I just got the battery changed in my 1996 toyota avalon. When I open the door the “door ajar” and dome light both start flashing for about 2 minutes. How do I stop this from happening?
Are you relating this condition to the battery change? I would not know why Toyota would design a car to blink its dome light after a battery change, do you have a theory?
Why did you need to charge the battery? Did you charge the battery in place or remove it to charge it? What is the current voltage at the battery with engine off and with engine on?
Joe–The OP changed the battery. He/she did not charge the battery.
Anyway, my only theory on the OP’s problem (which may not have any validity) is that the Body Control Module (BCM) is malfunctioning due to having its power cut off during the battery change procedure.
As to how to fix it…
Just a thought…but initially, I would disconnect the battery again(just ground) for a time then reconnect. Many times in electronic gear, resetting the computer successfully requires more than one, or two tries. I don’t pretend to know whether this will work…a wild guess but a cheap first try. This time , make sure the doors are closed when you do it. 
Here’s what can happen when a battery is disonnected from today’s vehicles. http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_disconnect_problems.htm
Tester
I hear you, but the car is 14 years old and, IMO would be worth the try. I wouldn’t think of recommending it on a model in the last 5 to 7 years w/o dealer help.
I’d do what another poster recommended and disconnect the negative battery cable for 15 minutes, then reconnect. When you reconnect, press the terminal firmly on the battery so that a solid connection is made the first time, as I believe a ‘sputtering’ connection is what usually scrambles electronic devices’ brains. This hopefully will reset the BCM and solve your problem.
Some cars take a power loss better than others. You’d think that the engineers would design for this, because it will happen at least several times in any car’s lifespan.
“Warning: Disconnecting the battery to reset the PCM on a growing number of late model (2003 and newer) vehicles can do more than erase the Keep Alive memory. It can also erase vital learned information that is absolutely necessary for other modules to function normally.”
This sounds like an urban legend in the making…WHAT “vital” information??? When cars are brand new, there is no “vital learned information” stored in the computer and they start up and operate just fine…The author of this piece is way short on facts and it would seem he has been plugged into The Matrix for too long…
Disconnecting the battery will return a vehicle to its default settings and most cars quickly adjust them selves to the world they find themselves in…
If the dome light and door ajar warning are malfunctioning, have your alternator checked for a bad diode. A/C ripple in the electrical system is a more likely cause for problems like this and many others… Computers do not like “dirty” power…
In all my years of replacing batteries (and I have replaced hundreds)I can only report some noticable idle re-learn situations on late 80’s earyly 90’s cars. Other than than ALL of my battery replacements have been totallly uneventful but here on this Forum we recieve many posta about tings just not right after a battery replacement.
Most vehicle "of today’ do have adaptive amd multiplicitive values to re-learn after battery replacement but they are not noticable.
I do agree that tester “missed the boat” when he call a 1996 “a car of today”