TD Charlie

Sounds like a bad alternator to me. My 2012 did this last year. Alternator died, which killed an aging battery. Replaced both myself and I've been fine ever since. It's not nearly as frustrating or as expensive as some would lead you to believe. The tensioner pulley on the belt might take some brain power, but you'll figure out a way.

lol I one hundred percent kicked the can down the road on this one. I don't think this issue is truly "resolved" but there's a feasible workaround for the time being. I'm sure other electrical gremlins will show themselves in the door eventually, but with everything that's happened so far I think my first thought will always be "it's the wiring in the hinge again." Could be a lot worse I guess.

I wouldn't mind sitting there and reconnecting all 30 wires or whatever they jammed into the harness, but there is absolutely ZERO slack/play, and I'm not adding wire in between cuts. No thanks. The good news is that I've tracked down the issue. My car has been sitting a good 24 hours, with my dome light wheel clicked all the way off and the door still "open" - and this did NOT drain the battery. Car started without issue and it's 20* right now. I blasted some WD40 into the latch/lock actuator assembly, closed the latch with my fingers and sprayed more in there. Then I just yanked the rubber sheathing in the door hinge, pushed the plastic harness cover around a little bit, basically just tried to move the wiring around in a different order in the hinge. I gave everything 15 minutes to settle, came back out and everything works properly. I mean everything now. I regained my door handle touch unlock, and my lock/unlock master switch buttons. The door also recognizes when it's closed now. ONE STRANGE CAVEAT With the car running, I got up and went inside for a minute, holding the keys. The dash never said "KEY NOT DETECTED." I think this is because I started the car just by leaning in with the door open all the way, and never closed the door. Technically, even when the door closed the car at that first moment still considered it open, so it never gave the KEY NOT DETECTED warning. When I got back in later and closed the door, holding the keys, I got KEY NOT DETECTED. I toggled the dome light switch on/off and everything miraculously normalized. That dome light wheel has to be fed power from each door latch actuator assembly in order to recognize when one is open. So I am pretty sure the issue is the wiring in the door hinge, as everyone seems to have issues with. Further evidence, I started having problems with the factory master switch even after fumbling with the door hinge harness. So I've been playing around with the wiring in that hinge recently. SOLUTION FOR THOSE READING DOWN THE ROAD: Some good shots of WD40 into the door latch, in open and closed position Loosen up tension in the door hinge wiring Part 931-900 was NOT needed

So right now there's a little snow rolling through and it's 20ish degrees. I don't see myself touching this until I'll be able to feel my fingers while doing so. The plan for tomorrow is to blast a bunch of WD40 into the door latch area, and then if that doesn't do it I will be tickling the wires in the door hinge area. All that being said, I have discovered that the door ajar switch, the door latch mechanism, and the door lock actuator are ALL ONE ASSEMBLY. Not only that, the replacement process is absolutely ridiculous. It's going to take a Herculean effort to get this $140 part replaced (EDIT: Found a $40 and $80 unit on Amazon). Based on the time and money, and the fact that this is still just my best guess, AND the fact that I might be able to just keep the dome lights off without causing problems, I am not sure if I'm prepared to attempt this just yet. There's definitely a ton of electrical quirks in that drivers door though. Between the latch issue, the master switch, the lock/unlock button, the wires in the door hinge, and my door handle auto unlock feature...I'm just chasing a ghost.

Also wondering now if I jumbled up wiring in the door jamb when I was troubleshooting the master switch. I suppose it's possible that I didn't put the wiring back exactly as it was (I mean, it's a MESS of wiring in a tiny little crevice) and now a wire carrying the door ajar switch is broke in the jamb.

Not having much luck finding the switch for sale. Lots of stuff that is "suggested" by various searches but nothing willing to flat out say "this one fits." I may have to remove the door panel and look for something that looks like the door ajar switch and shop based on that. In terms of fuses... I might try the F101 Interior Lights or F122 Driver Door Module. On the F101, I'm still wondering if the switch will send signal to the car and that in itself will draw, or if it's just the interior lights that caused the draw. If I pull F122 I'm gonna lose everything from the drivers door switch, which I replaced recently and documented in another thread...and is already starting to malfunction just a few months later btw. Also, as I found out now driving around the block, the car chimes erratically because it thinks the door is randomly opening and closing. This is a fun one

2012 SXT 162k. Car wouldn't start today at the worst possible time, naturally. I put a 200a charger on it and it fired up right away. Let it run 5 minutes, shut it off, and started right back up. The battery and alternator were replaced 7 months/12k miles ago. I noticed in the dash that the drivers door ajar light was flashing erratically, even with the door closed. I normally set the dome lights permanently off, but recently switched it on when doors open. I think the door ajar switch/sensor is quitting on me and this caused a parasitic drain over the course of a couple nights. So i set the dome lights to stay off for now while I figure this one out. I'm not entirely sure if that will prevent the drain either. My thoughts are to either pull a fuse or replace the drivers door ajar switch. I will have to look through a fuse diagram to see if that's even feasible, and I'm doubting it is. The door ajar sensors are $5 pieces of plastic but I don't know where they are located yet. More to come. Thread opened for suggestions and documentation purposes =]

i don’t think it was the contacts since the malfunctioning buttons on the switch changed once i opened up the wiring in the door jamb. I really feel like there was a pinched wire and when i loosened it up it was good to go, but then i screwed something up on the driver mirror. Not sure if that was a switch issue or a wiring AND switch issue. The switch had to be at least partially at fault because the new one works. I did save the old one just in case. As of last night only the driver mirror left/right motion was busted on the old switch. For 30 bucks that’s what Pops would call “a sore dinky. You can’t beat it.”

Aside from financing a 10 year old car being an all timer for poor decisions, keep in mind it’s 10 years old and it seems like we don’t know much about the history before you had it. How do we/you know that it wasn’t used to beat on by a college kid courtesy of mom and dads savings account? not sure what the mileage is, but the resale on these isn’t terrible. I’m not looking to sell but I’m driving a 2012 FWD SXT with 160k and i don’t know that i would even take 4 grand for it. You underestimate the need folks have for a third row vehicle that isn’t a minivan.

I think I'm ready to close this case. Two replacement switches arrived today so naturally I tried the cheaper option first, which I will link below. The cheapo switch works just fine, and the clicks on all buttons feel correct. Oddly enough, the Dorman (double the price) has a less responsive mechanical clicky feel to it, which I dislike. The Dorman switch also has a different (smoother) black finish to it. All functions of the switch are working. Auto down, up, all four windows, all direction in both mirrors, door lock/unlock, and window lock outs. The only thing I noticed is that the replacement switch has a slightly brighter blue light on the buttons. It is VERY hardly noticable. Do I think there are still pinched wires in the door jamb? Yes. I still think that's gonna bite me in the ass down the road. But for now, the issues are resolved, and it only took 30 bucks. Plus I got to learn a thing or two about the fuses and wiring for this particular function of the car. As promised: No name cheapo switch https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TKSCFTW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Dorman switch https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FZL79DV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

amen! I’ve heard so many horrid things about the Journey and the 62te especially. It’s been amazingly solid for me with only semi regular oil changes. I haven’t treated it all that well and it’s done nothing but serve me well. if it dies tomorrow at 161k, it will have been well worth the 20k i paid for it 8 years ago.

lol still trying to locate a torx small enough to pop the screws off the underside of the switch just weird that messing with the slack in the wiring fixed one problem but spawned another. They really should have gone about this a different way

Well i decided to take a look at the wiring in the door jamb. Outside of cutting the rubber sheathing (this will be my last resort) i inspected the wires at the grommet into the dash and the plastic cover over the door corner. Huge thumbs down to dodge for running the wires over the corner of the door instead of going straight through. I bet they saved a couple pennies per door by using plastic rather than rubber. I loosened the wiring in the door jamb and tried my old switch again. All of my windows work now, but the door locks don’t, and the UP function on the driver window has to be hit just right to function im starting to think the switch may actually be going bad, or contact points within are fouled up. It’s so damn cold outside and my hands are numb, so I’m done for now. Next thing to check is the new master switch which arrived Monday/Tuesday. If that doesn’t work i will be splitting open the rubber sheathing in the door jamb and inspecting the wires further.

Got the car back tonight. Fuses are good. So I pulled the rubber back on the door jamb harness. Unfortunately i can only access the harness on one end because the rubber sheathing is held in by torx screws in the door. It’s also 20 degrees and pitch black, and I don’t have my tools with me. will attempt to get a full look at this harness over the weekend

that’s the idea. Documentation for the next guy! Under the steering wheel might suck, we will see. My master switch arrives Tuesday I think. I will report back hopefully by Tuesday night.