Interior Lights WONT TURN off please HELP!!!

[SS5Broli]

Interior lights stay on when I close all the doors and lock the van. Someone please help me. I have a 2002 model please help.

[ModMech]

Lubricate all the door latches (on the door edge, not the lock) with a spray lubricant of some sort. That usually fixes it.

[PumpItUp]

Originally Posted by SS5Broli

Interior lights stay on when I close all the doors and lock the van. Someone please help me. I have a 2002 model please help.

As what was mentioned earlier trying the lubricating the door latches / especially (what seems to be the most prevelant problem) is the back hatch latches. I took my 96' Windstar to the dealer and they opened the hatch and soaked the left and right latch with WD-40 and kept opening and closing the hatch to loosen it and sure enough...BAM!! They also said to clean the metal plate/contact strip between the sliding side door and the pillar with a rubber (not hard plastic) puck by literally scrubbing the plate to get rid of residue build up and no problems for about 1 yr now! Good luck

[gpwhite7]

This is one of the bad design flaws of the Windstar and probably >75% of Windstar owners will have this problem. I have a 1996 which does it often. Spraying w/ Silicone spray or other spray will help temporarily.

[rtcat13]

ss5broli- I have a 98 winstar and had the same problem. I started with the sliding door - cleaning the contacts etc as posted by pumpitup and modtech. That didnt work for me though. Turns out there is a switch in the very rear of the door that was bad. (when the door closed and made contact with the switches, then the current would flow through the door through the switch and back to the comp. to let it know they were closed.) My switch was stuck in the open position, meaning it thought that door was open. After getting a pn# and a price, I actually just removed the switch wired the wires together. The only drawback of that is now the comp. thinks the door is always closed. This doesnt affect the autolocks, so aas far as children are concerned- they are still safe. But if they were to open the door somehow, your chime would not activate. Been 4 months since I did mine, works good. good luck!

[buessi]

Have you checked the dimmer switch on the dashboard? If the switch is turned up all the way, interior lights will stay on. I know it's a silly design flaw, but twice now I have panicked and returned to the dealer with this problem over the past several years. Now I know - turn the dimmer down!

If that fails, then you have an open circuit on one of the door switches as was suggested by others

[loca247]

I had the same problem on my 95 windstar. The problem was a toss up between the sliding door and the hatch. I took a SOS pad (squeezed the soap out) and rubbed gently on the metal circular contacts on the door jam. Then I sprayed them with WD40 (don't ask me why) and rubbed them again. I took a damp cloth and wiped the contacts. Then I took the SOS pad and rubbed the springy posts (with the metal contacts on the end) the sliding door. Then I worked on the hatch. I sprayed the latches (they look like clips) with WD40 and opened and closed them to work in the WD40. Then sprayed them again. I took the SOS pad and cleaned the hooks (where the latch grabs) and wiped them with a damp cloth. Then I sprayed the latches on the hatch door and worked the handle on the outside of the hatch door. I also cleaned the driver and passenger side doors the same way (just for good measure). I don't have any problems with the lights staying on. Now, they go off within 5 or 10 seconds.

[raylutz]

Based on the hints I read here, I cleaned the contacts on sliding door, did not help. Cleaned back hatch latch, opened/closed many times. No luck. Drenched passenger latch in door with WD40 and opened/closed many time. That worked. Did driver's side too just because I had all the stuff out. Good luck!

BTW, I have 1998 Windstar.

[12Ounce]

The sliding contacts on the front of the sliding door have no direct impact on the lights ... IIRC. But indirectly, the cleaning and lubricating will have a possible impact on the door closing a bit more easily. As has been written, the actual door closure switch is at the rear of the door opening ... and often missed by the owners.