car thinks key is in ignition and always beeps when door is open

[Sparticus0037]

Hi I got a 1995 Escort LX hatchback. whenever i open my door, i get the "key in ignition" beep from that white box behine the fuses. what does that box do? i pulled it out and turned the car on and it runs fine but i dont want to screw around too much if its a safety thing too. it was my brothers car before mine and he told me it started doing it right before i bought it from him. i really dont know of any other eletrical issuse besides the drivers seat belt got jammed so i cut the wires to it (the fuse goes to both sides and my brother owned it at the time and wanted the passenger side to still work). could those be at all related? also one more thing about it, i can take my key out of the ignition while im driving, also i can start it with a screw driver, which is actually kind of nice for winter time haha.

thanks for the help.

i may have been to vague so if you may know whats going on but need more details PM me or somthing

[Ford Man 59]

If you can remove the key while driving the ignition switch is broken, so it probably thinks the key is in the ignition all the time. It would probably fix it if you put a new ignition switch in it, but I wouldn't gaurantee it would.

[Intuit]

Had the same issues and many more with the ignition. Had new copies of the key made from an unused spare kept in the sock drawer. Ignition began working like new again. (actually the first copies I had made were defective and after a week, took them back with the receipt to have them redone)

Didn't need to cut the wires for the seatbelt. (not to mention you can short the system while cutting them) Looking down in the lower pillar next to the motor is the wire harness. SImply unplug it. You may be able to find suitable replacements in the junkyard provided they haven't already been cannibalized.

The door jam switches often fail due to corrossion build up on the contacts for the door switch. But they never fail closed circuit, only fail open circuit meaning the dome light and door chime won't activate. (seatbelt however will) A permanent repair simply involves grinding off the corrossion with a hand file then applying silver-bearing solder (Radio Shack) to the exposed areas; being careful not to melt the plastics. Since the solder doesn't corrode very easily then a lifetime should pass before it reoccurs again. If you slap it back together without the solder then it'll be a matter of weeks before the corrosion causes the problem to reoccur again.