Infamous Door Ajar

[Mgcmgc]

Hello Friends ,

I currently purchased a 2003 Ford Explorer XLT 4.0 V6 with the door ajar issue.

- Door Ajar is on all the time

- all dome lights stay on including outer mirrors ( I have taken bulbs out)

- the only time I get the door ajar “dinging”’is when the is in the accessory position of the ignition.

- once the truck starts there is no dinging whatsoever and no alarm issues

- I have tried the wd40 trick on all door locks including lift gate with no luck.

** My question is how to determine which lock is causing the problem without having to take it in for a scan ( I would rather not pay for the scan )

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[CDW6212R]

Check the door strikers, and have any of those been replaced? The parts stores carry the wrong size of striker bushings in their HELP section kits. Those are too large, and they hold the latch open just enough to not trip the sensor inside the latch.

Shut the doors and from the outside, with the door ajar activated, push in on each door, and then the hatch. If the latch problem is just one of them, the lights will go out when you push one the right door/hatch. There are two hatch latches, be sure both are clamping tight.

For the future though, if you want the lights to go out, don't remove the bulbs. The dimming thumb wheel control has a manual ON and OFF position, up is on, down is off.

 

[Mgcmgc]

Thanks for your reply.



Sorry I don’t know what you mean when you to close the doors and then push on them? And what are the strikers?

I had to take the bulbs out because I would not have any instrument lights at night with the dimmer off.

 

[CDW6212R]

The strikers are the part in the door jamb where the door latch "grabs", attaches to. I'm not familiar with the your model, but the older ones all have bushings in the strikers, a round cylindrical part which the door latches onto. I wondered if yours had someone replace any of them before.

I understand about the instrument lights. That's what happened with my Mercury a few years ago, and made me hunt the problem. Mine was due to a new striker bushing I had replaced in the right front door. Pushing on the door(closed) more, made the latch depress more against the bushing.

 

[Number4]

Turn the dimmer off when parked, on when driving.

The broken wire issue to my knowledge, occurs mainly in the drivers door jamb.



I had two broken wires, neither were the ground wire. Ultimately, it was WD40 on the passenger door that cleared up the issue.

 

[CDW6212R]

Well done Number4, the wiring is more involved and tougher to deal with.

 

[Mgcmgc]

Thanks I have tried everything you have stated and no luck.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Number4]

If you can't find a broken wire, (and you have to tug on them individually) you must have a bad switch. WD40 won't fix a bad switch.

Which one is the question.

You'll have to jump ach switch, including rear hatch.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yeah, you need to trace which latch switch is not being connected to ground. That's a circuit testing step with or without checking for broken wires. As the video above suggested, spraying a penetrant into the latch is a good first step, to reach the latch switches, WD40 is great to lubricate with, for old parts this age.

 

[Mgcmgc]

Thanks for the input. I may just need to bring it in and find out.

 

[lincolnshibuya]

there are several causes you will have that door ajar issues..
1. Check for bad wires at the junction of the doors, the video is for the driver side and this same thing could happen in the passenger side.
2. Door ajar switches/sensor is bad and no amount of WD40 could fix it. I got a similar issue with my Navigator and it was all 3 doors out of 4 (odd that the driver's side is ok) . To verify this without a scan is to drive the car until the light goes out and doors locked, with the car in parked and still running open one of the door and check if you hear any ding (door ajar alarm) if you can hear a ding then that door is ok and then proceed to the next door, if the door doesn't ding then it's a suspect. Drive again until the light goes off and repeat the process for the other doors.

 

[Jobert]

See my post here -

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/door-ajar-problem.441928/#post-3514099

 

[Jobert]

@ Number4 -

Do you (or anyone) know what color the driver's door wire is?
I still have that "door ajar" problem and I'd really like to fix it.
I know the ground wires are black, but I'd like to know what color the "door ajar" wire is.

 

[adventurefun1]

I'm having the same issue with my 2003 explorer. I turn my dimmer switch down to the off position when parked. After I have been driving for a couple minutes I can turn the dimmer up so I can have dash lights. After a couple minutes in drive the interior lights won't come on when you turn the cluster lights up. Now, I need to fix the problem....

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site. Have you checked the back glass? Every time I get a door ajar light that is intermittent it has been the back glass that poped open when the key fob has been in my pocket.

 

[Mbrooks420]

I'm having the same issue with my 2003 explorer. I turn my dimmer switch down to the off position when parked. After I have been driving for a couple minutes I can turn the dimmer up so I can have dash lights. After a couple minutes in drive the interior lights won't come on when you turn the cluster lights up. Now, I need to fix the problem....

When the keys are in (at least in the 2nd gens) and a door is opened it’ll sound the chime. The door you are having a problem with won’t chime when you open it, because it thinks it was already opened. That’s the wiring/switch that needs adjusted.

 

[mountaineer2004]

To solve this annoying problem, for all locks, I connected the wires that cause the "door ajar" message to appear (except for the driver's door).

No more annoying problem.

 

[4rd Xplora]

Some months back, I had the same issue, I followed the YouTube video and found I had two broken wires in the driver's door, both were black, one thicker than the other, that added about 15 minutes to the work time finding the matching ends. Added some length to both. No problem in almost a year.