'96-Door Ajar light on. chimes dependant on speed

hi. im new. i found this forum while trying to find a solution to my problem. actually its not my car, but my mom's. but for the most part ive got about the same knowledge she does of cars which is fairly decent.

heres the issue. with all doors closed. weve tried slamming them all shut and everything. no obstructions or nothing. the door ajar light is always on. when you first turn on the car, the dome light and chimes are on constantly. but when you get moving down the road, hit 15MPH the light and chimes go out. door ajar stays on. start coming to a stop, drops to 10MPH, the chimes come on, but the dome stays off. door ajar is still on. once the car is shutoff, the chimes go out, but the dome comes on. anyone had this issue before? its getting really annoying. especially at night time cuz the dome light causes problems when driving. i figured it is a short. but the local mechanic said it was something in the driver side door. he didnt say what though. its just really frustrating and more than anything, really confusing.

I have the same exact problem with mine. Let me know if you find a fix for this.

*UPDATE* I have found that if I wiggle the ignition with the engine running and the doors closed I can make the chimes stop. When the chimes are off you can open the doors one at a time and shut them. The one that doesn't make the interrior lights go on is the problem. In my case it was the driver door. The door ajar light stays on through this process but when you fix the door sensors it should go off eliminating all the other problems too.

I had the door ajar light on and the dome light would stay on. I tried everything i took every door panel apart checked the sensors and even consodered replacing them. Instead i went on to these forums i found the best solution out there and cheapest WD-40 use it and alot of it dont even have to open door panel (which is a pain) i spray it into the lock mechanism and VOILA! everything works i was told its going to come back after x amount of time but i will be ready with my WD-40 So try that before any drastic meassures

replace your switch for about $15 from dealer

1998 Ford Windstar with the exact same Door Chime problem. I started thinking about removing the door panel and replacing sensor. I was sure it was the driver door. I looked at the suggested site for removing the panel http://www.carstereohelp.com/stereoremovalFordWindstarFDrSpk.htm and started to get into it. Then I thought I'd try the WD-40 route (I'd suggest a better product as WD40 gums up over time). It worked! So to pg.isacsson on this panel who suggested trying WD-40 first. Great idea.

Another possible sourse are the electrical contacts on the sliding door's front edge and post. If they get too dirty, the LCM will not "see" that door is closed.

I have a 96 Windstar which had a similar problem. It turned out to be th sliding door contacts that were dirty. A light sanding with a very fine (600 grit) waterpaper followed by a cleanup with contact cleaner eliminated the problem. It manifests as follows - you pull off and the door ajar chime sounds. When you slow down, stop and pull off again the doors lock (the PCM thinks the door has just been closed). Then the chime will sound at intervals trigerred by bumps in the road, acceleration etc. A simple fix for a most annoying problem.
Good luck !

There are a lot of different postings about this problem with the Windstar. My '96 Windstar had same problem but I think I've got mine fixed. I've followed some of the suggestions on other postings that suggested start engine and then open/close one door at a time. I aslo sprayed WD-40 on all doors. It appears that the driver's door was the one that was the problem.

On some of these post the people have said how much it cost to get this fixed at a dealer. Of course a dealer is going to charge you an arm and leg to fix the problem. They might even ask for a couple of fingers and toes too! That's why I am glad I found so much information here, it sure has saved me a lot of money.