My wife's 99 Taurus SE (3.0 V-6, 90,000 miles) will sometimes act strange. The "door ajar" light and dome light will stay on while driving and the doors will not lock automatically. This does not happen all the time. If anyone knows why this is happening I would appreciate your help. Thanks.

 

The door switch is probably hanging up. When this occurs, the vehicle things that the door is still open and will keep the door light on, dome light on and the auto door locks will not work. Spray sicone spray up into all of the door latches to free up the one that is hung upo and lubricat the others. Do not use a grease type spray as the grease will hold dirt and cause additionl switches to hang up. TYhen a gain, the switch causing the problem could very well just be bad, but I wouldn't thik so.

 

The door ajar switch is a 'pin type' grounding switch.. It's mounted/positioned with it's nose in the 'upwards' position in the lower door latch area.. It's not a sealed switch and the pin commonly sticks as debris/water collect on the spring loaded pin causing it to stick.. Most times with a little work you can get them unstuck with a light spray and some door closures as Use Common Sense noted..

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Thank you both very much. I thought it was a door switch but, unlike older vehicles, it isn't visible inside the door jamb. This was confusing to me and I wasn't quite sure where else to look. I'll look inside the doors and clean/lube the actuators this weekend. Thanks again.

 

Spray the door latch/striker area,, and try and concentrate down towards the bottom of the latch.. Gravity will help get the lube where it needs to go

 

We had the same problem with our Wagon.

We were able to isolate which door was the problem, and were fortunate to still be under warrenty so the dealer replaced the sensor at no cost. Actual cost of the sensor that went bad was $80. Since then all is well.

Good Luck!