Door ajar light?

[Rivernut]

It stays on along with dome light. I have to manually shut off dome with switch, then cant see instrument panel. Must be in the door or door latch. Easy fix? Thanks

[Jeremy airjer W]

Easy fix?

What is it?

Year, make, and model.

[Rivernut]

"99 2 dr. Explorer

[Jeremy airjer W]

The easiest thing to do is scan the body control module and see what switch is not working.

My guess is the drivers front door. You can liberally spray a penetrating lube in the area where the door latch mechanism that actually holds the door closed and work the latch. This will work quite often. Otherwise you can pull the door panel and unplug the switch and see if the lights go out. If they don't than its not that switch. The rear hatch switches are also pretty common and they can be unplugged as well (I think there are two, one on each side) to see if the lights go out.

[Rivernut]

Thanks, I am sure it's the drivers door. I"ll try spraying it good. Post how it turn's out.

[Surface Tension]

Drivers door switchs takes a beating on my vehicles.

#1 reason why.

The seat belt never returns like it should so it ends up getting closed in the door and of coarse right where the switch is located.

What really goofs it up is when I get in, shut the door then pull the seat belt into position. Well its stuck in the door and snagged on the that switch. So first the boot gets torn and then it gets sticky from road dirt. Eventually the spring button gets bent and I end up at the bone yard looking for another.

The fix is to lube the seat belt return.

[Scott K]

With all of the doors closed, key in the ignition, but in the off position, try locking the doors, if the door locks cycle back up, it is the drivers door. If the lock doesn't kick back up, then it isn't the drivers door. This system is designed to not allow you to lock the doors with the keys in the ignition, unless the drivers door is closed.

[Capt. Don*]

I think it would be just the opposite, if I recall, the system was designed to not allow you to lock the doors with the key in the ignition in the off position. The GEM looks at key in ign switch, if switch is closed but ignition off, it wont allow driver door lock to lock if driver door switch is closed, it will cycle back up. With key in ignition in off position, driver door lock will cycle back up if door is closed, (latch switch closed). If door stays locked GEM thinks door is open, (latch switch open) and allows locking. Good, simple test idea.

[Rivernut]

When I unlock, the drivers lock will flinch, but not unlock. Have to go in from passenger side to open. Lubed it up good, and now the lock unlocks, but light stays on. Thanks for the replies.

[Capt. Don*]

You have two different problems. I replaced a lot of latches on that vintage of Explorer on the driver door, the lock trying to move up but staying down was a teltale sign of latch wear. I would replace the latch with a NEW one and put the door ajar switch in at the same time after inspecting it. To inspect, remove from the latch, there will be two switches on the latch, one will have a phillips screw holding it in and one wire, that is for the alarm system, the one you're after just rotates out of the latch case and has two wires, Ford basic part number is 14018. When you get it in your hands push the little plunger in, if it doesn't move completely free or doesn't come all the way back out, replace it, you could lube it but in a month or two it will be doing the same thing. If it moves just fine, the latch hanging up can cause this problem, but these switches were notorious for failure.

[Jeremy airjer W]

When I unlock, the drivers lock will flinch, but not unlock. Have to go in from passenger side to open. Lubed it up good, and now the lock unlocks, but light stays on. Thanks for the replies.

That's a supper common problem with those. The mechanism that the outer handle linkage attaches to on the latch starts to rust up. If the handle mechanism doesn't return to its full release position it will not let the door locks unlock. You can usually feel the play in the outer handle before the slack is taken up and the linkage opens the latch.