New to me 2005 Explorer - Visor wiring harness and door ajar issue related?

[Sweersa]

Hello, I picked up a 2005 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4 V6 yesterday with 165,000 miles. It will be a DD as soon as I get it insured and registered. (I'll still drive my 1997 2x4 Ranger, but not as much and definitely not in the snow anymore!)

I only have a few minor annoying issues with the Explorer. One is the door ajar warning stays on for some time along with the dome light when I start it and drive. I have to use the dash light wheel button and turn it all the way down to shut off the dome light after I park and turn the engine off, because it doesn't seem to go off by itself and I don't want to kill the battery.

The other issue is both visors (both are equipped with lights and mirrors) are broken and the driver side visor is missing entirely. I have OEM replacements with all hardware coming in soon from an online order.

Could the door ajar issue be related to the missing/broken visor light wiring?

I was able to dig out the wiring harness from inside of the headliner on the driver's side (I have not looked in detail on the passenger side yet) and I can barely get the wiring harness out to look at it, I think it may be hanging up on something. Should I normally have a few inches of slack for this? The harness also looks rough, I can only see one metal contact in one of the terminals and the other one appears to have a black wire in it with no metal contact around it like the other side does. I figure worse case is I have to figure out how to safely remove the headliner to wire a new harness in, or just hard wire the new visor assembly in without a harness if it's broken.

I may also just take the new visors with the Explorer to a shop or a Ford dealer to have them mess with it, I'd like to have these two issues fixed right and while I'm fairly handy with some vehicle jobs this may be above my comfort zone.

If anyone has any advice, I'd certainly appreciate it! The truck drives really nice and smooth, it just has a few little annoying things like this I'd like to get resolved. I can replace the broken tail light, and busted passenger door handle no problem myself

Thank you,

Alex

 

[Sweersa]

I thought it would be a good time to update this thread for anyone interested. I now have found both visor wiring harnesses from inside the headliner! A previous owner cut off the harness that was from the visor assembly on the driver side, so initially I was confused as to what I was looking at. I pulled the chopped harness out of the one connected to the wires in the headliner and they are good to go. I tested both connectors with replacement OEM visors, and both light up perfectly! Only issue is I ordered gray visors by accident! I'm returning them for matching tan ones, and will install them as soon as they come in.

When I turn on the dome light with the wheel switch all the way up, my door ajar warning lights up, and I still have to manually roll the switch all the way down to turn off the dome lights before I exit the vehicle. It's really not too much of a problem, just a minor annoyance at most. I'm guessing there is a short or something not grounded somewhere. Low priority, and I may just let it go.

 

[Joe in NY]

its the switches in the doors. Spray each one with WD40 for a couple days and see if it helps

 

[Sweersa]

The tan visors came in and I installed them last night! They look and work great. I'll be gentle with them so they don't break off again.

I have not done much with the door ajar issue, as the wheel switch workaround is not too much of an inconvenience. I'm guessing there is a short somewhere because if I roll the switch all the way up to manually turn on the dome lights, the door ajar light goes on and makes a sound and i have to roll it all the way down to the off position, and back up but not all the way up to trigger it again so my dash lights are on.