98 Taurus Electrical Problem

At times the automatic door locks will not engage while driving. When this happens the dome light will remain on and if you lock the doors manually they just pop up again. If the car is driven long enough the doors will eventually lock and the dome light will turn off.

Whatever is causing this problem also seems to cause the dome light to remain on after the car is parked. Fortunatly in this case the doors will lock. After the car is parked the dome light will go out eventually. This may take minutes or it may take hours.

Any ideas?

Your problem is probablly a bad door switch. I beleive the auto lock won't lock if one of your doors is open.

I think that you're right about the door switch. This is my wife's car and after looking into it more it turned out that the door ajar light was on. Someone had suggested using WD40 for a similar problem so I'm trying that first. Thanks for your response.

I had a similar problem with my 97 Taurus. "Door Ajar" icon remained on and domelight and in-door safety lights remained on while car was in gear, out of gear, ignition on or off, key in or out. Couldn't make lights go off. Couldn't find fuse to disable them (to avoid dead battery).

First left it sit for 20-30 minutes and they went off (presume battery saver kicked in). Started it up again and same issue. Lubricated latches on all 4 doors with Teflon lubricant. No Effect. Then used WD-40. Still No Effect. THEN lubricated under the actual door handles with WD-40 (where they attach inside the door). WALA! Problem fixed.

No logic or reason for why it worked, but it did.

(BTW - this occurred in rainy weather - not sure if that had anything to do with it. Fixed it before the rain stopped)

I have the same prob -w- my wifes car.
1997 Taurus. Any one know of a difinitave answer?

Dome/door lights stay on, I will try the WD40 idea and will let know. Thanks for the idea(s).