Problem with door-is-open warning light on Forester

D

David Cook

I own a 2000-model-year Subaru Forester. I've experienced this
problem intermittently off and on for a year, and now for the past
6 months, the problem is ALWAYS present. So, I've been hoping
to be able to isolate and fix it myself. Sigh.

So, it's a 5-door...the normal 4 doors as well as the tail/swing-up
door each have their own switch. The 'bad news' is that in the
Subaru Forester design (unlike, say the Honda Accord) all 5 switches
just have a SINGLE red-light indicator on the dash. So, sadly, when
you have the door-is-ajar warning indicator lit up, you never know
a priori which of the 5 doors might be the culprit.

Normally, you might not think that's any problem. You just go around
and open/close each door until the red-idiot lite goes out and bingo,
now you know which door.

Sigh. There's the rub. In my experience, that almost never changed
the symptom...the idiot lite stayed on. I'd go around and manually inspect
and push each of the 5 switches, and they alway looked fine but did
not extinguish the indicator, so my working hypothesis was that it was
NOT a switch-related problem.

But, when I described the problem to the 'expert' at the dealer, he always
said, "No, never heard of this problem before. The circuit design is
simple. There is no central computer-controller or whatever, so one
of your 5 switches has to be the culprit."

So, since the problem was intermittent (i.e. the idiot light would just
go out on its own after 2 to 10 days), I just ignored the problem.

But, now it's been 6 months and the foolish idiot lite is still on. (Of
course,
as a workaround, I have to leave the ceiling switch in the position so that
the dome-lite never is allowed on based on door-ajar-indication. Otherwise,
anytime the red-idiot lite was on, the dome light would ALSO not go OFF
and then the battery would run down.)

And, one day, I also THOUGHT that I had an additional hint that it was
the LEFT-FRONT (driver) door that was the culprit. So, I decided to
work on this problem myself in earnest.

A couple of clips 180-degrees apart hold the switch in. I remove the
rubber protector over the switch, depress the holding clips, and the switch
can be pulled out to expose the 2 wires attached to the switch.
(Just BARELY enough play. Sigh.)

Damn...the wires a SOLDERED onto each lug. Sigh, again. Found
a soldering iron and DE-soldered the wires loose from the switch.

Ah, I thought. Before I even spend money on a new switch, let's just
'workaround' the issue. The idiot-light is still on. So, I attach the two
leads TOGETHER (figuring the red-light will extinguish).

Nope, no such luck. About all I can conclude from all this is that the
problem is NOT in the driver's door switch at all.

Clearly, my knowledge of how to trouble-shoot / fix this problem is
lacking.

Ideas? What should I try? How do I even figure out whether it's
a door switch problem at all?

Dave [who is clearly stumped]
 
Well, one of your other 4 switches is bad. You know what you need to do...


David Cook said:
I own a 2000-model-year Subaru Forester. I've experienced this
problem intermittently off and on for a year, and now for the past
6 months, the problem is ALWAYS present. So, I've been hoping
to be able to isolate and fix it myself. Sigh.

So, it's a 5-door...the normal 4 doors as well as the tail/swing-up
door each have their own switch. The 'bad news' is that in the
Subaru Forester design (unlike, say the Honda Accord) all 5 switches
just have a SINGLE red-light indicator on the dash. So, sadly, when
you have the door-is-ajar warning indicator lit up, you never know
a priori which of the 5 doors might be the culprit.

Normally, you might not think that's any problem. You just go around
and open/close each door until the red-idiot lite goes out and bingo,
now you know which door.

Sigh. There's the rub. In my experience, that almost never changed
the symptom...the idiot lite stayed on. I'd go around and manually inspect
and push each of the 5 switches, and they alway looked fine but did
not extinguish the indicator, so my working hypothesis was that it was
NOT a switch-related problem.

But, when I described the problem to the 'expert' at the dealer, he always
said, "No, never heard of this problem before. The circuit design is
simple. There is no central computer-controller or whatever, so one
of your 5 switches has to be the culprit."

So, since the problem was intermittent (i.e. the idiot light would just
go out on its own after 2 to 10 days), I just ignored the problem.

But, now it's been 6 months and the foolish idiot lite is still on. (Of
course,
as a workaround, I have to leave the ceiling switch in the position so that
the dome-lite never is allowed on based on door-ajar-indication. Otherwise,
anytime the red-idiot lite was on, the dome light would ALSO not go OFF
and then the battery would run down.)

And, one day, I also THOUGHT that I had an additional hint that it was
the LEFT-FRONT (driver) door that was the culprit. So, I decided to
work on this problem myself in earnest.

A couple of clips 180-degrees apart hold the switch in. I remove the
rubber protector over the switch, depress the holding clips, and the switch
can be pulled out to expose the 2 wires attached to the switch.
(Just BARELY enough play. Sigh.)

Damn...the wires a SOLDERED onto each lug. Sigh, again. Found
a soldering iron and DE-soldered the wires loose from the switch.

Ah, I thought. Before I even spend money on a new switch, let's just
'workaround' the issue. The idiot-light is still on. So, I attach the two
leads TOGETHER (figuring the red-light will extinguish).

Nope, no such luck. About all I can conclude from all this is that the
problem is NOT in the driver's door switch at all.

Clearly, my knowledge of how to trouble-shoot / fix this problem is
lacking.

Ideas? What should I try? How do I even figure out whether it's
a door switch problem at all?

Dave [who is clearly stumped]
 
I own a 2000-model-year Subaru Forester. I've experienced this
problem intermittently off and on for a year, and now for the past
6 months, the problem is ALWAYS present. So, I've been hoping
to be able to isolate and fix it myself. Sigh.

I'm guessing the bumper-to-bumper portion of your warranty
is up?

If not, fiddle no more. ;)
 
You gotta be sh*tting me! You mean I gotta rip out (i.e. UNSOLDER)
each switch in turn? What sort of archaic engineering is that?

There's no provision for TESTING/TROUBLESHOOTING this setup to
see which door to work on? (My fear is that after I rip out all 5 switches,
I still won't have an indication...that then someone will say, ah, then it's
not
a switch problem at all, it's ?!?!??.)

Remind me to never buy a Subaru again. Honda does it right...separate
red-lights
for each door. I'll be it cost them a whole extra $2 to design it that way,
and think
of the trouble-shooting time saved when it fails.

Yep, I'm out of warantee period. Screw it, I'm just gonna drive the
friggin' thing
for another 4 years or so with the idiot light on.

(Us engineers just HATE seeing to stupid design like this get built...all
probably to
save them a dollar or two per vehicle when they build it. Stupid!)



Alan said:
Well, one of your other 4 switches is bad. You know what you need to do...


David Cook said:
I own a 2000-model-year Subaru Forester. I've experienced this
problem intermittently off and on for a year, and now for the past
6 months, the problem is ALWAYS present. So, I've been hoping
to be able to isolate and fix it myself. Sigh.

So, it's a 5-door...the normal 4 doors as well as the tail/swing-up
door each have their own switch. The 'bad news' is that in the
Subaru Forester design (unlike, say the Honda Accord) all 5 switches
just have a SINGLE red-light indicator on the dash. So, sadly, when
you have the door-is-ajar warning indicator lit up, you never know
a priori which of the 5 doors might be the culprit.

Normally, you might not think that's any problem. You just go around
and open/close each door until the red-idiot lite goes out and bingo,
now you know which door.

Sigh. There's the rub. In my experience, that almost never changed
the symptom...the idiot lite stayed on. I'd go around and manually inspect
and push each of the 5 switches, and they alway looked fine but did
not extinguish the indicator, so my working hypothesis was that it was
NOT a switch-related problem.

But, when I described the problem to the 'expert' at the dealer, he always
said, "No, never heard of this problem before. The circuit design is
simple. There is no central computer-controller or whatever, so one
of your 5 switches has to be the culprit."

So, since the problem was intermittent (i.e. the idiot light would just
go out on its own after 2 to 10 days), I just ignored the problem.

But, now it's been 6 months and the foolish idiot lite is still on. (Of
course,
as a workaround, I have to leave the ceiling switch in the position so that
the dome-lite never is allowed on based on door-ajar-indication. Otherwise,
anytime the red-idiot lite was on, the dome light would ALSO not go OFF
and then the battery would run down.)

And, one day, I also THOUGHT that I had an additional hint that it was
the LEFT-FRONT (driver) door that was the culprit. So, I decided to
work on this problem myself in earnest.

A couple of clips 180-degrees apart hold the switch in. I remove the
rubber protector over the switch, depress the holding clips, and the switch
can be pulled out to expose the 2 wires attached to the switch.
(Just BARELY enough play. Sigh.)

Damn...the wires a SOLDERED onto each lug. Sigh, again. Found
a soldering iron and DE-soldered the wires loose from the switch.

Ah, I thought. Before I even spend money on a new switch, let's just
'workaround' the issue. The idiot-light is still on. So, I attach the two
leads TOGETHER (figuring the red-light will extinguish).

Nope, no such luck. About all I can conclude from all this is that the
problem is NOT in the driver's door switch at all.

Clearly, my knowledge of how to trouble-shoot / fix this problem is
lacking.

Ideas? What should I try? How do I even figure out whether it's
a door switch problem at all?

Dave [who is clearly stumped]
 
Actually, I vaguely remember there being something stupid with that light
and the keyless entry....does yours have keyless? Do you use the remote to
lock/unlock the doors? If not, start, see if it makes a difference....this
was a couple years ago, I've been out of the dealership, but I thought
there was something goofy with that setup....
 
Are you sure your forester has a tailgate switch that you can reach?
I've read that some other subies have a problem with a switch in the
hatch handle mechanism. It may have been older models so I'm not sure it
applies to you. You might do a search at the USMB though.
http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.net/forum/


Carl
1 Lucky Texan


David said:
I own a 2000-model-year Subaru Forester. I've experienced this
problem intermittently off and on for a year, and now for the past
6 months, the problem is ALWAYS present. So, I've been hoping
to be able to isolate and fix it myself. Sigh.

So, it's a 5-door...the normal 4 doors as well as the tail/swing-up
door each have their own switch. The 'bad news' is that in the
Subaru Forester design (unlike, say the Honda Accord) all 5 switches
just have a SINGLE red-light indicator on the dash. So, sadly, when
you have the door-is-ajar warning indicator lit up, you never know
a priori which of the 5 doors might be the culprit.

Normally, you might not think that's any problem. You just go around
and open/close each door until the red-idiot lite goes out and bingo,
now you know which door.

Sigh. There's the rub. In my experience, that almost never changed
the symptom...the idiot lite stayed on. I'd go around and manually inspect
and push each of the 5 switches, and they alway looked fine but did
not extinguish the indicator, so my working hypothesis was that it was
NOT a switch-related problem.

But, when I described the problem to the 'expert' at the dealer, he always
said, "No, never heard of this problem before. The circuit design is
simple. There is no central computer-controller or whatever, so one
of your 5 switches has to be the culprit."

So, since the problem was intermittent (i.e. the idiot light would just
go out on its own after 2 to 10 days), I just ignored the problem.

But, now it's been 6 months and the foolish idiot lite is still on. (Of
course,
as a workaround, I have to leave the ceiling switch in the position so that
the dome-lite never is allowed on based on door-ajar-indication. Otherwise,
anytime the red-idiot lite was on, the dome light would ALSO not go OFF
and then the battery would run down.)

And, one day, I also THOUGHT that I had an additional hint that it was
the LEFT-FRONT (driver) door that was the culprit. So, I decided to
work on this problem myself in earnest.

A couple of clips 180-degrees apart hold the switch in. I remove the
rubber protector over the switch, depress the holding clips, and the switch
can be pulled out to expose the 2 wires attached to the switch.
(Just BARELY enough play. Sigh.)

Damn...the wires a SOLDERED onto each lug. Sigh, again. Found
a soldering iron and DE-soldered the wires loose from the switch.

Ah, I thought. Before I even spend money on a new switch, let's just
'workaround' the issue. The idiot-light is still on. So, I attach the two
leads TOGETHER (figuring the red-light will extinguish).

Nope, no such luck. About all I can conclude from all this is that the
problem is NOT in the driver's door switch at all.

Clearly, my knowledge of how to trouble-shoot / fix this problem is
lacking.

Ideas? What should I try? How do I even figure out whether it's
a door switch problem at all?

Dave [who is clearly stumped]
 
Ah, I thought. Before I even spend money on a new switch, let's just
'workaround' the issue. The idiot-light is still on. So, I attach the two
leads TOGETHER (figuring the red-light will extinguish).

I'm guessing these switches are the kind that go "open circuit" when pushed
in, and all 5 of them are wired in parallel, so that when any one of them
goes closed circuit (door ajar) the light goes on. As such, touching the
two leads of a switch together will turn the light "on", not off.

Unfortunately, because it is a parallel circuit, you cannot simply test each
switch with an ohm meter while it is still wired in, since the little
electrons are always going to follow the path of least resistance; the
broken switch.

So, three hints:

Firstly, find out where the wiring for each switch goes back to some common
place in the dash, where they are all connected in parallel with the dash
light through some connector. Since this is a parallel circuit, the switch
wiring cannot be daisy-chained; each switch has to have it's own pair of
wires terminating at some central place. You just need to figure out where
that is.

Secondly, with an ohm meter, if it is across the leads of a working switch,
you might be able to detect a _slight_ drop in resistance when you close the
switch, because the dozen or so feet of wiring to the broken switch will
probably have a few ohms of resistance. So you might be able to find the
broken switch as the one that does not change the resistance at all when
pushed.

Thirdly, a little piece of black electrical tape over the dash light will
sort of solve the problem.

Otherwise take solice in the fact that statistically you'll only have to
un-solder half the switches to find the broken one :)

good luck!
 
someone said:
Actually, I vaguely remember there being something stupid with that light
and the keyless entry....does yours have keyless? Do you use the remote to
lock/unlock the doors? If not, start, see if it makes a difference....this
was a couple years ago, I've been out of the dealership, but I thought
there was something goofy with that setup....

Goofy indeed. Drove me nuts until I read the owner's manual carefully. The
door open light stays on for a certain length of time if you lock up using a
key. Lock with the remote and it goes out immediately. If on, the light goes
out when you restart the car, so I doubt David's problem is related the the
normal (and bizarre) open door light characteristics.
 
Are you sure your forester has a tailgate switch that you can reach?
I've read that some other subies have a problem with a switch in the
hatch handle mechanism. It may have been older models so I'm not sure it
applies to you. You might do a search at the USMB though.
http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.net/forum/

This might not help the OP who is having trouble with a Forester,
but...
I have a 2003 H6-3.0 OBW. It has the dashboard indicator that gives a
separate signal for each door that's open. I've noticed that sometimes
when I push the rear tailgate/hatch closed, the dome light stays on
and the dashboard indicator says the tailgate is still ajar. The
tailgate is *not* unlatched, though--I can jiggle it and pull it and
it's closed tight. I've experimented a little, and it takes way more
force to make the indicator light turn off than it does to simply
latch the tailgate. Usually I have to **SLAM** the hatch door to make
the indicator light go off.

I haven't tested to see if I can lock the doors with the remote and
arm the security system when the "tailgate ajar" light is on.

C. Brunner
 
Are you sure your forester has a tailgate switch that you can reach?
I've read that some other subies have a problem with a switch in the
hatch handle mechanism. It may have been older models so I'm not sure it
applies to you. You might do a search at the USMB though.
http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.net/forum/
This might not help the OP who is having trouble with a Forester,
but...
I have a 2003 H6-3.0 OBW. It has the dashboard indicator that gives a
separate signal for each door that's open. I've noticed that sometimes
when I push the rear tailgate/hatch closed, the dome light stays on
and the dashboard indicator says the tailgate is still ajar. The
tailgate is *not* unlatched, though--I can jiggle it and pull it and
it's closed tight. I've experimented a little, and it takes way more
force to make the indicator light turn off than it does to simply
latch the tailgate. Usually I have to **SLAM** the hatch door to make
the indicator light go off.
I haven't tested to see if I can lock the doors with the remote and
arm the security system when the "tailgate ajar" light is on.
C. Brunner

*******************
On my 2003 OBW H6-3.0 I found out the same thing the hard way over the
Holiday weekend (dead battery). You really have to give the gate an extra
firm push when closing to get the dome light off and indicator out. I can't
remember if I had locked it with the remote that time or not but I usually
do.

Don T.
 
My wife has an '03 OBW H6 and I am gonna experiment the next chance I
get to see if I can duplicate ya'lls experience.

Carl
1 Lucky Texan
 
Carl 1 Lucky Texan said:
My wife has an '03 OBW H6 and I am gonna experiment the next chance I
get to see if I can duplicate ya'lls experience.

Carl
1 Lucky Texan

The same behavior is shown by our two 99 Foresters. You do have to slam the
rear hatch pretty firmly to be sure the light doesn't hassle you. Once we
got used to that, it is second nature now to shut it with more force than
required just for latching it.
 
The same behavior is shown by our two 99 Foresters. You do have to slam the
rear hatch pretty firmly to be sure the light doesn't hassle you. Once we
got used to that, it is second nature now to shut it with more force than
required just for latching it.

It is SOP for me to open the door to the garage before going
to bed to see if the dome light is on and ensure the garage
door is closed. My '02ForesterS must be closed firmly to turn
off the dome light.

BoB
 
I sympathize with you. I guess ours are not QUITE that bad. I do know,
though, that even in the dead of winter, we had one Forester dome light (or
two maybe, if front and rear bulbs were burning?) stay on all night long in
cold weather (well, cold for here, I'm guessing 20's F). The car started
right up without hesitation, much to my surprise and delight. Apparently,
these don't take much amperage at all, and the battery system is a good one.
Hey, at least I haven't had to immediately replace the Forester
batteries when I passed 36 months as was the case with our Honda Civic
battery. Actually, it died about 6 months BEFORE the 36 month warranty was
out, but the ridiculous warranty prorated portion they offered (ONLY toward
buying another of their poor quality batteries) made it cheaper to go to
Advance Auto and buy a new 72 month battery, which I did. One Forester is 57
months old and the other is 53, and both batteries seem to be doing great.
(Of course, battery technology is such today that this should be the case
for everyone anyway.)
 

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