Coupla odd gremlins here...

[SolidState]

lol....on top of the leaking oil and blown AC compressor, there are a couple of gremlins in the idiot lights.

First, the Door Ajar lamp is always lit, which seems like an easy item to fix, but I have no idea where to start looking to fix the problem.

Even more important to me is that the check engine light comes on and off frequently. It has been checked by ford a few times, but they have never been able to solve it. The car 'appears' to run a little cool, suggesting that the thermostat is corroded, but I have a bill showing that the dealer replaced the thermostat to try and rectify this particular problem.

Funny thing is, my parents exclusively drive fords, and all have the same problem: Check engine light that flashes from time to time.

Any ideas?

 

[SHOfun 93]

When the check engine light flashes, it stores a code that can be retrieved from the EEC test module on the firewall of the passenger side of your motor. There are instructions on how to retrieve those codes and see what they mean on shotimes.com. I would suggest you do that first, to see what indeed is causing the light to come on. The dealership must be total idiots if you tell them that the light came on and they didn't even no enough to attempt to retrieve the codes stored in the engines computer. As far as the t-stat, it is an easy swap to a new one, and a relatively cheap one, so start there and pull the codes. Find out what is really going on in there. The door ajar light is probably from your door sensor switch malfuncioning. Check all of them out individually ( the little pins in the door that let you know when one is open) and find out which one is making the light come on. Then simply replace that one that is causing the light to come on. Good luck. thumbs_u