Es 300 Rear Driver's Side Sensor Broken

[my dad's lexus]

Hi all,

Joined the forum to fix the odds and ends of my dad's ES300. One (of the many) issues right now is that the door ajar sensor switch on the rear driver's side is broken. More specifically, when I was looking around trying to figure out why the door open warning light was always on, one of the things was I took off the rubber seal to the sensor and something plastic crumbled away. Compared with the other side, the piece that broke off looks like a thin cylindrical cap that, when pushed, compresses the spring, completes the connection and light on dashboard goes away. Anyway, can I replace just that part (It doesn't look like it's got that much wiggle room but maybe I just don't know how) OR do I need to replace the whole sensor? I'm on the verge of just taping the blasted thing down because I'm concerned that it may affect the battery (which I have also had to replace recently but was told by my dad he had it checked a couple of months ago and they said it was fine at the time... ) Sooo anywho, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[BoaR]

I wouldnt tape it down.. the car can only tell if you are opening or closing it via the sensor. i'de guess that you would set off the alarm more than once if it always thought the door was in a "closed" state.

scrapyard a door and just grab the sensor for 5 bucks maybe? ring up the dealership and ask for that piece to see what price they tell you. work it from there. regardless of where you get one - you will still need to pop the trim and the interiour paneling to replace/fix the sensor. so dont see what the point of doing that would be if you didnt have a replacement ;)

the door paneling has 3 screws hidden with plastic caps, and the actual trim is held in place by plastic snaps. many forum topics on removal actually. just search them up. once that's off you can easily get to any part to fix. as for the battery... well... any light, dome, trunk etc can drain a battery given enough time. how long is the question... a week? a day? overnight? never know lol. I never tested the door / lock circuits when the car is off to see if it has a vampiric drain.