How To: Fix the Door Ajar Problem

[Joshual1177]

A while ago I sprayed WD-40 into the driver's side door latch and it stopped the problem for a while. My dome lights and door ajar indicator on the instrument panel as well as the chime seems to happen more frequently. I have chosen to live with the problem by opening my driver's side door and leaving it open but still latched. If that makes any sense. I noticed last week that my Power Windows stopped working completely on all four doors. My 4 Wheel Drive also stopped working. My 4 Wheel Drive light will intermittently flash on and off on the instrument panel and the switches will not work.

I checked all the fuses under the dash and under the hood and can't seem to nail down the problem. I think I may have to bite the bullet and start checking for damaged wires in the door to track down the Power Window and Door Ajar problems.

But, I'm stumped when it comes to the 4 Wheel Drive. The small manual that came with the Explorer says there are Accessory Relays underneath the main passenger compartment fuse panel and to gain access to them I would need to remove the fuse panel. Does anyone know if this is correct?

 

[D Hook]

Probably the door wiring is causing most of the issues.

The 4x4, I seem to recall reading here about a wire running to the transfer case motor that gets shorted out, maybe near the starter (?) and can cause problems but not certain on that. I guess you should do some searching here or maybe someone else will chime in on the 4x4 question. You might want to start a separate thread on the 4x4 problem.

 

[reabdet21]

The door ajar switch is a semi sealed unit and no lube ever gets inside. I just replaced the sensor for my 96 tailgate. There is a tapered plate that rotates and depresses a small round button on the sensor.

http://www.autozone.com/1/products/126434-door-jamb-switch-duralast-sw1794.html

lubing the rotating plate will prevent the switch from damage. The tip was broken off the senson in my explorer. If you just want to get rid of the light, you can just disconnect the sensor. It is normally closed and opens when the gate is shut so disconnecting just eliminates the sensor but there is no signal to turn on the inside lights when the tail gate is opened nor showing it is open. ebay sellers have them for 13.50

 

[Tankentaisha]

Mine turned out to be caused by all the wire insulation being brittle and cracked. Multiple bare spots with four broken wires. Splices fixed door ajar, mirror control, door locks and lock pad.
Then I found a wrecked vehicle at the junkyard and pulled ask the harness out of the spot to swap out at a later date.

 

[thinger62]

I registered just so I could say THANKS! This forum is wonderful! I've had the Explorer for about 2 years now, and the previous owner mentioned a few quirks including the door ajar light. I just drove with the dome light dimmer turned off all the time, until this weekend when even that didn't make the door ajar warning disappear. I got into it and found a thick black wire broken in half. I doubt my butt joints and taping are very professional, but for now it works! I'm hoping it'll fix another quirk too (occasionally the master door lock switch on the driver's arm rest would be dead). Again, you guys are wonderful!

 

[thinger62]

One question....

I usually do things the hard way for some reason. Instead of trying to work with a tiny bit of slack in between the door and the body (with the rubber boot getting in the way), would it have been possible to unplug all the wires inside the door, pull the entire bundle out of the door, slide the boot off and then work on it that way? Then slide the boot back on and reinsert the bundle into the door... I've got it all put back together now, but for future reference (I did notice a blue wire with cracked insulation that I did nothing about other than tape)...

 

[Rreincke]

Door Ajar

This forum is the best!
Just picked up my wd40 this morning and sprayed the doors and no more door ajar!
You guys are the best.
Thank you!

 

[bertolli]

Door Ajar, Map Light and Driver Door Power Lock

My issue was the door ajar, map light staying on and power door lock switch on driver door non-functioning. If I turned off the interior lights off with the dimmer switch while the door was closed, everything worked until the door was re-opened. I checked the switch and it was good. Checked that I had power to the switch - Good. Checked that I had ground from the switch connector - Bad

Slid the rubber boot encasing the wiring harness from the dash area to the door and sure enough, there was the broken wire as well as some cracked insulation close by. Spliced a new piece of wire in, soldered & taped, rewrapped the wiring harness and I am all good. Thanks to the help from this forum.

I would stay away from the WD-40. I had tried that and found that it had deteriorate the original lubricant on the switch.

 

[Mulepick]

Should have been stickied.

A few weeks ago I kept having a problem with my door ajar, rear defrost, and dome lights coming on and staying on when I would turn on my rear defrost. After weeks of looking on the internet I finally found the cause. Here is what I did to fix it. It turns out it was a broken wire in the door boot.


1. These were the tools and stuff I used to fix it. Yes the butter knife actually helped. I used: 1/4" Ratchet, 6" extension, 6mm 7mm and 8mm sockets, wire stripers, a butter knife, needle nose pliers, a screwdriver, electrical tape, and 12 AWG Industrial wiring from Menards.

2. Start by removing the door panel trim. There are 3 bolts. 2 on the bottom of the door and one when you remove the trim piece above the door handle. Slide the panel over the door handle and disconnect any connectors that are there. DON'T leave the panel hanging with the connectors because you run the risk of damaging them or the wiring going into them. I used a butter knife to get the mirror adjusting connector out because I didn't have a small enough screw driver.

3. Once you remove the trim panel there should be a boot that goes in between the door and the body of the truck. I used a 1/4 ratchet and a screwdriver to get it out. I used the screwdriver to get under the boot on the body side and jammed the ratchet in so I could take the screwdriver and move it around the boot to pop it out. Once you pop it out go threw the wiring and look for a 12 awg wire that is broke give it a few light tugs until it comes out.

4. This is the side of the wire coming out of the body of the truck. I used a single piece of stranded 12 awg industiral wire to jump across the break in the wire.

5. This was the side that was in the door. I took the other end of the 12 awg wire and spliced it to the end that was in the door. After that I checked it and the problem was solved. I finished up by wraping it in electrical tape. Don't mind the taping skills, this is just a temporary fix for right now until it gets warm enough for me to stay outside and solder and heatshrink it.

6. Another view of the repair.

jpegs are all gone. This should have been stickied.

 

[96firephoenix]

aside from the boot being super hard to get off the body side (door side came off easily enough)...

The instructions were pretty good!

 

[maxpower243]

I know you posted this a few years ago, but I was curious if you remembered what colour the broken wire was? I have been pulling wiring like a mad man without any success so far :s

 

[01fordexploder]

in an 04 EB had this door boot wire problem and repaired which rectified the locks/windows/dome lights issues...but before that Id get an intermittent message center beep but it happens so fast I can never read the message....now with the wire repaired this last ghost refuses to go away...anybody else have this phantom "check"....(something?) message?...always seems to show right after coming to a full stop like 10 to 15 seconds after sitting still....never can catch the message as its not constant...only once every few days maybe...blue driver scans show nothing...this one has been a real head scratcher over the last year and never last long enough to read...only once did I catch the "check" part and it was gone but only cause I was looking at it at the time

 

[PA03Aviator]

New to Forum!
I was having electrical issue with my 2003 Aviator. The problem was the door ajar would alarm would go off when I turned on the rear defroster, the domes lights would light; I also had no power to the keyless entry pad and the passenger heated mirror was not heating and would not illuminate fully with the rear defroster turned on. I took the Aviator back to the dealer and after two hours he could not find the problem, made an appointment at the Ford dealer; same thing after two hours. A friend recommend a local diagnostic shop, I told the shop Owner what I read here in this forum about the broken wires in the door conduits. Well, sure enough after four hours the Aviator was repaired and everything worked great, there were six broken wires.

 

[Hvunderground845]

I've had this problem for a year now. I jumped a wire from the thick black wire on the lock switch that wasn't working to the door panel as ground and it fixed the problem. Took about 10 minutes. Tried the wd40 trick before this and didn't work

 

[mrnapolean1]

A few weeks ago I kept having a problem with my door ajar, rear defrost, and dome lights coming on and staying on when I would turn on my rear defrost. After weeks of looking on the internet I finally found the cause. Here is what I did to fix it. It turns out it was a broken wire in the door boot.


1. These were the tools and stuff I used to fix it. Yes the butter knife actually helped. I used: 1/4" Ratchet, 6" extension, 6mm 7mm and 8mm sockets, wire stripers, a butter knife, needle nose pliers, a screwdriver, electrical tape, and 12 AWG Industrial wiring from Menards.

2. Start by removing the door panel trim. There are 3 bolts. 2 on the bottom of the door and one when you remove the trim piece above the door handle. Slide the panel over the door handle and disconnect any connectors that are there. DON'T leave the panel hanging with the connectors because you run the risk of damaging them or the wiring going into them. I used a butter knife to get the mirror adjusting connector out because I didn't have a small enough screw driver.

3. Once you remove the trim panel there should be a boot that goes in between the door and the body of the truck. I used a 1/4 ratchet and a screwdriver to get it out. I used the screwdriver to get under the boot on the body side and jammed the ratchet in so I could take the screwdriver and move it around the boot to pop it out. Once you pop it out go threw the wiring and look for a 12 awg wire that is broke give it a few light tugs until it comes out.

4. This is the side of the wire coming out of the body of the truck. I used a single piece of stranded 12 awg industiral wire to jump across the break in the wire.

5. This was the side that was in the door. I took the other end of the 12 awg wire and spliced it to the end that was in the door. After that I checked it and the problem was solved. I finished up by wraping it in electrical tape. Don't mind the taping skills, this is just a temporary fix for right now until it gets warm enough for me to stay outside and solder and heatshrink it.

6. Another view of the repair.

Do you mind re-linking the pictures to this thread? They have seem to be deleted....

 

[synyster]

Do you mind re-linking the pictures to this thread? They have seem to be deleted....

I will try to! I haven't had my explorer in about 3/4 years so I'll have to do some digging to see if I still have the pictures somewhere.

 

[jrobie79]

I will try to! I haven't had my explorer in about 3/4 years so I'll have to do some digging to see if I still have the pictures somewhere.

any luck?

 

[supergrover22]

windows not working...

Hello, regarding the post on fixing the wires between the door and body - I can't see any of the pictures - I just bought an '03 Explorer and 2 days of ownership and none of my windows work... Any way you could re-post the pics?

 

[rhartmaier]

Windows?

The wiring bundle that goes from the door jamb into the door carries all sorts of circuits, including the window controls, door locks, and that pesky dome light/door ajar. Broken wires here are common. Search the web for a video such as "2003 Ford Explorer power windows not working". There are several good ones that show how to get the boot off without cutting it, and splicing in a longer wire to relieve the strain. The video I found was for a rear window that was not working, and the positive wire was found to be broken. When all my widows were not working, I suspected the positive "red" wire would be broken. Instead, I found the ground (black) wire broken. Anyway, the difficult part is getting the boot off with out cutting it, but don't give up, it is not too bad a job once you get it started. Once in there, you will be sure to find a broken wire. It may be initially buried inside the bundle, but keep searching and you will find it. Once I got the boot off I made the repair in about 20-30 minutes. Make sure you use a gauge wire equivalent to the wire you are replacing.

Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgpOV1ItBX0

You can skip the troubleshooting part, since all windows are inop and it unlikely that all switches/motors are bad. He gets to the bundle inside the boot at about the 11 minute mark.

Good Luck! Jersey Bob

 

[Shawn MacApple]

Mine seems to be a problem when the weather is cool outside. I take off down the road and it flickers off and on, doors switch between locked and unlocked, and that annoying chime won't STFU.

I'm trying the WD-40 method since it seems things are sluggish because of the temps.