Hello All.

I have searched for this and cannot find a thread for this so...

My '92 Max SE has a cronic problem that has been more of an annoyance for around 5 years. It centers around the door lock on the drivers side. In cold weather when I try to unlock the car, the door, I stick my key in the lock and turn. I see the lock tab raise on the indside.

Here's where things get tricky. In cold weather the lock tab pulses up and down. I can feel this in my key. Kind of like the door is fighting with me. This has persisted for years and I haven't demed it a priority to fix, but every fall I think about this and what to do. I think the pulsing is coming from the door unlock relay. After around 10 seconds of pulsing up and down, the pulsing stops and I can open the car door and enter no problems. But imagine if it's raining.. Or snowing... Or just really cold.. Get my picture??

BTW, the passengers side does not do this. Does anyone know if there is a different relay for the passengers side of the car and the drivers side? If this were the case I would like to reverse relays and make the situation happen to the passengers side (which doesn't get used much).

This situation is annoying at best, but allows me to justify keeping my car in the garage in the winter. The wife hates driving the car because of this (not a bad thing mind you)..

Any advice anyone could give will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

i havent heard of that problem before. You might want to open up the door panel and do a lil lube-ing or something. Thats about all I can suggest. Other option is to take it to a repairer if you feel it is that bad.

lophix

 

YES!

I have this same exact problem. It been doing this for a few years now, and it did it for the first time this season on Friday - when the morning temp. was 42 degrees. This is a real problem and it is very annoying. Does anybody have a solution?

 

Just to reiterate, this problem happens only when the weather outside is cold, and the part I feel pulsing in my key is definately electrical. I can easily replicate the problem while inside the car by gently pushing up on the unlock tab as if I were doing it using the key. I hear a clicking sound coming from somewhere under the dash, and the tab tries to push itself badk down into the locked position..

Anyone ever hear of this, or have a suggested fix?

 

Lube up the actuator man. That's it. Gotta be. By the way, mine does it too, but not real bad. Just fights me once, then I turn it again and it stops.

 

Like I stated the problem is most definately electrical.
The actuator moves freely without any problem.

 

OK I'm stumped. Take it apart, clean all contacts, lube it and see what happens. If contacts are dirty and it's getting a broken signal, toggling back and forth, that would make some sense. But I don't know.

 

I'll try that too. Thanks.

I think there's something with the electrical relay that unlocks the doors, though..

 

Its the pesky door lock timer I think. When my timer was dying the effect was MUCH more pronounced in cold weather. Repair (or replace) the door lock timer and the problem should go away. Do a search if you don't know what or where it is.

 

ive found that when its doin that, if i turn the key (left) to the lock position first then unlock it stops doing the up and down thing

also... i cant unlock my car from the passenger side without setting off the alarm, any ideas? could that be the door lock timer, relay?

 

its a harness getting a little loose above your right knee with those two relays....

 

I dont think it's the door lock timer. That is a different problem

bad door lock timer (applys to 92-94 only, earlier models did not have a door lock timer) causes the power door locks to stop working periodically and then completely; this can be fixed by resoldering the door lock timer

it doesn't fight you like these guys are talking about, I've heard many people have this problem but I dont know what the cause is (maybe the actuator )

Blakzima - you're probably also talking about the door lock timer, it's just to the right of the steering column and basically directly above your right knee like you mentioned

 

yuh huh thats the thing lol

 

I can only lock down all from interior of drivers door if the temperature is below freezing. Otherwise it only clicks at me. Took the door panel off (thanks to Craig) cleaned and wiggled everything and it made NO difference.
Anyone with more insights?

 

Didn't Kaleb replace his door handle and fix that problem? Something about a magnet pickup in the handle assembly that got sloppy over time. That's all I remember.

 

Does anyone know if there is a separate relay that's used when the drivers door is unlocked as opposed to the passengers door?

I think this may be the problem. This problem only affects my drivers side door, and not the passengers side door in cold weather. If there's two identical relays / circuits one for each door, then the logical step would be to exchange the two. This is acceptable on the passengers side since it's hardly ever used..

Any thoughts??

Anyone know about the two relays / circuits??

Thanks

 

You seem to know what the problem is rather than really being in need of help. In that case, why don't you just go out and do what you think is necessary to fix the problem?

There is only one relay for the doors (I believe) and thats the door lock timer relay which is located under the dash to the right of the steering wheel. If you really feel it's an electrical problem, go ahead and replace the relay. I don't feel it's the relay. If i were you i would take off the door panel and actually look at the darn thing to see what could be the problem. Looking, it fixes alot of prblems.

 

Maybe if you were here feeling exactly what I feel you wouldn't say that. If you have experienced this there is NO way you would assume that taking out everything on the door would help the problem. As you can tell from some of my earlier posts, the problem is definately ELECTRICAL. When the locks are fighting me, I feel clicking.. I will look into buying a service manual that may have some of the wiring diagrams. Do you have one? This is what I'm asking of someone here.

Another point to ponder is why do the locks work fine in the summer, and do the herky jerky in the colder weather? The temperature drop from 60 to 40 is not that significant and should not cause the locks to fight with you.

If there's anyone else out there that's experienced this and has the common sense to understand that the problem is definately electrical, and would care to lend a helping hand with the solution, I would much appreciate it.

Thanks

 

just an idea... it could be static electricity in the connections of the relays due to the drier winter air

 

Was there ever any resolution to this problem?
Having the same one myself and I've already resoldered the DLT.

 

I had the same problem, so I got a new timer but the problem is still there.

 

I have the exact same thing...it happens mostly on the driver side, but a bit on the pass side. It even does it from inside too. If I just the lock/unlock button by the power window button, it works fine. If I use the keyless outside, its fine too. But I use the key, or try to unluck the door from inside with my hand........it fights me!



It happens a bit in the summer, but mostly when cold. And the pass does it a bit too. So either it is something central, like the timer, or something wears out over time in/around the actual lock...hence why its less on the pass side.

 

What "really" sux is when you leave the car running and close the door to scrape the ice off the windows! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

That happened to me just last month!! fortunately I had a spare key and I was still parked in my driveway.

 

my doors wont lock if i have the key in the ignition

 

That is what's *supposed* to happen but my doors locked none the less. Key in the ignition, car running.

 

Actually, the doors will lock if the key is in the ignition and the engine is running. They wont lock if the keys are in the ignition with the engine off.

As far as the problem is concerned, I also vaguely remember someone replacing the entire handle assembly, which solved the problem- I dont think it has anything to do with the electrical system, rather the magnets/contacts within the lock itself.

I installed a keyless entry system, which operates the locks perfectly. My car had been plagued with this problem before as well (I was once locked out with the car running, as well). I can now safely close the door with the car running without the locks acting up (because the car is not locked/unlocked using the key). Installing such a system is probably cheaper than purchasing the handle (although it wasnt particularly simple). You can pick up a decent unit off of ebay for $40. Good luck either way

 

oh, all of you have helped make me one of the happiest people in pennsylvania tonight ...i've had the lock problem for sooo long, thanks to this crummy winter we're having, and i too have locked myself out on accident - with a spare set at home, which was 20 min. away. so thank you all so much, and i am deff. gettin a keyless entry kit for my birthday