Door Ajar Dash Light

[moose]

I have a 2002 Explorer and when I open the front passenger door the door ajar light on the dash and none of the interior lights or the outside rear view mirror under-lights go on? Also while driving periodically the door ajar light on the dash *this is driving me nutz/pun intended* goes/flickers on and off and the chime goes off or just the chime goes off and on … and now while the car is off and parked somewhere the horn/alarm system has started going off. What kind of switch is used to activate this and where is it located? Or simply put … what the heck do I do to fix this??

 

[College Student]

there are lots of problems with people's bushing area between the door and front kick panel, there might be a chance that the wire has been cut and is shorting out and creating the problems you are referring to.

 

[albi1cnobi1]

The switch is in the door latch. You have to pull the latch to replace it. You could also try first soaking the latch in P B Blaster or something similar, then if that doesn't work hit the switch with contact cleaner. This is a pretty common problem, the PB Blaster worked on mine. If none of that works I would try to find a broken wire as in the previous post.

 

[moose]

Thank You for your reply ...

Removed the latch, wd40'ed the switch, put it back in ... didn't fix it.

Noticed when I unplugged the switch the door ajar light went on and when I put a jumper wire in the switches plug it shutoff.

The switch is a plunger type. I put it on an oms meter and with the plunger all the way up simulating the door being closed there was no resistance, when I would push in the plunger there was a little bit of resistance? But the meter didn't show full resistance.

So I'm amusing that when the door IS CLOSED the circuit is fully closed and when the door IS OPEN/AJAR it is open?

But does it open fully or is there just SOME RESISTANCE?

As In:
"closed" the door ajar light and chime are not activated
"open" the door ajar light and chime are not activated

So can I just connect/jumper the "Black & Gray with an Orange strip wires together" going into the door ajar switch and just bypass it? Or will that cause an electrical issue somewhere down the line??

 

[albi1cnobi1]

When the switch is open, meaning door open position it should read 0 ohms. In the door closed position it should read an open, or infinite ohms meaning you shouldn't get any reading. If you're reading partial resistance in that position the switch is bad. You can jumper the plug it won't cause any problems other than the dome light not coming on when you open the door. That switch should be fairly inexpensive.

 

[moose]

I jumped the wires past the plug about 8 inchs down the line and it is still activating the the dash light the warning chime and the passive alarm is going off :roll: I pulled the kick panel and now have accessed the wire harness and once I find the switch wires I'm going to try connecting them *way down the line* I really don't give a crap at this point if *any* of the ajar switches work so which relay activates this system so I can pull it so the dash light, door charm, & passive alarm get out of my car ... or is it time to call an exorcist Oh .... I was going to just get a stitch but in my area it's a dealer part and they want $65. and since jumping the wires isn't working ... yet ... I'm afrade that it might be more then just the switch and I don't want to waste $65. if that will not fix it

 

[moose]

bypassed both the front drivers door and passengers door * door ajar stitches *

so far for the past 3-days it seems to have solved the issues I was having !!!

thanks to all who replied to my plea