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Door Ajar light, again..

13K views 22 replies 9 participants last post by  thesavo 
#1 ·
Here we go again. I have the Luxury trim (05) so the gauge only let's you know that A "door" is open, not which door though. Had this issue in September of '14 so I had a buddy use his voltmeter and we tested every "door", in his driveway on a Saturday. Found it was only the passenger door so I went to a local pick N pull to get the door piece (behind handle) so the door would accept being latched. Well, this crap has started again but typically disappears in the cold and returns when it gets warmer.
I guess I know where to start now, whenever I get around to doing another "diagnosis".
 
#2 ·
Weird, seems to be triggered by temperature changes.
I don't know, maybe it's a freakin poltergeist.
 
#3 ·
Midshift said:
Midshift said:
Here we go again. I have the Luxury trim (05) so the gauge only let's you know that A "door" is open, not which door though. Had this issue in September of '14 so I had a buddy use his voltmeter and we tested every "door", in his driveway on a Saturday. Found it was only the passenger door so I went to a local pick N pull to get the door piece (behind handle) so the door would accept being latched. Well, this crap has started again but typically disappears in the cold and returns when it gets warmer.
I guess I know where to start now, whenever I get around to doing another "diagnosis".
Weird, seems to be triggered by temperature changes.
I don't know, maybe it's a freakin poltergeist.
Lubricate everything!
 
#4 ·
AhuraMazda04 said:
Midshift said:
Midshift said:
Here we go again. I have the Luxury trim (05) so the gauge only let's you know that A "door" is open, not which door though. Had this issue in September of '14 so I had a buddy use his voltmeter and we tested every "door", in his driveway on a Saturday. Found it was only the passenger door so I went to a local pick N pull to get the door piece (behind handle) so the door would accept being latched. Well, this crap has started again but typically disappears in the cold and returns when it gets warmer.
I guess I know where to start now, whenever I get around to doing another "diagnosis".
Weird, seems to be triggered by temperature changes.
I don't know, maybe it's a freakin poltergeist.
Lubricate everything!
I may have to set aside time to go door to door and do that.
May take like 30 mins.
 
#5 ·
Same thing happened to me. Cold weather seemed to make the car alarm go off. Got a new lock/actuator from the J-Yard and seems ok for the past 6 months.

I did take apart the old one to see what the issue was. Buried in the latch/actuator assembly is a micro switch. On the switch, is a small actuator arm that pushes down the button to activate it. The arm (small flat piece of metal about 4mm wide, 1mm thick and an inch long) is hinged on one side of the switch. When I manually actuated the door latch, the arm would not fully depress the button on the switch. I bent it slightly upwards (towards the latch) and it started actuating the switch. You can hear a small "click" when the switch is actuated. Did not reinstall to verify it worked since the J-yard piece was working fine, but before I "Reformed" (bent) the arm, it would not actuate the switch at all, so I assume it worked.

Lots of little moving parts inside the actuator :? . At leas on the 2006.
 
#6 ·
I had the same problem. The whole lubricating thing is not going to work. One of your doors actuator has gone bad. Just sit inside your Escape and set the alarm. Open one door at a time. The door that doesn't set-off the alarm is the one with the bad actuator. That's how I figured out which one was bad in my 2007 Escape. No issues since replacing.

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#8 ·
^ ???
 
#9 ·
Creepy.... he turned his head to the passenger side, while checking his rear driver's side door is a jar - he turned his head 270 degrees

If he were not such a terrible driver he would have noticed in the mirror that the rear driver's side door is a jar

OK - sorry for continuing the distraction while you have a real aggravating issue I have no input for
 
#10 ·
escape_ottawa said:
Creepy.... he turned his head to the passenger side, while checking his rear driver's side door is a jar - he turned his head 270 degrees

If he were not such a terrible driver he would have noticed in the mirror that the rear driver's side door is a jar

OK - sorry for continuing the distraction while you have a real aggravating issue I have no input for
It' a "Mariner thing", you wouldn't understand :roll: ...

You're giving this WAAAAAY too much thought, it was just a corny joke :lol:
 
#12 ·
In recent time, it's been cold out. The light is off and my car only goes ape shit (alarm) when it gets warm.
 
#13 ·
16 JUL 2016

Driving past few nights, unsure Wtf the issue is but the Door Ajar light comes on then goes off comes on then goes off comes on then goes off ( repeatedly over and over) accompanying the Door Ajar light of course is the ever so lovely ding tone.
When I bought this vehicle one of the 1st things I did was go to a pick n pull and replaced the Door lock assembly ( after testing each circuit to see which door it was... I don't have the Mariner Premier ) ...

Is it the change in cold/warm air?
Is it a connectivity issue somewhere?
I am beginning to get pi ssed off with all this.
Also, if you decrease speed enough, the cabin/map lights illuminate. All this is a significant and much unwanted annoyance and distraction.
 
#14 ·
I went through the exact same issue with my 2007 Escape. It ended up being one of my rear doors actuator. After a few months, another door actuator started acting up which caused my alarm to go off in the middle of the night. Again, I replaced the faulty actuator and the problem was fixed. A few months later, the dome light would sporadically come on. Sometimes it wouldn't turn-off at all when I shut the doors and set the alarm. After some more in depth inspection, it was another door actuator that kicked the bucket. Instead of putting more money into it, I decided to just turn off the dome light manually from its switch. To this day I still have the dome light off. It sucks but it's not worth it to me putting more money into it over some stupid annoyance. This is a very common problem with the first gen Escapes. My dealer told me they make a killing working on this issue. Good luck fixing your issue.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
#15 ·
Is there a fuse I can pull?
and if I pull it what all would it effect?
I really just want to kill that annoying tone and the map lights coming on.
I could care less about the Door Ajar light itself.
 
#16 ·
DarthR8er said:
I went through the exact same issue with my 2007 Escape. It ended up being one of my rear doors actuator. After a few months, another door actuator started acting up which caused my alarm to go off in the middle of the night. Again, I replaced the faulty actuator and the problem was fixed. ...
This is a very common problem with the first gen Escapes. My dealer told me they make a killing working on this issue. Good luck fixing your issue.
How did such a faulty actuator/door ajar sensor make it past testing and quality control?

My 07 Hybrid seems to have the same issue on the rear passenger door, which is hardly every used. Lube and contact cleaner did nothing.

Is a recall in order? Class action? I'm sick of the alarm going off randomly, and today woke up to find the battery dead thanks to the false positives flicking the lights on and off.

Local Ford dealer can't even look at the problem until next Thursday. "Sorry we sell unreliable vehicles where basic common components fail prematurely so frequently we're slammed. Maybe you should just buy a new one? I have to go count my money now, bye!"

Making a life of vehicle door sensor isn't rocket science! Time to start pulling fuses and saving up for a Toyota.

The nonsense with the MEC coolant pump service advisory-cum-recall was the last straw (I paid out of pocket before the lawsuit forced Ford to fix them). I'm beyond furious now. Ack Ptttth!

:bill:
 
#17 ·
Hybrid Vigor said:
DarthR8er said:
I went through the exact same issue with my 2007 Escape. It ended up being one of my rear doors actuator. After a few months, another door actuator started acting up which caused my alarm to go off in the middle of the night. Again, I replaced the faulty actuator and the problem was fixed. ...
This is a very common problem with the first gen Escapes. My dealer told me they make a killing working on this issue. Good luck fixing your issue.
How did such a faulty actuator/door ajar sensor make it past testing and quality control?

My 07 Hybrid seems to have the same issue on the rear passenger door, which is hardly every used. Lube and contact cleaner did nothing.

Is a recall in order? Class action? I'm sick of the alarm going off randomly, and today woke up to find the battery dead thanks to the false positives flicking the lights on and off.

Local Ford dealer can't even look at the problem until next Thursday. "Sorry we sell unreliable vehicles where basic common components fail prematurely so frequently we're slammed. Maybe you should just buy a new one? I have to go count my money now, bye!"

Making a life of vehicle door sensor isn't rocket science! Time to start pulling fuses and saving up for a Toyota.

The nonsense with the MEC coolant pump service advisory-cum-recall was the last straw (I paid out of pocket before the lawsuit forced Ford to fix them). I'm beyond furious now. Ack Ptttth!

:bill:
If you do decide to replace the actuator, go with the Dorman brand. Good quality at half the cost of OEM. They're pretty easy to replace.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
#18 ·
I've got to figure out which door it is..
Right now, I'm assuming its the Front Passenger door which was the original issue.

Either way, that damn tone is pissing me the PHUQ off :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:
 
#19 ·
Midshift said:
I've got to figure out which door it is..
Right now, I'm assuming its the Front Passenger door which was the original issue.

Either way, that damn tone is pissing me the PHUQ off :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:
The way I found out which actuator was faulty was by getting inside the vehicle and setting the alarm via the key fob remote. After that, from the inside you open one door at a time. If you open a door and the alarm horn doesn't go off, that is the door with the faulty actuator.

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#20 ·
That makes sense..

The way I originally found out was I had a buddy use his voltmeter lol
 
#21 ·
Possibly different in each state but will the door ajar light fail me in an inspection (even when their is no door open) ??

If so, Im F'd cuz theres no time or money to fix the relentless issue.

I may have to pull the cluster and pull that bulb.
 
#23 ·
rotary_powered said:
If you have a bluetooth OBDII code reader, go download Forscan, you can check which door is open,
Thoughts exactly. You can call up live data like a door state for each door. I did try this to troubleshoot a 2003 expedition.
All Ford's develop this issue. I had a 2003 Taurus and a 1998 explorer, 2004 towncar, all with the same issue.

Some lube it up with water displacer no. 40. Then open/shut the door ~30 times to free up the ball switch. Aftward it's time for white lithium grease.

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