The ground problem I experienced caused issues when the key was turned on, but not when it was off. That was what happened when I lost one of the 2 small neg wires to the battery.

Does the dome light come on when switched to off?

It sounds to me like one of your door switches is the problem. I'd remove them one at a time until the culprit was located.

 

Yes all of this is happening with switch off and key out. The only thing at that point that should be indicated on the instrument cluster is the anti theft light.

As you can see from my first post I have no tried the door switches yet so I think I might go that route to see, Thanks! It has got to be easier than getting to the alternator pig tail.

I messaged the original poster of the thread that I mentioned since they were having the Exact same problem to see if they ever figured it out but no reply yet. That thread went on for 3 pages with others saying they had the same issue but I never saw anyone say they had figured it out.

 

You won't find an EXACT answer as involved in enough things there can be 50 things wrong to do that, the body control module itself if bad could go in many various ways.

Grounds first, some chips go crazy even with no key in place, they are powered up all the time, just not on with key out. Bad ground can cause some circuits to come on when they are not supposed to.

 

Yes but if you look at the previous thread I mention you will see that posted had EXACTLY the same issue as myself. As a matter of fact there were several others reponders on that post that said the same thing. You have to figure if the same exact symptoms are happening then there has to be a common root cause somewhere.

 

BTW, door switches are usually one wire. That wire is "hot", but actually the grounding side of the door light lamp in really old vehicles. With the GEM, it's likely a very similar circuit, so you can expect to find some sort of voltage. Once you remove the switch from the door with the wire attached, that should break the ground connection entirely if the switch is bad and going to ground without the switch closed. If you remove all the switches, verify that no switch is grounded, but the door light and dome light set to door are still on, then there is a problem in the wiring going to one of the switches.

Most electrical problems are at a device, not the wiring, so let's hope that yours is one of those. For now I'd ignore the oil light flicker as it might not be the same problem. Oil pressure switches go out like that at any time. You might consider replacing it. It should be about $10. If a replacement doesn't repair that issue, then you need to verify that your OP is not low.

 

Thanks but I am a little confused by your reply.

1) are you saying the grounding of the door switches is achieve by them just being installed in the doors and buy removing them the circuit is them broken?

2) I have already replaced the OP switch think that it could be the problem but nope. IF OP is low wouldn't that be indicated when the car is running? When car is running everything is fine. This stuff is only happening with car off and key out.

Thanks for all you help so far. I will be trying the door switches this weekend.

I did PM all of the users that stated they had the same issue from the previous thread I mentioned hoping that one of them had a root cause.

 

Seems to have fixed the problem

So after trying many things that I have found around the web on this problem I went back to try one I had actually already tried before just to make sure it did not solve it. So before I went after all the door switches and then maybe the alternator pig tail I tried the following.

Clean the instrument panel circuit board

I had taken this out previously and sprayed it off with WD-40 as one poster had suggested and done to fix the problem but that did not work for me.

However, I found several threads that stated they had cleaned this board and solve the problem. So I went and bought some electrical contact cleaner and got an old toothbrush (I keep them around my garage for just this type of thing).

I took the dash apart again and removed the instrument cluster then removed the backing to expose the back of the circuit board. I sprayed the board and brushed it all over with the toothbrush. I did this several times for one to make sure I got ride of all the WD-40 and also to make sure whatever I was cleaning off that I could not see was gotten. Since this was electrical contact cleaner it evaporates rather quickly so the circuit board was all dry by the time I went to put it back in.

It has been over a week now and ALL of the previously mentioned symptoms have gone away completely. This has been going one with this car for YEARS now and I can not believe just a simple fix would do it.

[cheers]

So if you are having the strange electrical problems with your Focus you owe it to yourself to try this before you spend so much time on other solution.

 

Seems to have fixed the problem

So after trying many things that I have found around the web on this problem I went back to try one I had actually already tried before just to make sure it did not solve it. So before I went after all the door switches and then maybe the alternator pig tail I tried the following.

Clean the instrument panel circuit board

I had taken this out previously and sprayed it off with WD-40 as one poster had suggested and done to fix the problem but that did not work for me.

However, I found several threads that stated they had cleaned this board and solve the problem. So I went and bought some electrical contact cleaner and got an old toothbrush (I keep them around my garage for just this type of thing).

I took the dash apart again and removed the instrument cluster then removed the backing to expose the back of the circuit board. I sprayed the board and brushed it all over with the toothbrush. I did this several times for one to make sure I got ride of all the WD-40 and also to make sure whatever I was cleaning off that I could not see was gotten. Since this was electrical contact cleaner it evaporates rather quickly so the circuit board was all dry by the time I went to put it back in.

It has been over a week now and ALL of the previously mentioned symptoms have gone away completely. This has been going one with this car for YEARS now and I can not believe just a simple fix would do it.

[cheers]

So if you are having the strange electrical problems with your Focus you owe it to yourself to try this before you spend so much time on other solution.

 

This is very common on our cars. I dealt with this just a few months ago, come in here searching for answers and found tons unresolved threads on the subject. Then I found one from years ago where the poster has the board replaced at the dealer for hundreds of dollars and it fixed it. Then some other guy chimed in saying he should have just cleaned it, but nothing else.

Anyone experiencing these symptoms should immediately clean the board with a brush and electrical cleaner. Good job trying to get the word out!

 

I had the dash light up and the door chime randomly ding but no interior light on, at the time it may not have been switched on. I Binged the problem and the solution was CRC QD Electrical Cleaner, a clean rag and an old toothbrush. Note the exact location of the gauges cause you will have to take them off. Scrub and wipe carefully, also mind the LED's on the front and it should do the trick.

 

I am having all the exact same symptoms with my '06 SES 5 door. What a wierd problem! Awesome to see a definitive solution. I will pull my circuit board for cleaning asap!

 

Had similar issues on my sons 03 zx3. CEL faintly lit when car off, door ajar coming on and flickering, also with car off. Dome light flickering, also with car off. Pulled instrument cluster and cleaned circuit board with contact cleaner and tooth brush. All fixed upon reinstall.