still need to get it fixed if possible cause driving around at night with that on is annoying

 

I can see how it would be. I know Audi's have courtesy lights but they shouldn't be on while you're driving. Is the switch on the ceiling switched to "on?"

 

Even if the switch is "on", the footwell lights should only be on if the door is open.

 

The door latch has a microswitch in it and I suspect that yours is not making contact when the door is shut. You can try to spray some lube on it, this sometimes helps. To prove it out, open the door and then push the door latch mechanism in with a screw driver or something similar until it latches, and then push on it with some additional pressure. Does the light go off? If so, you can sometimes adjust it, or you may need to replace the switch if it is bad.

 

it is either the switch that tells the car the door is open^^^^ or if you had body work done on that side, often if they had to take the door off it will not get aligned right, making the door not contact the switch. look at the trim around the door and see if it lines up. but most likely it is just the switch

 

You'll have to strip the door's guts and remove the latching mechanism. We did this on another car once - there was crap inside that let it from working right. Cleaned it out, greased and reassembled it, and it works perfectly.