Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Door jam switch

The little switch? that tells you when your door is open. Well mine decided to break and now there is just the hole where the switch is supposed to be. There is no wires hanging that I can see. The problem is when ever I step on the brakes or am engine braking it starts beeping like the door is open. With no wires visible in the hole how would I go about putting a new one in. The guy in the parts department of the dealership didn't have a clue. Any ideas because it is driving me nuts. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

it is just one wire dangling around in there. when it touches ground it signals that your door is open. on my 2000, it is black with white stripe (or maybe white with black stripe).

youll have to fish around under the dash, off to the side by the broken switch and find the loose wire and hook it up to a new switch. or you could just cover it with tape and it will never signal that your door is open.

Thanks for the info. Will do the tape thing when I get home. Ford won't have switch in for a week.

Be ready for a big PITA, if I recall correctly.

As a minimum, you will have to remove the kick panel, which is a major pain due to the 1 piece design.

But the big problem is (IIRC) the wire you need is in between 2 sheet metal panels behind the kick panel, with only a small hole for access, and that hole is filled with other wires.

It was a couple years ago that I routed my 1/0 power wire through that area and noticed this problem, so I may not be remembering correctly though. For your sake I hope I am mistaken.

Good Luck,
Dave

I read about your problem before I went out this evening and had a quick look at jamb switch while sitting in the '98. (What else are husbands supposed to do while the wife gets ready. )

It looks to me that they are designed to be removed from the front rather than rear of door jamb. I would suggest you try and fish the wire out from outside first to avoid having to remove moulding. A stiff insulated wire (say a 14 guage house wire) should do the trick. Make a small hook on end and go fishing. Needle nose pliers would be handy to grab the end if you can bring it into sight.
Fortunately the doors on these cars open extra wide so if you shine light in driver's footwell you might be able to peek in the hole and see where to aim.

If this doesn't work remove moulding to gain access. (Edit: another post was added as I was typing indicating access is PITA - go fish first)

Good luck and keep us posted.

Its not to hard. I got the part from Bill Jenkins for $5.35 shipped (youll have to wait tell he gets set up in Vegas) My dealer quoted me $39! We figured he was looking at the wrong switch. :rolleyes:

As far as the install goes remove the front part of the kickpanel, if you got small hands you will not need to remove the whole thing. Pull that baby back as far as you can, may need to remove th first 2 screws in the floor panel. Do not kink it! It will show the kink. Now stick your fingers in there (hope you got small hands) inbetween the metal of the door frame and a little box, some sort of computer or module you should find the wire you need, it is black and white, just grab everywhere you can find and pull, see which one comes out. Hope this helps at all. Good luck.