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I have a faulty door ajar switch in my 2003 Ford Escape. It reads the tailgate glass as being permanently ajar, so the ajar light in the dash never goes out and the interior lights never dim – you have to switch them on and off manually. I’ve been living with it for a while but now it’s just annoying me.
In an ideal world I’d obviously just replace the switch, but it’s a non-serviceable part of the liftgate glass latch, so the entire assembly needs to be replaced. The OEM Ford latch costs crazy money (if you can even find one) and junkyards aren’t really an option – I’m in the UK and the Escape (called the Maverick over here – no relation to the Ford Maverick sold in the USA) was only sold between 2001-2003 and it’s a rare vehicle, so they just don’t seem to exist in junkyards.
I’d be happy to wire a workaround that made the car think that the glass was permanently closed. The ajar switch uses a 2-pin connector, one pin signal and the other ground. When the switch is grounded the glass registers as closed. Would jumpering the two pins on the harness connector achieve the same result as grounding the circuit, or would it just blow up the module that monitors the ajar switches?
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If you jump the switch it will fool the computer into thinking its closed.
Should work fine. The only problem that might happen is if you try and
open the glass the computer will think its closed and cause the computer
to brain fart. As long as you don’t use the glass open feature you should
be good to go.[quote=”Dunebasher” post=164409]Thanks for the help – that’s a nice easy, and above all cheap fix :)[/quote]
Keep us posted on how it goes. 🙂
OK, I’m planning to try this tomorrow. Just so I’m completely clear on this…
I’m going to unplug the harness connector from the glass ajar switch, and then just use a paper clip or piece of wire to connect the two cavities of the harness connector together. The actual ajar switch will no longer be part of the circuit. The computer that monitors the ajar switches will be sending a voltage down the signal line of the harness connector, and it’ll be looped back up the ground line. That’s correct?
Sorry if that sounds painfully obvious, but electrics aren’t my strong point 🙂
You got that exactly right! You need to connect the two wires that would plug into the switch to each other. Paper clip, jumper wire, etc which will allow you to test the concept. Then if it works, you can use a splice kit, or a short piece of wire and two terminal connectors to either plug into the plug, or orbjump the wires leaving the plug attached. That way if you decide to replace the module later the plug is still there.
It works 🙂
After proof-of-concept with a bent paper clip, I just cut the wires and soldered them together. I left the cut-off plug connected to the glass latch, but I seriously doubt I will ever touch it again. My chances of finding a replacement latch are almost zero, and it’s really not worth it just to get a working “glass ajar” function back.
Many thanks to everyone for the help!
[quote=”Dunebasher” post=164712]It works 🙂
After proof-of-concept with a bent paper clip, I just cut the wires and soldered them together. I left the cut-off plug connected to the glass latch, but I seriously doubt I will ever touch it again. My chances of finding a replacement latch are almost zero, and it’s really not worth it just to get a working “glass ajar” function back.
Many thanks to everyone for the help![/quote]
Glad you worked it out. 🙂
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