Ok, if someone can figure this out for me, it would be amazing. I bought my '94 Maxima and about a month after I had it, I went to get in one day, unlocked the driver's door (i've never used the keypad and it doesnt have any remote entry). The alarm went off, though I've never set it. I removed the fuse from under the hood and from inside, but it still went off. I took it to a Nissan dealer, they ran all tests and said it was all fine. I guess the keypad doesn't work, which doesn't matter to me. All I care about is the alarm not going off! I think it has to do w/ the locks... when I unlock the driver's door.. it doesn't unlock all of them at once - should it? My friend has a '92 stanza and that's the way it works. Also, I have to turn the key really fast to make the door unlock, otherwise I have to open the door w/ my left hand while the key is still turned. So... the other day, I'm driving and someone hits the locks from inside, so all the locks lock. I pull in and shut off the car. Next, i use the power locks to unlock the entire car. He opens his door first (front passenger) and the alarm goes off. The way I turn it off is by going over to the passenger's door and turning the key left (in the unlocking direction) to. How can I fix this? Do I need to get my power locks fixed? And what part? I don't want to replace the whole power locks system... any ideas?

 

Baseball bat to underside of dash, repeatedly striking electrical wires. When done, repeat under the hood.

Actually I'm sorry I don't know enough yet to help you out.

 

ha. trust me, it's coming to that. no ideas?

 

Maybe the door lock actuator is bad?

If you're cheap you could take it out and re-solder all the connections on it. Mine was going bad and I did that and it works perfect now.

That's just a guess, might be it considering the actuators on our cars go bad often and your alarm problem seems to be tied into the locking system.

Worth a try.

 

would a normal Chilton's or Haynes guide tell me how to do that? Definately a good suggestion...

 

yeah, sounds like it could be some sort of connection. maybe try unhooking the alarm system and then plugging it back in to see if that helps.

 

No you dont even need that...

Look under your dash (take off that under the steering wheel piece).

In the upper right corner there should be a little box. In fact I think it even says right on it that it's the door lock actuator. But that's it, kinda up in there by the center of the dash. It's easily spotted...

Take it out, slide out the the little chip board, and just solder over all the existing solder connections. There's like 100 of em so take your time. If your actuator is failing, this will most likely fix it (fixed mine, and I know fixed many others).

However, I have no way to tell if your alarm problem is for sure connected to a possible failing actuator, but it's worth a try.

 

i had a similar problem. i think craig has a post on here that shows how to completely disarm the alarm by just unplugging something. removing fuses does nothing. if i remember right the alarm can be disabled under the steering wheel. it's a silver box on the right..... but search to confirm. good luck.

 

James, door lock TIMER, not actuator and also that only applies to 92-94 maximas

the door lock timer is located just to the right of the steering column, it is a grey plastic box
the stock alarm is located just to the left of the steering column, it is a metal box

search for more info about disabling the stock alarm or resoldering the door lock timer

 

Sounds like a problem with the lock in the driver's door actually.

A couple things first.
1. what james was talking about before is the door lock timer. it will not fix this problem.

2. the factory alarm arms itself when you lock and close the doors. the only way to disarm the alarm is to put the key in the door and unlock the door. once it's going off, the only door that will silence the alarm is the driver's door. to "regularly" disarm the alarm, either door will work.

3. when you turn the key once, the door you have the key in will unlock. go back to "center" and turn the key again and ALL the doors will unlock. it's a "feature" on our cars. pretty neat actually.

4. The way the alarm disarms is that there's an electrical contact on the key lock itself. whenever you turn the key, it's supposed to hit that ground contact and send a grounded electrical signal to the alarm brain, disarming the alarm. it doesn't sound like this is happening.




Now for possible remedies..
1. try unlocking the door from the passenger's side of the car and see if the alarm goes off.

2. try turning the key in the driver's door twice instead of once.

3. replace the door lock, or remove it from the car and clean the contact on the back of the lock cylinder and see what happens there.


hope that helps. good luck.

 

Hey Matt, does that feature where you turn the key twice to unlock all doors apply to all 3rd gens? both my 90 and 91 unlock all doors when the key is turned once. I was just curious if mine has a problem now.

 

I believe it DOES apply to all 3rd Gens..

 

crap... looks like i got some work to do, lol. too bad i can't get out of bed to work on it. oh well. anyone know what that could be? could it be the lock timer like previously mentioned in this thread? also, would having a hard time turning the key make it do that. it feels like the key is old or something when i try turning it, but the key is new. thanks.

 

first.. 89 and 90 maximas don't have door lock timers. 91 might, I forget.

the double-turn stuff may or may not work on the early models either, but I think it does. A friend has a 91 and it works on it.


As for the key thing.. unless they make an EXACT copy of the original, the key will not work perfectly. it's very hard to make these keys correctly- even the dealer took 4 tries to make me one, and it would only open the door, not work in the ignition.

 

on my 91 gxe i have the original key and it looks fine. on my 90 i have the original key and a new one, they orignal and new do the same thing and won't open it too well. same with the 91, it doesn't open it too well. but on both cars i just wiggle the key then turn it and all of the locks unlock.

 

your car is a freak.
try cleaning and lubing the locks with graphite or a dry lubricant. might help free things up a bit.

 

I have a similar problem. I haven't tried cleaning or resoldering anything yet. Suggestions on what I should try first are appreciated.

First, the problem only occurs on the driver's side door, not the passenger.

If I turn the key twice, normally all the doors unlock. However, sometimes only the driver door unlocks. When this happens, if I open the door, the alarm goes off.

The problem is intermittant. The problem happens even if I only turn the key once -- it's just that the twice thing is an easy way to tell if the alarm is still on or not.

I end up using the GXE keypad to open the door and disarm the security system in this case. The keypad always works.

Suggestions?

 

The feature where you turn the key twice was not on my 91SE. I would just turn the key once and they would all lock/unlock. I trying to get used to my 93's features seeing as I locked the keys in the car once already

 

I have the same problem.. with the key sometimes not unlocking all the doors. If I were to bring it somewhere to be fixed, what would I explain the problem is? What is the anticipated cost?