Dome light Door ajar always on Ranger - Interior Tech - Tech Section

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 10:59 am

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JAMMAN

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I want to slap ford for this one can someone explain the logic.

Symptom: Dome light always on, door ajar light on. You have checked both front door switches and they are working fine.

I have confirmed this in the wiring diagrams of 1998 through 2000 rangers, many more may be affected.

For some reason on the 4 door models (the extended cab where the little rear doors open backwards) Ford felt it would be a good idea to put door switches on the back doors also.

One wire is ground, one goes to the gem but not exactly. On both doors the non ground wire ties in with the right front door switch! You can unplug the wire from the front switch and do a continuity test between the colored wire (not the black wire) and ground and get a beep or a light.... one of the rear switches is bad.

The rear door switches are wired in parallel if either of them are smoked then you will get continuity. These switches are "normally open" design so they actually close when the door is open. The ground is just a signal to the GEM to do its thing and turn the dome light on or trigger the door ajar light and the battery saver thing that eventually turns it off if it seems you have forgotten to.

I haven't found out where the wire is spliced in yet to the right door wire but I will unless someone already knows. I'm not going to attempt to fix the rear switches I'll just clip the wires because... (here's the logic question)...

WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A DOOR OPEN SWITCH ON A DOOR THAT CAN ONLY OPEN IF THE MAIN DOOR IS OPEN?

Maybe it's just me?

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 11:08 am

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chris

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Because it's a DOOR and somewhere in the build & use regs there is probably something that says all doors must have a warning if they are open.

Ford should have redefined the rear opening parts as hatches then they probably wouldn't have needed the switches ....

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 11:12 am

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Mike69

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Jim, on my last 2000 Ranger that was also a 4 door I had a problem of the dome light & door ajar light staying on. I found the lower door latch on one of the rear doors was rusted & stuck in the open position & not allowing the rear door to close fully at the bottom. I had to soak the latch with PB Blaster/WD-40 to free it up so it would latch & the light would go out. For a while until I figured out what the problem was I had pulled the dome light bulb out.

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 11:44 am

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JAMMAN

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Well the PO got PO'ed and pulled the entire dome light out. I have none but I do have a volt meter :)

Just clipped the wires. You can pull the grommet loose from the truck and expose all 5 wires. Only need to clip one :)

Wrong one and the speakers stop working.

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 06:33 pm

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Tsquare
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When I had this happen to me it ended up being the headlight switch assembly. The switch at the top of the dimmer rheostat had shorted causing the dome light to stay on. It was about $25 for a new switch. I went the cheap route and put a pushbutton on/off switch that I had on the lens.

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 09:56 pm

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black06xlt
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When I had that 96 expo I had that problem. I spayed wd-40 in all the latches and it solved the problem. A door switch sticking will cause that especially on a 4 door with a frozen latch

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Posted: Sat Aug 18th, 2018 10:01 pm

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JAMMAN

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It was the switch in the passenger side rear door. I cut the wire. Now the wires where the dome light used to be are working correctly. I just need a dome light.

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Posted: Sun Aug 19th, 2018 09:16 pm

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CBB9M
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JAMMAN wrote:
.....

WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A DOOR OPEN SWITCH ON A DOOR THAT CAN ONLY OPEN IF THE MAIN DOOR IS OPEN?

Maybe it's just me?

Simple. If both latches on the rear door aren't engaged, the integrity of the front door latch is compromised. Might not be a good thing in an accident.

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