Door Ajar Light

[rs1971]

Hello. First of all apologies in advance if I chose the wrong forum, but it seemed the closest fit. Anyway, I have a 2003 Ford Ranger XLT with 93,000 miles on it. I bought it new and overall it's been pretty good to me, though there have been some nagging issues.

First and foremost amongst these has been a problem with the door ajar light not going off even with the doors firmly closed. This has been an issue since almost day one, but has gotten progressively worse over the years. At this point, the light almost never goes off unless I just keep opening and shutting the doors like four or five times each. If I don't do this, obviously, the dome light stays on, which can't be good for the battery. Even as lazy as I am, this problem has gotten to the point where I have to do something about it.

I've had a look through the threads here and it seems that most people have had good luck with just spraying the closing mechanism with WD-40 and opening / closing the door several times. I have that a whirl but it seems to have accomplished nothing. So, what's next? I guess that there are some sensors or something that I have to replace? Has anyone done this? If so, how much do they cost? Is this a job that I can reasonably do myself without much mechanical experience? I looked for threads discussing the procedure, but I really couldn't find anything, so any advice that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wiesket]

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/DoorContactPin.html

Click on the above link. This may be the fix that you need to take care of your problem.....

 

[rs1971]

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/DoorContactPin.html

Click on the above link. This may be the fix that you need to take care of your problem.....

Thanks wiesket, that does look promising. It's interesting that the post mentions telling which door is the problem by whether or not the chime sounds. I've never heard a chime in my truck. I guess that did away with that at some point between 1995 and 2003. I just had a look at ebay and it looks like I can pick up two of them for $15. The idea of taking off the door panel scares me a bit, but I think that I'll have a go.

Thanks again for the link.