96 Mercury Sable Door open light is on

[trinfinate]

All doors are closed and locked on the car but the door open light never shuts off.....on the passenger side door the window doesnt go down..i changed the motor and it still wont go down using the driver and passenger side swithes....
at one point i taped the passneger side switch to the "window down" position, and then on the drivers side you bring the window down it would work....but that stopped working....what could it be?

[shorod]

You could have two issues, or possibly one related issue here. The door ajar light could be on due to a dirty door ajar switch in one of the door latches. That's a pretty common issue that can often be remedied by using some electrical parts cleaner, sprayed in the latch, to clean the switch contacts. Cycle the door a few times, the see if the light is out. Simply based on usage, the driver's door would be the one to start with. Some people will swear by WD-40, but WD-40 is not really an electrical contact cleaner but a water displacement aid with pentrating oil (which can actually degrade electrical contacts) so my preference is to use Caig De-Oxit followed up by Caig Preserv-It. These two products are not very easy to come by and are not inexpensive, so for a single use application it may not be a practical solution. If you seek more details on the door ajar light, feel free to search the Taurus forum for keyword "ajar".

The power window issue is very likely due to a broken or damaged wire in the harness between the driver's door and the cabin. I don't recall specifically if the '96 uses just an accordion boot or if it has the round connector thingy. Either way, you'll want to get to where you can carefully inspect the wires for evidence of broken wires, Often instead of an obvious break you'll be looking more for something that appears like a kinked wire, where the "kink" is actually broken copper strands within the insulation of the wire. The door ajar indication could also be due to a broken wire in this same area, but I'd start with cleaning the door switches. Typically it only takes one, maybe two, applications of electrical parts cleaner in the switch and a few cycles of the latch to get the door ajar light to go out. If you find it seeming to need more than this, move on to inspecting the wires.

-Rod

[Tinovolpe]

Had the same issue with my 01 Taurus and the WD 40 did do the trick although I would agree with Rod that probably should be used only in a pinch. Otherwise get the eletrical contact cleaner.