Hello. I am new to the site. I read the above post by winter96.
I have a similar issue which I am hoping you will be able to advise me with. My wife has a 2002 explorer and Occasionally she would get a door ajar light. I would open and shut all the doors and back liftgate window but most times it didn't do any good...there were a few times that the back tailgate window was not latched because the button on the fob that unlatched it was accidently hit, but that wasn't usually the case. 99% of the time we were unable to make the door ajar light go away. So We just ignored the light and went about driving when it came on and we couldn't remedy it. Often when we finished driving and used the fob to lock the doors we'd hear the DOUBLE HONK, HONK,indicating that the doors weren't locked. No real problem either because we knew the doors were all locked regardless of what the horn said. This became a random thing, no ryhme or reason, often weeks apart the door ajar would come on and we would go into our routine of checking the back window and doors and find nothing was ajar!
Then a few months ago the door ajar light came on again but this time the interior lights also came on and the door ajar light was flashing on and off. This became a real nuisance when it happened after dark. I then did some reading from a post on this site and decided to take the panel off the rear lift gate and investigate. i fond a wire that was worn and the insulation rubbed off. I replaced the bad section then re-insulated. This seemed to work fine, for a couple weeks, then the light showed up again. I re-checked my repair and it looked fine. The door ajar light wasn't showing, maybe my wiggling the connection I made did something? Probably not, but it appeared that maybe it was fixed...It wasn't, and this became another random on again off again thing...
Also the anti theft alarm would start going off in the middle of the night waking us up and probably waking a few neighbors as well. I would grab the key fob, go toward the door getting in range reset the alarm. I did this a few times before deciding to leave the explorer unlocked, hoping that we could get some sleep.
My wife works 2nd shift and a week or so ago when she got home she told me that the door ajar began flashing and also the interior lights were coming on again...it had only done this once or twice before but not since I 'fixed' the bad wire. we had gone a few weeks without an incident. I told her that I would check it in the morning.
The next morning when I went to check it, the battery was completely drained! I then made arrangements for her to get to work...later I put the battery on my battery charger and started googling and searching for information. I read somewhere on this website that someone with a similar problem was able to disconnect the alarm by unclipping the rear wires and jumping the clips? I tried this but it had no effect either.
in an attempt to isolate or narrow down where the problem may be coming from I rolled all 4 windows down then using the fob 'set' the alarm by locking the doors. I then reached inside and manually unlocked one door at a time and then opened each door after locking and re-setting each time. I found that doing this revealed that when I opened the drivers side front door it Failed to trip the alarm, likewise the rear passenger door did not trip the alarm, but the front passenger and rear drivers door did trigger the alarm...I then pulled the door panels off but didn't find any loose ground wires or anything suspicious.
A buddy of mine said he'd take a look at it. He found that there was a steady 4amp draw that was draining the battery. He then said that the drivers side latch was sticking, so he used some wd40 on it, as well as the other latches and sure enough the 'door ajar' light went out. He was still getting a .035 draw which was acceptible because of the alrm and clock etc...
I brought the explorer home and parked it, locking it and hearing the normal ONE honk. GREAT! BUT 2 hours later the horn began honking and the lights flashing again! The door ajar light is NOT showing but something is still wrong with the anti-theft...hopefully nothing major...I am lost...any suggestions will be very much appreciated!
Everything is stock on he explorer, nothing after market that I am aware of, though I did buy it used...
Is there any chance that I can just eliminate the anti theft? I have been told that this is not possible by a couple people who both say that the starter is tied into the anti theft and makes impossible to isolate...but one person says yes it can be done?
Thanks!
