Very Irritating Problem - Input Please

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BatMobile

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Hey Guys,

I'm hoping that one of you can help me solve this elusive condition I keep having with my LS. I always forget about it until this time of the year hits. Basically, whenever the temperature gets 55 or below, the car thinks that either one of the doors or the trunk is open by the light on the dash. It's irritating as hell because every time I stop at the light or something all the doors unlock and all the lights come on. My car has a dark tint and people think I'm messing with them at the light and cops look at me like I'm either drunk or crazy. I really don't think it's a problem with the door or trunk latches either since I've checked them over and over again. This is where it gets more weird too. Whenever it does it, it also shorts out the amp and speakers in the back.

Does anybody have a clue what may be causing this? It's one of those problems that conveniently doesn't occur when you take it in to the shop. But, whatever it is involves the open door/trunk sensors and the amp. Does anyone know how they are connected or, better yet, have a wiring schematic of those circuits? I can't take it anymore.
 
Since its messing with the amp and stuff I would look into those a bit more. This sounds weird, very weird.

Does anything else act up like the amp and speakers do?
 
Not that I know of. First the little red door light comes on and then that back amp shuts off until it thinks the doors are shut again and then everything resumes as normal. It does it when the temperature is 55 or below and when it's damp either by rain, snow, or just morning dew. Today is the first time that it did it this year. But early in the morning I noticed it triggering when I went into sharper right turns like merging on and off the highway. That made me think it had something to do with moisture hitting some sensor on the left side. But, after dark once the temperature dropped (it's like 55 now) it just stayed on constantly??
 
Okay, very wierd indeed. This definitely has something to do with the amp. I left out this morning, temp is 48 and everything is fine. As soon as I cut the radio on, the open door light comes on. Turned it off, the light goes off. It must some kind of open circuit in the amp. What I don't understand is why it causes the open door light to come on??? Last night the radio wasn't on at all and the light remained on the entire time???

This door thing is actually a common problem with Lincolns so beware. I had a similar problem on my Continental and like everyone on that forum is intimately familiar with it. On the Continentals it turns out that the lube in the door and truck latches dries out and you have to WD40 them regularly.

Does anyone know the connection between the radio/amp and the doors???

I know many of you have replaced your factory systems. Does anyone have a factory amp that they want to get rid of, please ???
 
Okay, I'm still looking to see if anybody has input on this one. After more checking, I really don't think the amp is the culprit for this problem. I removed it , checked it inside and out and there doesn't appear to be any shorts in it. Meanwhile, I got into the habit of driving w/o the radio on when the temperature drops. This went okay for a while and then it started happening again. Noticing that the door light pops on when the car starts and then goes off shortly afterwards, I discovered another link to the symptom - the headlights. When you start the car during the day, the headlights come on for a minute or so and then go back off. This correlates exactly with the time that the open door light comes on. To check, I sat there and manually turned the lights on and off a few times. Headlights on, open door light comes on, dome lights come, amp cuts off. Headlights off, open door light off, dome lights off, amp comes back on. Isn't this crazy?!?

Does anyone know what is the correlation between the open door/trunk sensor, headlights, and radio amp and outdoor temperature. It also seems to do it more when I back into the driveway as opposed to pull in the driveway front first. I'm starting to think it's got something to do with on of the multifunction devices.

Input anybody
 
What are the details of your car, e.g., year, model, aftermarket radio, etc.?

The 00-02 cars have a finely balanced electrical system, so any futzing with that in the form of aftermarket radios, alarms, TVs, hot tubs, etc., often gives problems. The touchy electrical system in the 00-02 cars is one of the reasons it has a hydraulic fan and not an electrical one.... the electrical unit would put too much of a load on the system. This was all fixed in the upgraded 03+ cars with built-in LAN systems.

Its important for us to know if your audio system is aftermarket or not. If it is aftermarket, do you know how much juice it needs to run?
 
Sorry, I have the 2000 V6 with everything stock. I wanted to install a remote start and am thinking about designing my own headunit, but all these years just knowing the track record of Lincoln electronics, I have not had enough confidence to add anything other than stock yet. So, basically, everything is stock.
 
Bummer that it's a V6; there's no Message Center to tell you which door the car thinks is ajar. FWIW, it could also be the hood (at least on 2nd Gen LSes; I'm not sure about 1st Gens), so you might check that sensor if you haven't already. BTW, don't use WD-40 as a lube; it's a great penetrating oil, but it's not good as a lubricant (it dries out and attracts dirt and generally makes things worse when used as a lube).

It sounds like a short between the amp's power and the doors sensor; when the short happens, it sends the amp's power down the door sensor's connection, leaving the amp without power, and a false "door open" on the sensor circuit. I'd say it only happens when it's cold because that's when the copper in the wiring shrinks enough to pull the two circuits close enough to make intermittent contact. I'm guessing it's probably in or near a connector/junction, but it could be in a wiring bundle where the two wires have worn through their insulation (maybe where they go through a hole in the body).

Maybe... Then again, I may be completely wrong...
 
Do rear door lights come on??

For the last couple weeks the dealership has been giving me the run around about looking at my car. They open at 7 am and even if I get there right at 7 they tell me that I'm already too late to have my car looked at that day??? Ok, I've been reading a little more in the service manual. Apparently, the interior lights should only come on if one of the front door ajar sensors detects open. So, I think that rules out the trunk ajar sensor. Then, I did a little pin pointing. The front driver door ajar senor also causes the bell to ring if it detects open so I feel that one can be ruled out as well. However, checking with the other 3 doors all 3 cause the lights to come on if the car is running.

Does anybody know of a way to try to isolate the other sensors? Also, I can't remember. Do the little lights on the rear doors ever come on? If so, that could be a clue. When I open the rear doors with the car running, the interior lights come on but the little lights on the rear doors never come on.

One more thing, from what we could surmise at the dealership, the problem definitely is connected to the headlights and radio. The problem just does not occur if the headlights and radio off. But, with either one of them on, the problem shows up. Does anyone know what connection that the headlights, radio/amp share along with the door ajar sensors?
 
It's the amp :(

Okay,

I finally did one more pin point and now know that this problem is definitely related to the amp. I unplugged the amp harness and turned the car on, problem goes away - headlights fine, radio fine. Turned the car back off, plugged the amp back in, car back on and then the headlights and/or radio immediately cause the open door light to come on. This is very strange. Do you guys think the problem is with the amp or the wiring?
 
Wow. Thats wierd man. You may have a bad ground. Tru t get a pinout of the amp connector, and test the wires with a volt meter to verify power and ground wires. I gould also check contunity from the ground pin to make sure that is is close to 0 ohms. If the wires check out then I would think that the amp is malfunctioning somehow. Too bad you don't have another amp to try out.
 
Here's another test

This really sounds like a wiring problem at the AMP. There may be a crack in the AMP circuit or a loose contact at the plug in. I had a similar problem in a radio I had. When the weather changed it got weird, would reset continuously in cooler weather. Go to the Radio Shack store and buy a can of refrigerant spray. Spray your outside connectors at the amp and check for the problem. If you can reproduce the failure, you got it. Maybe a crack in the connector itself allowing moisture to conduct across terminals. If you can open up the amp, spray around the circuit board and connectors inside and check again. The cold spray works well to find bugs.
 
Hmm, that does make a little sense given the symptoms and I wish I read the post before I went to Radio Shack to get the multimeter. Well, it got dark on me and I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The radio sounds like crap without the amp but it sure beats the heck out of the lights popping on every time I come to a stop.
 
Not the amp afterall

Thanks for the input, turns out that the amp doesn't seem to be the source of the problem after all. When I unplugged it, everything was okay for like one day and then all hell broke loose. The car seemed as it was going into shock or a seizure or something. Basically the problem got 10x worse without the amp plugged in. The locks just started violently unlocking and locking very rapidly. I had to plug the amp back in just to keep them at bay. Also, I ran the multimeter across the amp and everything was normal: DC voltage was 12, turn-on voltage was 8, and ground was at like 0.3 ohms. I also ended up changing the clockspring in case that was the problem since others have posted that it affects their audio system too. I've had the 32 code for a couple years now but was a bit hesitate to fool around with the air bags and removing the steering wheel. That's finally gone now, but the problem with the lights still remains. I may have it pinpointed though. Looking over the wiring schematics of the LS, of the only 2 components involved that share a common node are the left rear door ajar switch and the subwoofer amp. They suspiciously share a common node on their paths to ground in the trunk. Being that the door ajar switch is normally open, I'm betting on it somehow shorting and in turn causing the amp to loose ground as well as signal an open door. The only problem is that I still can't find the connection to the headlights. I'm going to disconnect it first and see what happens. Any input would be well appreciated.
 
Finally Definitive answer!!

Wow, hard to believe that the open door switch can cause such a ruckus. After pulling the door apart and shorting the open door circuit on the actuator harness, voila. I guess, given the commonality with the LS problems this is a note worthy problem in case anybody else finds themselves driving with the dome lights cutting on and the amp cutting off simultaneously every time you come to a stop. The only problem with this now is that, just like the window motor/regulator, you can't purchase the actuator separately but have to replace the entire latch and cable mechanism attached to the actuator. I'm going to pick that up asap. Thank God I found those circuit schematics:) For the life of me, I don't know why they would wire the left rear door ajar switch and subwoofer amp grounds together. None of the other open door ajar switch grounds are jointed in such a fashion.
 
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