I have a 2002 Limited Excursion with the 7.3 and I have read many posts on here about the "door ajar" light and the interior lights staying on but that is NOT my problem. My lights just do not come on when the doors are opened.

I have used WD-40 and silicone on all of my door latches as suggested and my lights still do not come on when any of the doors are opened. However, the lights DO come on when the rear hatch doors are opened.

Does anyone here have or has had that same issue and found the solution? Its winter time and dark early now so spending allot of time in my Ex when its dark and need some interior lights. Any help would be appreciated!!

 

First, welcome to FTE!

I would check the individual lights and see if they work. If they do then I would suspect that someone has installed an over-ride switch somewhere. You will have to search to find it. Some hide it out of the way in the glove box, but it could be anywhere really. You could check this out quickly under the passenger kick panel and see if there are wires in there that are spliced into the black with blue tracer. That is the easiest place to splice into for the interior light delete.

 

Did they ever work for you? It could be corrosion on the connector mentioned above down in the kick panel or the connector on the far right side in the back of the instrument panel.

 

I have a '01 & when I bought it neither the int. lights or the running board lights would come on. Found out that the relay in the fuse box was missing. It is the top "small" one on the left top corner. (if your fuse box is layed out the same). Had to get the part from the dealer, nobody else had it. Put it in & all worked. Hope this helps.

 

The previous owner may have gotten fed up with door ajar thing.

 

Thanks for all of the replies!

ALL of the lights work. They work when the ignition is turned off, when the rear hatch is opened, and when operated manually. They just don't work when the doors are opened.

I went to 2 stealerships (just to see if I could get the same answer twice..... and couldn't). The first told me that ALL of the door ajar switches were bad and needed to be replaced...... $50 - $60 ea. and at least 4 hrs labor...... I must be dumber than I look..... I told them it must have been divine intervention that caused ALL of them to fail at one time..... REALLY....???? I mean REALLY???

The second dealership told me that I must have a wire broken or bad connection somewhere..... this I can believe... and sounds more along the lines of what rickx and lmassmann are suggesting. They said they could try to find it and it might be expensive because of the time. At least they were honest about it.

In the meantime.... I'm going to find some time to take a look and see what I can find. Hopefully just a bad connection or something similar.

Thanks again.

 

Could it be the VSM?

I know that the Super Duty's had issues in 02 but i don't know if the X's had the same issues in 02.

 

My 04 has a similar problem. They only come on when the front doors get opened. They will not operate with any of the rear doors, or hatch. The radio delay only works from the two front doors too. It's like the truck doesn't register the rear doors at all. I've tried the wd-40 thing too, with no luck. It's is annoying when it's dark, but I've learned to live with it, until I can fix it my self. I refuse to let the dealer screw me on that one.