door adjar - wd40 where in rear door

[peter63north]

Where do I spray the WD40, in 1998 windstar( just bought it 3 weeks ago) , I see the main latching mechanism and lower, a spring loaded plastic clip that seats against more plastic when the door is closed. I removed the spring loaded from the door expecting to see a wire behind it so I could twist some wires together and bypass the sensor but there is nothing behind the spring loaded thing. Sorry for being so long winded, any help is appreciated. My wife has now become an expert at pulling he darn fuse. Thanks

[Vchat20]

the spring loaded bit is not where its located. the sensor that indicates the door being open is actually in the latch mechanism on the door on both sides. if you wanna disable it altogether it will take some work but is no more than an hour or 2 to do.

what you wanna do first is take the whole door panel off of the rear hatch. you will need to remove the inside handle as well to remove it. once that is off look around the inside of the door towards the 2 latches. simply pull the plug off of both and it will be taken care of.

putting the panel back on will be a little difficult to do. we did this a few weeks ago and had the panel laying inside the van for a good week till we were able to get it back on.

what youll need is like a pair of needle nosed pliers to pull the white clips out of the door. once they are all out, just put them in the corresponding spots on the door panel. after thats done, simply put the panel back on the door and push on it in all areas to ensure the white clps are in securely. put the indoor handle back on and youre done.

[peter63north]

This forum is great, I'm glad I found it. What makes is great it is awesome support and knowledge shared. Tomorrow I go into the the reardoor and get those wires.
Thanks so so much,
Curious though, what are the little springy pads used for?

[sleepyhead]

has anyone else tried to dissect out the sensor unit to repair or replace it instead of disabling it? It might be very essential for safety reasons especially on highway, as you do not want to have 20 cars following you to pile up simply because you are not aware of the fact that your liftgate has not been shut properly and your goodies fly out all in a suffen (e.g., after the tires hit a small pitfall) to become dangerous "Identified Flying Objects" at 75mph.

I was terrified twice during the past July 4th weekend on the highway. On the way to a national park, a truck about 50 feet ahead of me suddenly dropped some dusty stuff presumbably due to the improper covering of his load, a stone within the fallen dusty flower soil or pine wood skin at the size of a peanut bounced up in the air at very high speed toward the front wind panel of my windstar. I did not dare to press down my brake too much to cause pile-ups, just a little bit, that stone hit the roof and luckily we bypassed a disaster in inches.

Though having tried very hard, I had never managed to turn the three recessive hex-star screws on each side, with the right tools though. Tried an equivalent spary of WD40, no help. It does not look rusty from outside, neither. To unplug the sensor wiring behind the panel, it is a piece of cake, just a matter of time and patience to put the rear door trim panel back.