by Jim Bullock (Richmond, VA, USA)
1998 Ford Taurus Automatic Door Locks and Dome Light Problem. My ’98 Taurus developed a problem several years ago in the automatic door locks. When you put the car in drive and release the brake, the doors lock and the dome light and kick panel lights go out. At least, that is the way it is suppose to work. At first I noticed that whenever the humidity was high, I could hear a click in the driver side front door but the lock did not go down and the interior lights remained on. I “googled” the problem after fighting it for several months, and found that this is a common problem with ’98 Tauruses. Someone on the internet said to shoot WD-40 into each door lock. I said to myself, “yeah right, how can they help anything? I went against my own reasoning and squirted each door lock with some penetrating oil. It wasn’t WD-40 but the same kind of stuff. Sure enough, the doors locked and the interior lights went out just like nothing was every wrong. I have been tinkering on Fords for almost 40 years and I have never found an easier fix to an intermittent problem.
Comments for 1998 Ford Taurus Automatic Door Locks Problem
Average Rating 
Oct 29, 2011Rating
Old Taurus by: Old guy I’m an old guy with an old Taurus. Mine is a 96 but looks just like the 1998 Taurus model. I bought it new and it was the first year of the new and improved rounded body style. They say never to buy the first year of a new line of cars but I digress.With winter upon us once again I am ready for door lock issues with my Taurus. What happens several times a year is that it will rain and water gets into the lock cylinder. Then the temperature goes below freezing over night and freezes the locks solid.I got the ice melt stuff in a can. I put one of those red straws into the nozzle to shoot the ice melt directly into the lock cylinder. This works pretty good. The spray ice melt cans does not come with a straw but you can use the one from wd-40 cans.