Forgot to do this the other night. I snapped a few pics last night of the lock cylinder light in my 10AE in a couple different light settings:

 

How is the light activated?

 

I believe it's activated by opening the handle.

I checked and the one I hard wired in did not work. Oh, well. I'll check into it if I need to take the door panel off again, but after all this car has been through, that can wait!

 

Thanks for sharing the pictures, very interesting! I've NEVER seen my car do this.

 

I figured it would be turned on by lifting the handle as it would be pointless to be turned on by inserting a key.

 

It turns on when you lift the door handle. It doesnt matter if the door is locked or not, the light illuminates any time the handle is lifted.

 

Any update on the bulb replacements?

 

I loved this feature on my GXL, just lift the handle and the keyslot lit up, No fumbling around in the dark trying to insert the key! Worked for years, now the bulb is burnt out. Anyone know what bulb it uses?
My real problem is that the translucent plastic flap that covers the slot is shot and my lock gets frozen just thinking about it. Where can I source a lock cylinder, are they the same part # on both doors?

It's the details that make a RX-7 special.

 

OEM parts list different numbers for each side, however, there was a thread that mentions they can be
reversed and used on each side. Although it is said that the tumblers can be easily arranged to use the
OEM key, it was beyond me, so I had a locksmith do the job, $20, if I remember correctly.

 

Are you sure the bulb is burnt out? Turns out the new bulb I hard wired in (some random 12V miniature light) worked once I fixed the CPU. Do you have any other issues that are controlled by the CPU?

 

Mine did the exact same. I spent a long time replacing that bulb, and it didn't light up. Months later I re-soldered the CPU and the light started working.

I used a generic LED pulled from a side marker light. I had purchased an expensive glass bulb ($18) before breaking it on install...

 

Thanks for the cpu info, I do have a left turn signal that blinks real fast! Time to swap it out I think.

 

I had a turn signal blinking fast that I couldn't fix no matter what. The stock flasher didn't like something along the way. Replaced the flasher and no difference. I then removed R1 from the board (the known "fix" some people who convert to LEDs do) and the hyper blink went away.

For the CPU, take it out and look at all of the capacitors. Capacitors are cheap as heck at Mouser or Digi-Key. Carefully determine the correct specs of each one and once replaced, odds are you will have a working CPU again.