[DML] Re: Pass door lock malfunction

["ryanpwright" <yahoo1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dani,

> off-go figure. I did notice that near the solenoid theres a
> plastic piece with 3 contacts in it; one in the middle, and one to
> either side. 

Yep. That's the "U" thing I was trying to describe. Maybe it's more
like a "W"? I don't know. I have an easier time describing things if I
 can show a picture of it. :)

> It seems that when you move the lock switch, there's a
> contact plate that rubs over 2 of the contacts pending if the lock 
> is in the locked position or unlocked position. 

Exactly. This is nothing but a basic "sensor" of sorts. So when you
lock or unlock a door manually, the contact plate connects the center
contact to one of the other two, which actuates your door locks.
That's why when you press the button on one door, the other door does
the same thing. Except the door lock module can't control which door
to acutate, so it just actuates both.

> Well when I move it in to
> the lock position the contact plate moves right over the one contact
> so its about in the middle of that part of the plate, when I move it
> to unlock, the other plate only goes a little bit over the other
> contact. The one in the middle always has a good amount over it to
> contact. I hope you know what I'm talking about. 

Absolutely, and this is your problem. The middle one will always have
a good amount of the contact plate on it - this is how it should be.
But when you unlock your doors, that contact plate isn't moving far
enough. It's hovering right there on the edge of the "lock" contact,
so any slight movements of the door linkages - such as trying to open
the door - shifts the contact plate just enough that it touches the
"lock" side, and your doors lock. 

Notice how, when you flip your doors to lock, the plate moves pretty
far away from the one contact? When you flip it to unlock, it should
move about the same length away from the other contact. 

> My thoughts were perhaps these parts weren't making a
> complete contact and tripping the locks back to locked

Nope - your problem is that these parts are making *too good* of a
contact. If you remove that plate entirely, you will solve your
problem completely - but then you won't be able to press the
lock/unlock button on the passenger's side and have the driver's side
respond in turn. But it will work the other way around.

That plate makes contact, and the act of making contact is what
triggers the door lock (or unlock, depending on which contact is made
- center to upper, or center to lower). Making an incomplete contact
does nothing.

Now that you know where the problem is, it's time to fix it. You can't
adjust that contact plate by itself - at least, not that I could see
when I played with mine last night. You need to adjust the lock
linkages instead. I don't exactly know how to do this in your case,
but mine was easy: There is a rod that connects to your lock/unlock
solenoid. It runs toward the front of the car, along the bottom of the
door. About halfway to the front of the car it bends up a bit. If you
follow this rod you will find that it leads to the door latch nearest
the front of the car. Look up in there and try locking/unlocking your
doors manually. See if that rod is smoothly moving the latch. 

In my case, it wasn't. The rod was bending a bit, "binding up" and not
moving the latch very well. My method for "adjusting" the rod was to
slip it into a plastic clip. Just so happens that there's a little
plastic clip in the bottom-center-ish of the door right next to the
rod. I think it's for holding electrical wires, but there weren't any
in mine. It was just empty. I slipped the rod in there just to see
what would happen and it completely fixed the problem. My door latch
now works smoothly and the little lock/unlock contacts move as far as
they are supposed to. Maybe the rod is supposed to go through that
plastic thing and mine slipped out, I don't know. But it worked for me.

At any rate, somehow your door linkages just aren't working as
smoothly as they should. You'll have to play with the locks a bunch
and find out where things are going wrong. Once you fix that, the
contact thing will fix itself. Don't concentrate too much on that
little contact. Concentrate on the entire locking mechanism as a
whole. Whatever problem you're having with those metal rods is what's
causing the contact to not move far enough away from the lock position
to avoid triggering it when you open your door.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out!

-Ryan





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