Central locking!

[Coughlin94]

Good day all,

 

I have a 2000 1.6 petrol Felicia.

The problem has started with the central locking, in which it will at random lock all the doors.

It even does it when the front door are open causing the central locking to stop working all together! 

 

Was wondering if anyone has had similar issues with their cars.

Is their an easy fix or common earth short 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve taken the door cards off and had a look. But there is nothing really to see and the door lock solenoids do seem to function as normal. 

 

 

Many thanks

[RicardoM]

Are we talking about the original central locking or a third party one?

[Coughlin94]

The original system 

The car is largely unmodified 

 

It's very intermittent, some days it's fine and works 100% and others it locks itself every few minutes.

Oddly, it will usually lock itself on engine start and other times the car is under high electrical load. But this is not always the case

 

I have pulled the fuse for the time being, but I did quite like having central locking .   

[RicardoM]

When you say "It's very intermittent, some days it's fine and works 100% and others it locks itself every few minutes." It's not clear if you unlock it by hand after a random lock or the CL unlocks the doors randomly too.

 

The good news is the fault can be repaired. The bad news is intermittent faults are hardest to find.

The first step is to try duplicate the fault. I suspect: the CL switches, the actuators, and the wiring, in this order. The switches are the most abused, followed by the actuators (parts in motion), followed by the wiring. I haven't seen a CL central unit failing like that. So, the method used to duplicate the faults is called "the wiggle method". We're looking for a random contact so basically you'll have to wiggle/tap the listed suspect parts until the fault occurs. Hit moderately the parts with your hand (CL switches, mechanical locking buttons). For actuators hit repeatedly all 4 door cover panels with your hand. For the wiring, wiggle the wires behind the relay/fuse panel. Report findings.

[Coughlin94]

Yea, to be clear it only locks at random. I then manually unlock it by hand and sometime later it decides to lock again, quite annoying when you're trying to get things done with the doors open.

 

I'll look into this method you mentioned and will probably pull all the door cards off and 'wiggle' about in each door; but this may need to wait until the summertime!

I'll update you as how i get on when this happens 

Thanks for the advice  

 

[Papez]

I'd try to disconnect front servomotors. They contain switches, rear ones can be still connected.

If problem dissapears, you'll know where fault is. If not, it's either wiring or electronic unit

[RainbowFire]

On 27/03/2019 at 20:01, Papez said:

I'd try to disconnect front servomotors. They contain switches, rear ones can be still connected.

If problem dissapears, you'll know where fault is. If not, it's either wiring or electronic unit

 

I thought it was just the driver's side that was switched, as the passenger side is usually 2-wire not 5-wire.

But yeah, I'd be looking at the  condition of the door unit, after checking the condition of the rubber conduit between the door and the frame, and making sure there's no windcreen lead interfering. Given where the control unit is mounted, that would be the last thing I'd check.

If it's remote locking, I think I'd also checkout the remote control too.

[Papez]

In Felicia, both front motors are 5-wire in original central lock. If you have only one 5-wire motor, it's not original unit.

Edited 29 March, 2019 by Papez

[Coughlin94]

***UPDATE***

 

As I have had a bit more time at home recently and haven't needed to use the car, I decided to troubleshoot the central locking system. 

I'm glad to say I was able to resolve the problem. The fault was traced to a worn door lock cylinder (on the driver’s door).

 

As it was worn it offered a certain amount of slack into the linkages that control the master lock adjuster unit (097353307A) on that door. This meant that the lock adjuster unit was in ‘transit’ (between the full lock and unlock position). This allowed the adjuster unit to be able to jump between lock/unlock with the vibration of the engine running or driving over a bump in the road or something. This caused all the door locks to lock/unlock, seemingly random. Very annoying

 

The remedy is simple, just swap the door lock cylinder with a replacement unit. In my case I swapped it was the passenger door, as is was less worn due to less usage. I then replaced the driver’s side lock cylinder into the passenger door, but did not connect it to the linkages so as to not encounter the same problem.  

 

I hope this was clear and may help someone if they have a random lock/unlock problem with their central locking.

 

James