Hi All!!
My door ajar light is stuck on in my 2000 Subaru Forester, whether the car is on or not. I had to replace the battery as it ran down the old one. Sometimes it goes off for a week or more at a stretch, but it always comes back on. As of now it has been on continuously for about 8 months. I have tried everything minus taking the door panels off. Any ideas?
Thank you!
One of the door switches may be dirty or needs adjustment and that is causing the trouble. The switch for the hatch may be the culprit also. You should be able find which one is causing the trouble by checking the voltage across the switch. I think the switch makes a ground connection when the door is open so there will no voltage across it when the door is open. There may be a fault with the warning indicator if all the switches show an open switch condition when all the doors are closed.
Hi Cougar,
Thank you for your response, that is really helpful. Do you have a link to a picture of a door switch so I know where to start with it?
Thank you!
here is the schematic
Thank you Knfenimore. Unfortunately that one wont enlarge, do you have another one? I am also curious if anyone has a picture of the physical unit?
Thanks all!
I got it to enlarge quite a bit, and it was still legible. It’s not a picture of a door switch, though, it’s the wiring schematic.
After you open the schematic (on WIndows), hold “Ctrl”, and then scroll up with the mouse wheel. It will enlarge the image (or text if it’s just text, like this website).
To find the switch, open a door, and look around it at the various contact areas (anyplace the metal of the door will come close to the metal of the frame - which means all the way around it). You should find a plastic post of some sort poking out, and it may have a rubber boot over it. If you push on it, the interior lights should go out, key chime should stop, all that jazz. Most cars have them on the central pillar. I’m not familiar enough with the Forester to tell you where it is, but there are some here that will know.
If you push on something that isn’t the switch, you won’t hurt it, so push on everything you find that looks close, and you’ll come across it. I can’t think of anything else in the door area that would resemble a swtich - except a switch.
After looking at the drawing that Knfenimore kindly provided it looks like another possible trouble area besides the doors could be the keyless entry connector. Either the yellow wire going to all the door switches except the driver’s door, or the blue/orange wire going to the driver’s door will have the connection to ground problem on it which turns on the lamp.
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Literally fixed this on my car with a self sticking felt pad dot …
Used marker on the doorclosed sensor button to see where it strikes the door frame … There was a tiny wear mark ding on the frame just enough that the pin no longer stayed depressed to register that the door was closed , so I covered it with the felt pad… Viola!! The felt pad added enough thickness to now keep the pin pushed in when the door is closed …
You covered it with a felt pad and a stringed instrument?
I’m surprised that you can even get the door to close with a Viola in the door opening.
The vast majority of vehicles today do not employ the old style door jamb pin switch… The switches are now located within the door latches themselves… The hasp that the latch interacts with is adjustable Up, Down, In and Out… You need to figure out which door latch is not being fully seated and or malfunctioning.
Close all the doors except one… that “one” is usually the drivers door as it sees the most use. Make sure all doors are closed tight and then open the drivers door and using a pick or small diameter rod…actuate your driver door latch with the pick… If you notice the light goes out after you do this then the driver door hasp needs to be moved outward in order to allow the latch to fully seat and activate the switch.
If you still somehow have door jamb pin switches it is even easier to figure out using a totally different method which I can relay to you if in fact you have pin switches. We can cross that bridge when and if we get to it.