Ignition light on still...HELP!

[SleepingEclipse]

Ok here's the deal. A while back my door ajar light started flickering, then stayed on all the time. If you pushed on the passenger side door then the light would stay on. All my interior lights stayed on and I ended up removing the footwell lights. Eventually my door ajar light on the dash burned out. The interior light on the roof stays on unless I put it in the off position(like in the auto position it stays on). I tried swapping out the passenger side door sensor with one from a junkyard...but it didn't seem to work. I also tried to clean my original one. The one from the junkyard had only one wire on it, while the one from my door had two going to the switch. What other problems could be causing this? Should I just drop the $10 for a new one from the dealer? Is there another sensor that I could check? Relays? Anything? It's driving me crazy because everytime I park my car somewhere at night, someone walks up to me and says "Hey did you know there is a light on in your car?" And I have to tell them "you mean the one around the ignition, yea that stays on all the time " BTW It's a 93 Eclipse GS 5spd.

 

[RossY]

I believe if you door ajar sensor is bad then the interior lights won't come on due to a bad/broken connection in the sensor. But for the lights to Stay ON due to a bad connection, i've never heard of that. I would of course start with getting a new sensor to see if that will take care of the problem.

 

[steve]

There are two different circuits using the door switches, one for the lighting and one for the door ajar. The door switches have two wires and each switch then grounds them to the body via the mounting screw. If you disconnect the door switches and your inside lights and door warning are still on then you have a short to ground somewhere in the two circuits.

Steve

 

[SleepingEclipse]

There are two different circuits using the door switches, one for the lighting and one for the door ajar. The door switches have two wires and each switch then grounds them to the body via the mounting screw. If you disconnect the door switches and your inside lights and door warning are still on then you have a short to ground somewhere in the two circuits.

Steve

Ok when I disconnected the door ajar sensor the light on the ignition stayed on. So I have a short somewhere? Is there any way to check it other than ripping it all apart to find the wires?

***Edit*** I have not tried disconnecting the driver's side switch, but I will either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[SleepingEclipse]

Ok I disconnected the driver's side switch and the ring around the ignition stays on. Where else can I check?

 

[Mike Marnik]

First you should start by getting hte factory shop manuls for your car atleast the electrical volume. They are awsome and help me track down a short that i probally would have spent days and days looking for in around 4 hours. Also a multimeter so you can check for resistance i believe (having a brain fart). you then start testing the wire at different pint I.e relays and fuses alog the wire untill you have tracked down the specific section of wire that is bad this saves you from tearing apart your whole car. Its a little more indepth than that and im sure theres links some one can provide that will do a 10X better job than me explaing the procedure.