door light and charms wont go off FIX !!

Ok so I have read many people having issues when their door light and or the bell stays on and wont go off. Many people say that if you spray the latches with WD40 or PB blaster it will *fix* it. Well it is more like a band aid not a repair. It WILL happen again. Now I will explain the way to fix these seding units. I will be using the rear lift gate as my example.

1st remove the trim panel from the rear gate.

2nd using a t25 torx bit remove each complete latch assembly from both sides of the lift gate. There are 3 of these screws per side. I take one off at a time so as not to stick wrong one on wrong side.. however it really isnt that complicated if you pull both.

3rd once you have them out you will see an electric sending unit on each latch with a 2 wire connector, remove that. Then if you look closely at where the sending unit slides into the latch.. you will see a plastic backing that has the words "tab" stamped into it. Now... very carefully slide a small screwdriver under where it says "tab" and apply a little preasure upwards, not oo much or it will break. While you have the preasure applied rotate the sending unit clockwise so it unlocks and slide the sender out of the latch assemply. Now if you want to never have the door bother you again... throw these in the trash and put everything back together and you're done. HOWEVER if you want to do it right.. take the sending unit and either replace it with a new one for each latch or use some quality carb or parts cleaner to clean the heck out of them. You will see a small metal sliding switch, when this switch gets stuck IN it causes the door chime and lights to stay on. So clean ittill it moves easily on its own. A few drops or lubricant will help AFTER it is cleaned. After you have them moving freely just put everything back together. I myself also use carb or parts cleaner on the complete latch as well till its totaly clean of all old greese then I spray on some new white lith greese before putting everything back together.

I hope this helps. Spraying the latch with WD40 will sometimes work, however in the long run it will only last a while. The issue is the sending units are sludged up and the more wd40 and such you spray on the more dust and stuff it will collect... making it sludgy and sticky again.

Just clean them and lightly spray them to get them sliding free and then they should last another 50k!

Hope this helps.

Nicely detailed information for a common problem. Well done!

Ditto!!

Thanx guys. I figured that someone should finally put a rest to this topic.. well.. at leaste try too. LOL

Bet ya a cold beer someone will post same problem within 2 weeks.

Well if they do... then they are not looking at the forums right? I usualy go 3 or 4 pages before I post an issue on any forums. If I cant find an answer if 3 or 4 pages.. then I post. So I am not much better I guess. LOL

I think this needs a bump cus there have been like 10 others after this post who are too lazy to look at the forums before asking a question.

Seeing someone is trying to charge for this fix.. I thought I would bump it again

Just wanted to thank you for the fix. Easy to follow and it worked! I've been going nuts with the chiming and when you add 2 cranky kids and humidity in the 90's to the mix... Well, let's just say it's not pretty. So again, thank you very much!

Just wanted to thank you for the fix. Easy to follow and it worked! I've been going nuts with the chiming and when you add 2 cranky kids and humidity in the 90's to the mix... Well, let's just say it's not pretty. So again, thank you very much!

:)

No problem.. have seen hundreds of posts asking about this so I figured I would share the fix so others can save themselves money. Its not that hard to fix. Glad I could help Heather in Maine

:)

An addendum to this post, and a bump, I guess.

First off, THANK YOU for posting this.

Secondly, I had to fix my hatch senders today before getting the van inspected. I have a 2001. When I took out the senders I just left the wires unplugged (I have had these fixed before at the dealer's expense, and they failed again about 35-40K later, so I didn't want to deal with it again). Leaving them unplugged caused the light to stay on. So I cut the connectors off, stripped the ends, and twisted them together. Now all is well.

I just wanted to mention that the wires need to be tied together on a 2001.
Jim

Ok so I have read many people having issues when their door light and or the bell stays on and wont go off. Many people say that if you spray the latches with WD40 or PB blaster it will *fix* it. Well it is more like a band aid not a repair. It WILL happen again. Now I will explain the way to fix these seding units. I will be using the rear lift gate as my example.

1st remove the trim panel from the rear gate.

2nd using a t25 torx bit remove each complete latch assembly from both sides of the lift gate. There are 3 of these screws per side. I take one off at a time so as not to stick wrong one on wrong side.. however it really isnt that complicated if you pull both.

3rd once you have them out you will see an electric sending unit on each latch with a 2 wire connector, remove that. Then if you look closely at where the sending unit slides into the latch.. you will see a plastic backing that has the words "tab" stamped into it. Now... very carefully slide a small screwdriver under where it says "tab" and apply a little preasure upwards, not oo much or it will break. While you have the preasure applied rotate the sending unit clockwise so it unlocks and slide the sender out of the latch assemply. Now if you want to never have the door bother you again... throw these in the trash and put everything back together and you're done. HOWEVER if you want to do it right.. take the sending unit and either replace it with a new one for each latch or use some quality carb or parts cleaner to clean the heck out of them. You will see a small metal sliding switch, when this switch gets stuck IN it causes the door chime and lights to stay on. So clean ittill it moves easily on its own. A few drops or lubricant will help AFTER it is cleaned. After you have them moving freely just put everything back together. I myself also use carb or parts cleaner on the complete latch as well till its totaly clean of all old greese then I spray on some new white lith greese before putting everything back together.

I hope this helps. Spraying the latch with WD40 will sometimes work, however in the long run it will only last a while. The issue is the sending units are sludged up and the more wd40 and such you spray on the more dust and stuff it will collect... making it sludgy and sticky again.

Just clean them and lightly spray them to get them sliding free and then they should last another 50k!

Hope this helps.

I think this information should be at the top of the forum all of the time. The LeSabre forum has at the top how to program FOBs. I know there are a lot of Fords out there with this problem. Any moderators out there reading this?

Regards
Dan

I forget who makes it, but I work for Xerox and we have a "dry" lubricant we use for things like this. There used to be a commercially available product that was graphite in an alcohol solution. The alcohol carries the graphite into the nooks and crannies and then evaporates. It is a great dry lubricant that does not attract dust. If you can't find that liquid graphite, make some.

Shave off large amounts of pencil "lead", which is graphite, into a small container. add a bit of rubbing alcohol and put it into an eye-dropper. Apply to the moving parts of these sensors/switches and there you go.

I would suggest cleaning out the original lube first before applying the graphite solution.

My 2-cents


P.S. Thanks for the fix! This was driving me nuts. Seemed fine when cold and then went haywire after it warmed up or so it seemed.

This worked great!

would my CE light stay on too if i was having the same problem? i have a 98 windstar. is there also sensors on all the other doors? cause when i slam all the doors, most of the time, it does not help, but sometimes, it goes off after slaming the drivers door a couple of times, or so it seems. oh yea! when i start driving the beeping and light will go off after i get to about 10-15mph. and then it starts beeping again, when i slow back down.

would my CE light stay on too if i was having the same problem? i have a 98 windstar. is there also sensors on all the other doors? cause when i slam all the doors, most of the time, it does not help, but sometimes, it goes off after slaming the drivers door a couple of times, or so it seems. oh yea! when i start driving the beeping and light will go off after i get to about 10-15mph. and then it starts beeping again, when i slow back down.


These sensors will not cuase the CEL to come on. As for the shutting off at speed.... yes this is common when they are stuck. I cant remember the way it works but they will shut off at a certain speed then come back on when slowing down.. best bet is to find out what ones are bad, then replace them with new ones. If you dont care to have the interior lights come on at all when you open the *infected* door just trash the sensors and be done with it. Good luck.

Hey, I just wanted to bump this thread and say thanks to jtman for the fix. I got away with the WD40 application rather than the replacement (I think - hasn't happened over last couple of days, at least).

Wow, thanks...for the first time since having this vehicle ALL the trouble lights are off woohoo!
It doesn't make the CEL light come on, but I thought mine stayed dim until fixing the door light. It is actually the door ajar light reflecting to the CEL one.