Truck keeps registering door ajar - SOLVED

Yup. For now maybe remove the dome light bulb or fuse if you're worried it will drain the battery, perhaps

 

OK, that makes sense. So the problem could be with either of the drivers side switches or the wiring that somebody did for the step.

 

OK so. Checked all the door jamb sensors. Closed all the doors, light went off.

Took a long time but lights came back on.

I hit the lock button on my key fob. Loud constant ringing came from the truck indicating a door was left open.

Opened the driver's door and closed it. Truck is still ringing.

Opened back passenger door and closed it. Truck stopped ringing.

I pulled the sensor for the rear driver's side door. Light still stays on even though that's the only door open.

Thinking its the rear driver's side door sensor. But like I said lights didn't go off when I pulled that sensor. Just making sure that's something that should happen?

I have to order a new sensor. So it's going to be like this for a few days. Not really thrilled I can't get the lights to safely shut off without the risk of running my battery out.

I also want to say I have unplugged my power steps from the battery. They have been unplugged since April-May of this year. The motor on the driver's side burned out so I just unplugged them in the up position. Obviously there is still some communication between the front and rear door but I hope these steps have not caused a serious issue. They cost a tremendous amount of money to remove and I was really hoping to just be able to cut them off and toss them.

 

Can your dome light switch turn to OFF? Guessing so..if so that's the easy way for the moment

 

Normally I would do this. But I was reading around the forums and information seems to be that if the light is on "door", and you leave the door open, the lights will auto shut off in 20 minutes. The ECU is programmed to shut it off so it doesn't run out the battery.

If I switch the light to "off" the ECU will not auto shut off and power could still be going to the light even though it's off draining the battery.

Or does that sound like totally made up forum crap I need to ignore?

Electrical stuff is my weakness. I could probably build a whole house on my own... but I just don't get the electrical LOL

 

Not sure off the top of my skull, but I reckon it wouldn't pull enough overnight in OFF (if that's true) to kill your battery.

That said I can't imagine that's really true because otherwise what would happen to people when the dome bulb burns out? Same thing where it can't complete the circuit.

Not an electric guy myself either..and if you can work on old houses, you're hired..

 

One of the easiest ways to check if the door jam switches work is with a multimeter set for resistance. Even a cheapy Harbor Freight meter will do the job. In one position there will be continuity (very low resistance) and in the other position there will be an open circuit (very high resistance). If I remember correctly the driver door switch only has one terminal with a wire attached to it. The other terminal is the screw connecting it to the door jam. I imagine the switches on the other doors are the same.

 

Is it possible that the door got slammed to hard at one point and shoved the sensor pin into the frame a little? Try putting a shim or a thin washer in between the sensor and the door frame. That will force contact between the 2 points. If you understand what I'm trying to say lol. I'm not very good at explaining things

 

I replaced both door sensors on the drivers side. Still shows a door is open.

If I mess around with the wires in the floor or the door enough it will fix itself for a brief period.

I’m sure something exists out there but I may not be searching by the correct terms but if someone has a schematic or chart that shows what wires are what I’d appreciate sharing.

At this point theres probably a short somewhere.

 

Since it's still acting up, I'm inclined to suspect the wiring job on the running boards. Wish I had better advice, but you've done the simple fix with the sensors.

 

When you pull the plastic floor cover off you can see the splicing of the wires for the boards (I need to get a video of the install). I’m wondering if I need to test the wires at that point.
It doesn’t look like anything is split or corroded.

These AMP steps have pretty much turned into a constant PITA. They cost around $1,500. Outrageous. At least I didn’t buy them, previous owner did.

 

That could well be the issue. I had a similar gremlin with my stereo system that turned out to be a connector issue. It looked okay at first till I dug more into it.

Remember too where it's on the floor you still could have introduced moisture unknowingly to the connectors.

 

Here you are. Ignore all the wires that are *2. That's for access cab. I'm guessing they tied the green/yellow to the pink/black and wired it to the step. Undo all that and see what happens.

http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old...toyewd/06toypdf/ewd/2006/tacoma/h/em01d13.pdf

 

I have a problem with my dome light coming on when cold intermittently since new. I brought it into the dealership under warranty and got it back with them telling me they tighten a bolt on the passenger side suicide door. Long story short, basically since new I have kept the dome light switched off, so I don't come outside one cold winter morning to a dead battery from the dome light staying on. Someone made a suggestion on TW of using a thin rubber gasket around the door jam switch to compensate for the shrinkage from the cold, but for about 11 years I have lived with no dome light.

 

Gently tug on the wires at the connectors / butt splices. My money is on a loose connection, especially since you mentioned earlier that if you jiggle the wiring it momentarily works.

 

Had almost the same problem on my land cruiser. Turned out to be a bad ground for the drivers side door switches. Had to track down the ground, remove, clean and reattach. Sorry I do not know where this ground is, but using the diagrams you should be able to locate it

 

Thanks for everyones help. I owe everyone a few beers.

Was driving to work this morning and my doors auto unlocked.
Hoping it only does this with the key in the ignition so my doors don’t unlock in the parking structure while I’m at work. Or that my alarm doesn’t start going off (if my model has one).

I’m going to plan on ripping the steps off soon and try to repair the wiring.

 

Just taking a wild guess here, but I think what happened there is that your truck thought that you opened the door and closed the door with the door locked and the key in the ignition, so it said, hey, "I'm not gonna let this idiot lock the keys in the truck. Power Ranger unlock!". So, there's your intermittent door switch signal ie: bare wire bouncing on body. I'm 98% certain that it won't auto unlock without the keys in the ignition.

 

I feel like this is going to be my truck soon (min 2:19):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zfC_GuHiP68

 

LOL