[Shop-talk] Turn the engine off

[Moose]

You know, I have a funny story about that.

I have a ford explorer and we have a great drive-in theater here.  The 
first couple times I dealt with the light staying on for like 10 mins 
since I had the back door open (way better way to watch the movie.)  Once 
the light was off, if we opened another door, it came on for another 10 
mins.  I spent the whole time thinking about how I was going to put manual 
switches on the lights (more than one light stays on.)  I was really 
aggravated.  Then, as life happens, I forgot all about it till the next 
time I went to the drive-in.  Again, it bugged me.  The next day I spent a 
ton of time researching this, if there was a by-pass, etc.  TONS of people 
complained about it, but even Ford's official answer was "there is no 
override."

Then, this past summer, the SO and I were spending a nice evening at a 
lake in TN in the truck, again dealing with that dang light!  I got an 
idea!  I just need to find the little button to make the truck think the 
door is shut.  Aw, success would be mine, except I could find NO such 
switch!  I was beaten again.

Then, when I got home, I started to tear into that door, only to find out 
that the switch for the open door was in the latch.  All I needed to do, 
was to 'trip' the latch with a screwdriver when the door was open and 
'viola'! No light.  (And I had to remember to 'unlatch' it before shutting 
it.)

I still don't know why a company would think that making products so 
inflexible is a good idea!

moose



From:   Jeff Scarbrough <fishplate at gmail.com>
To: 
Cc:     shop-talk at autox.team.net
Date:   10/24/2025 11:49
Subject:        Re: [Shop-talk] Turn the engine off
Sent by:        "Shop-talk" <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net>





On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 11:09 AM Jim Juhas <james.f.juhas at snet.net> 
wrote:
 We once took an earlier Mazda to a drive in movie (Remember those? A few 
do still exist!)  and the modern technique is to play the sound on your 
car's FM radio. When the system times out, the system needs to be 
recycled, and the automatic lights and the interior lights come on. Kind 
of kills the mood and annoys your neighbors.

I made this mistake once.  Never again. 
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