Battery died--now alarm keeps going off...

[cngizbleevng]

A couple weeks ago the dome light was left on and my wife's explorer's battery died. I recharged it, but ever since then the alarm will go off sporadically for no apparent reason. We have to leave the car unlocked to avoid the alarm sounding, which is pretty inconvenient.

I tried the search, but couldn't get it narrowed down to my problem.

Has anyone else experienced this and is there a fix? Thanks.

 

[SeekerFor]

Hi
My alarm would go off at 4 am in the morning to the point where I started to leave it unlocked.
However after reading the manual found that if you hit the fob lock button and it beeps twice than there is an open switch (one of the doors open).

So now i just single lock it without putting the alarm on.
Sent it for a tune up and now it beeps once and the alarm no longer goes off waking up the neighbors.

 

[jad2411]

Seems odd that the battery would die from the dome light, on mine it turns off by itself after a while, thought that was the batt saver feature....
But yeah most likely, you have a bad switch, spray wd40 on all 5 locks hopefully that'll fix it

 

[PEAR0119]

Yeah, I left the glove box open and the light on for 48 hours and she started right up when it came time to go to work. This was also in -30 Celsius weather at that. I will admit though it was a brand new battery.

 

[BigRondo]

I had similar electrical issues with my 02 xlt. The dome lights would stay on until the battery saver feature turned them off, the accessory delay wasn't working, the driver side puddle light didn't work, the keypad on the door would set off the alarm when I pressed it, the door ajar light would flash and beep at highway speeds, the radio would shut off as soon as I turned the key off, etc. Most recently all 4 windows stopped working.

A lot of electrical issues can be traced back to broken/damaged wire(s) in the boot between the body and the driver's door. I found 2 broken wires and repaired them. The thin black ground wire was broken and after repairing it all was back to normal. When the windows stopped working, I repaired the thick black ground wire and the windows now work like a champ.

Could also be related to the door ajar switch.

Here is the thread for removing the door panel: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=303524

Here is a great thread for checking/replacing the door ajar switch, thanks to borland for the awesome write-up: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249253

That is a great write up.

On a side note, before going through a complete replacement of the switch, you can spray WD40 into the door latch opening on each door, as these become stuck sometimes....and this can alleviate the issue.

This worked for me, after going for more than a year of the "door ajar" light coming on occasionally...mainly after a car wash, high humidity, or rain....making me unable to lock/arm the vehicle from the door keypad and keeping the dome lights on. Worth a try....it worked for me

Here is a great thread for checking for broken/damaged wires, thanks to synyster for this awesome write-up: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=270081

Be sure to take your time when looking for broken/damaged wire(s). Check all the wires for breaks/damage. When you think you're done looking, look again, and again, and again. A bright flashlight can be very helpful.

Good luck with the fix and be sure to keep us posted! :biggthump