Door Ajar Light Fault

[Karl VanHese]

Good day to you all,

I have a 1998 jap import 3.0l toyota harrier, which is almost identical to the lexus rx300. the problems i am experiencing are as follows:

- Door ajar light only comes on after leaving the drivers door open for 3 -5 minutes, once the ajar light comes on i can open and close the door several times and it will be working perfectly, once door is left closed for a period of time it stops working. meanwhile the rear passenger doors work perfectly. its not only the cabin light that is affected by this but also the automatic headlights. i have stripped and cleaned the contacts in the door lock mechanism to no avail, same symptoms occur.

-my door transmitter is not working even after replacing the Battery.

i have bridged the diagnostic plug to retrieve any flash codes, but there are none present. Please can anyone help with information to the electrical diagnosis of these faults. or if they have come across something similar. i am fairly technically able so any and all advice is welcome. PS, my local dealer here is not to jacked up on diagnostics so would prefer to do it myself.

Thank you

[Pac Man]

Hello Karl and welcome to the forum

I'm not familiar with your car but most door courtesy switches are just a switched earth, and are controlled via a separate switch separate from the lock mechanism, is yours integrated of do you mean you stripped the courtesy switch?

The transmitter may well be not working as the door control system is not picking up where the drivers door is (open or closed)

Paul

[Karl VanHese]

Yes mine is integrated into the latch, what I don't understand is why only after leaving the door open for a few minutes, does the courtesy light come on and the door open indicator on the dash come on, then I close and open several times after they all work perfectly, once I leave the door closed for some time then open again, the symptoms occur again.

[Pac Man]

it sounds as though you will need to check the electrics from the door lock using a test light and check the courtesy output , at least this should be fairly easy as the fault happens when the door is open and you will just have to wait and see when the signal is sent

Obviously if the signal is sent straight away and the courtesy light doesn't work then the fault looks like it's further down line and not localised at the lock.

[Karl VanHese]

I'll give it a try a bit later when I have time, I suspect there may be a problem within the can network between the door and body ecu's,

Would anyone by chance happen to know how to reprogram a door control transmitter, it is integrated into the ignition key and has only a single button on the upper corner of the key...

Thanks again