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]