Door Ajar Light + Trunk latch not locking with fob

[CanuckQx4]

hey guys, going through the growing pains of putting my Qx4 on the road as my reliable daily driver after sitting for a while. Today I noticed the door ajar light on the cluster is triggered so I walked around the car pushing down the door switches in hopes of turning off the light, but it stayed illuminated.

Then when I couldnt find one on the hatch (is it built into the latch??) I noticed that my key fob did not lock or unlock the hatch lock, but all the other doors worked. I can lock the hatch lock with the key with little effort. Are these problems linked??

I pulled the plastic hatch cover off and all the connections I could see looked fine. All fuses checked out aswell...

Just trying to get that light turned off the cluster

[Towncivilian]

Can you have a helper push down on the glass hatch to see if that makes the light turn out? Or was it the entire back door that you pushed down on to make the light turn out? Either way, the door striker is adjustable. If adjusting it doesn't help, maybe add a couple washers to have it stick out some more and trigger the potentially worn lock switch - I know that's what a lot of WD21 owners have to do.

[CanuckQx4]

I could NOT get the light to turn out, no matter what I pushed. I wasnt aware the hatch glass had a switch aswell, I do have some weatherstrip foam placed on the hatch side to stop the hatch glass from vibrating with my stereo.

Where are the strikers/switches? Nothing I can see. I would like to find which area the car thinks is open to start I guess

[04pathse]

I could NOT get the light to turn out, no matter what I pushed. I wasnt aware the hatch glass had a switch aswell, I do have some weatherstrip foam placed on the hatch side to stop the hatch glass from vibrating with my stereo.

Where are the strikers/switches? Nothing I can see. I would like to find which area the car thinks is open to start I guess

The switch for the glass is next to the fuel door switch on the drivers side door.

[CanuckQx4]

I dont quite get what you mean

Does the fob not locking the hatch mechanism not point to any areas?

[CanuckQx4]

Today I realized that the passenger rear door doesnt even open! The handle inside has some tension, but the exterior door handle is completely "limp" as in the handle can just flop open and closed as it pleases, there is no resistance.

Is this a built in safety feaure? Dont know how Im supposed to get the door open to check anything... maybe this is why the light is on.. I never use that door

[Towncivilian]

Maybe the door rod got detached. Do you think it'd be possible to remove the door panel from the inside? I know there isn't much clearance to work with, so probably not since you wouldn't be able to remove the pins without being able to pull the door panel.

[CanuckQx4]

Definetely cant remove the door panel with the door closed. I tried that last night, completely removed the rear seats, was able to remove the inner handle (that handle does seem to have tension but why doesnt it open the door?) I also removed the rubber trim on the interior side and found a "lock" labelled small protruding rod around the middle/rear side. does this do?

I dont see how I can get the panel off like you said, with the door closed, it would definetely get destroyed

[Towncivilian]

See if this thread is of any help. As far as I can tell from the photos, the guy removed the door panel with the door closed.

[CanuckQx4]

The pictures are very helpful but I still dont see how the push clips around the sides and bottom can possibly be pulled out with less than 3/16" gap between the panel and the door frame. Sounds like I may end up destroying the panel if it came down to it.

I did end up sending the car to the transmission repair shop so I dont have it infront of me tonight to try out.

Appreciate the thread link though, that did not come up during my search. I will report back where it gets me

[CanuckQx4]

And now that I think about it, that wasnt even the problem of why I started this thread, the rear hatch was not locking/unlocking with the key fob.

You know how all the other doors make an audible "movement" when the lock mechanism moves, the trunk does not do that, like it doesnt get the signal. i remember checking what harness connections I could see and them being connected, what would cause that problem?

I have to lock/unlock the hatch with the key

[CanuckQx4]

I managed to fix the passenger rear door. You can infact remove the 2 screws and just pull upwards on the door panel and that bugger comes out. A rod had fallen off

I also took the rear hatch cover off, all rods appear attached and well lubed, I moved each one and they function fine. What Im not getting is why the door ajar light is on? I cant even trick the lock into turning it off....

All electrical connections (there are a lot more in there than I expected) looked good and connected, when I click the lock button on the fob, I get nothing from the hatch, nothing closing/moving/relays clicking. All the side doors make a loud audible latch noise. So is the trunk just not getting a signal?

[spike753]

The lift gate issue not locking or unlocking may be due to the actuator motor wearing out. I had to do this on mine. It was an easy 2 bolts and one rod. You can test it by having the lift gate cover off and raise it. Have a seat on the bumper and push the buttons on the fob locking it and unlocking it. If it is worn out it will make noise and try to move but not have enough power to move the rod all the way to the position it needs to.

I think on the lift gate there is not a switch like on the other doors that you can simply push in to test. In the lift gate I believe that the lock its self is wired with a 2 prong connector that reads rather its open or closed around the latch. If it is not operating as it should then this could cause your issue.

There other way to go about testing this.... if you still feel that it is one of the other doors that is causing the light to come on is to go out and buy one new switch and swap it in for the old one in each door until the light goes off. This would find the faulty one. It may be an internal failure of some sort...

When I bought my qx4 I had this issue and went though the same steps as you did. it wasn't until I removed them on each door did I end up finding that one switch had just become discounted and after I clicked it back together all was well