Well, a faulty inertia switch caused me to miss a duck hunting trip, with a replacement from a salvage yard done the trick. But since I have gotten the truck, back in '98, I have been having problems with the interior lighting of the truck. The lights would stay on with the doors, all three of them, shut and the key out of the ignition . I have had to resort to just pulling the fuse out of the fuse panel. Now am I crazy or is there some switch or relay that has to be changed, or will I have to re-wire the thing?

Oh, for the truck, '98 F-150 XLT Supercab 3-door.

Any help here would be great, thanks.

Jim B .

 

Start with spraying PB BLASTER (WD 40) into door latch. Open and shut doors 8 to 10 times. Door agar switches bad about sticking.

 

Should be door ajar.

 

I know this sounds stupid, but the switch for the panel lighting adjsutment isnt in the position where the the dome lights stay on all the time, is it?

 

I just started having the same problem this week. The light stays on while driving and just goes out by itself. Sometimes when I shut the truck off the door ajar light on the dash is lit and the interior light is out......... ?? STAN/SRMASTER, I'll try your suggestion.
Thanks,
Jon

 

1997 f150
I just started having this problem two weeks ago. Interior light would stay on while both doors are shut. Sometimes interior light goes out by itself. I tried exercising switches on the door latches but no luck. I removed the fuse and light goes out but the door ajar light on the dash is still on. Onetime I noticed the door ajar light was out and I put the fuse back in just to see if the interior light would be out too, and yes it was out. Since I frequently use the interior light, I am thinking of removing the bulb that goes on and off automatically with door position and keeping the manual lights.

 

I'm the next member of this club.

Interior lights will stay on from 5 seconds to 4 minutes. I've gotten this condition with both doors.

In a way, I'm not panicked about this because I think the 30 minute timer will shut it off if it stays on indefinitely. Right now it's a nuisance because we slam the doors two or three times to make sure they're closed.

Is everybody in agreement the problem is the door ajar switch?

Is the "lights off timer" replaceable with one which leaves the lights on for 10 seconds - or 30 seconds - or some finite interval so you have time to stick the key in wihtout having to turn ON the interior lights - or leave the door open?

 

I never had an issue with my lights yet, but I did experience my radio staying on. I would shut the truck off, and the radio would continue to play even though I had the keys in my hand. Kind of freaky. Then, about two days later it was gone and has never returned.

Have you checked the wiring harness to the fuse panel? Maybe there is a bare wire or something that may be causing enough juice to cross into the wires that control that switch, or a crack in the fuse panel itself. Something has to be allowing that fuse to supply the necessary power. I don't have my manual handy, since I'm at work, but I think interior lighting is number 13. Go figure

 

I did the old WD-40 in the mecanisim trick, it worked!!
Seems like the door ajar sensor gets stuck at times.

as for the radio; if it's a stock radio it is normal for it stay on for up to 10 minutes after turning off the ignition and taking the key out. if you open up a door it will shut off the radio.

 

I've had electrical problems with my '97 F-150 ever since it was new. The grounds seem to be a big problem with this model year.
I'd go through and clean them all up. It may help with some problems but not all .
Lately I've been stumped by a blinker problem. When signaling for a right turn the blinker goes really fast and really doesn't blink. I checked the bulbs,the grounds,the flasher which I changed and nothing has remedied the problem yet. It looks like I'll have to get into the dreaded multi function switch next. If I hold the blinker lever up by hand to a point just before it would click into the detent spot it works like it is supposed to.
If I click it into the detent it does the fast blinking thing.
I have that inside light and cargo light problem as well. (door ajar)
Sometimes worse than others. Sometimes it will shut off after a few minutes and sometimes it won't shut off at all. It's a pain because I have to keep checking to see if it is out after 30 minutes no matter where I am.
Two days ago it was still on after an hour so I pulled the battery cable. I had the battery go completely dead last summer from the glove box light staying on even though it was fully shut at the time.The same thing happened from the under the hood light. It just stayed on one night and completely drained the battery again. So I had to buy a new battery.Sometimes while driving, the beep to remind you to buckle your seat belt will go off even though the seatbelt is already fastened.Once when I put on a turn signal the volume on the radio pulsated between loud and soft as the blinker blinked. To this day if I am listening to AM on the radio and running the heat at the same time I get the high pitched whine like I'm losing the radio signal until, now get this,I turn the heater control back a bit from fully on! Turn it back a hair and no whine and radio comes in fine. Weird! The windshield washers only work when they feel like it,and sometimes when I select intermitent mode for the wipers they will just stop and stay stopped. The check engine light comes on occasionally and will not shut off until I disconnect the battery for at least 10 minutes.Oh yeah and the trailer light harness doesn't work now even though I changed it last fall at which time it worked perfectly. Other than that it 's fine!