Doors locking themselves when driver's closed
 

'98 Max SE

Had a couple incidents recently where the doors locked themselves when they should not have. Looking for any thoughts on common issues or cures.

Scenario 1:

Sitting in car after starting car. Car in Park (auto tranny). Open driver's door for a moment and pull close. All doors lock when it closes

Scenario 2:

Shut car off and get out with keys in ignition (at gas station). Close door. Door all lock. Driver's lock bounces open about halfway, but fortunately enough to re-open door and get it.

Thoughts?

Mine does this also. In my case it is the fault if the passenger door.

The lock linkage is sticky so the door does not fully unlock. The "door locked" sensor then tells the BCM that the passenger door has been locked, and it then locks all doors.

Adjustment of the linkage bell crank and lubrication helps.

If your driver side is "half locking" then I suspect that to be your trouble door.

Yep same thing happened to me where the drivers door lock would only open about half way. Was still able to get in but it was causing the issues of all the doors locking drivers door is closed. Replaced door lock actuator and now the door lock opens fully and no longer have those issues.

BTW, might want to just pull one from a pick-n-pull as they are kinda pricey new.

:sprint:

Had the same problem. The door lock motor is probably wearing out and can't extend the lock fully, especially when it's cold outside.

I've already replaced three door lock actuators on my car. The OEM manufacturer is Airtex, you can get brand new replacement parts from RockAuto. The part number you probably want is AIRTEX / WELLS Part # 8D1253. Section of the catalog is "1998 NISSAN MAXIMA 3.0L V6 : Body-Exterior : Door Lock Actuator".

The door lock actuator's are tough to access as they can't be reached directly. Be prepared to spend an hour (or two) getting the part replaced.

SIDENOTE: God I love this forum! I disappear for a while and come back in a handful of months and find EXACTLY what I need to keep my Max going.

Beno, what was your cost on those? and are they worth it. because you indicated you replaced them several times.
Thanks!

Looks like they are all around $85 to $90.


Is it worth installing one from a junkyard? Or is that going to go bad soon too and I should bite down and buy the new one?

Does the lube step work for anyone as a long term solution?

Any installation/access tips? I know how to get the door panel off, which I assume comes first (let me know if not) but does anyone have a rough guide to the next steps?

I thought it was part of a saftey issue? To lock doors automatically when starting car?

I know with mine...once in awhile, the doors will unlock/lock when shutting off engine. I open the door, and the alarm goes off. First time that happened I was panicking because I was at a rest stop hundreds of miles from home, I didn't know how to turn it off and everything disengaged. I'm like oh ****, people are going to think I'm trying to steal my own car.

If you see my original post, it acts more like a bug than a safety issue for me.

If it did what you suggest that would be OK, but it seems to do it with random door closes. So, for example, if I start the car before clearing the snow, then get out to do that and close the door, the doors may lock me out.

The one I got from the junk yard is working fine. I grabbed a couple while I was there and I believe you can use the back drivers side door as it has the same orientation but might want to double check on that. Cargo pants with large pockets FTW if you know what I mean. But that's up to you.

I have a similar issue with mine. When I close the drivers door (engine does not need to be running), the 3 other passenger doors will lock (drivers door will not lock).

Buying brand new parts is worth it for me since I plan on keeping my car for a few more years and I don't want to take the door apart again to replace this part. The lifetime of the door lock actuators seems to be between 10 and 15 years, so if you're not going to keep the car for long, maybe a used part will work for you.

If you take a quick look at the Rock auto catalog, you'll find that the part numbers are different for each door as well as the connector.

Taking the door off is the easy part. Take a look at the Nissan Service manual for more details, but it's basically a set of plastic clips (which break easily) that hold the door panel on around the sides and bottom. You'll also need to carefully pop off the plastic moulding around the door handle. I believe it has three narrow clips, one on the right, the bottom and the top. Also remove the screw inside the door handle. There are also a couple of connectors that attach to the panel. The panel itself lifts up slightly, then comes off.

The door lock actuator has a few metal rods which attach to it which you'll need to remove. The rest just requires a lot patience as you'll be working by touch to remove the door lock actuator.

Yeah, familiar with the door lock part and breaking those door handle pieces :-)

Just wondering about the actuator part. No way to see anything in there?

You can see part of the door lock actuator at an angle, but I might suggest a mirror or a scope to see inside.

A scope? Holy solenoid, Batman!

That bad, eh?

It's really not that bad or hard to do. Most of it you can do by feel but I used a mirror just to see what I needed to do then did the rest by feel. I think it is held on by like 3 screws then the whole piece comes out after you disconnect the rods from it. Then you can unscrew the actuator from the large piece that comes out and put your new actuator on and reverse install. Also I think there is a window guide towards the bottom that is held on by one screw that can come off and give you a lot more room to work with if I remember correctly.

Thanks. Sounds doable.

Sorry to hi jack here, but what if its the opposite.
I have this problem with my passenger side. It look like its locked but its not you can still open the door unless I press the lever down more or use my key any thoughts?

I had a mysterious door lock issue like yousr in my previous 98 maxima. and just as mysteriously it went away. It was after I had done some work to replace one of the bose amps in the front doors. This involved dis-connecting the master power window/locks switch, among other things.

My guess is that one of my connections had a ground issue that caused it to act up. Dis-connecting and re-connecting the nearby components may have cleaned them up.


In my present I30 my front passenger door lock didn't quite lock sometimes. When I added a ground kit that problem went away, as well as a few other subtle improvements.


I would try cleaning all grounds before replacing anything.

A good idea. My initial thought was that the switch was bad and just jumping itself from the vibration of the door closing, but no one seems to have reported such problems.

Are you talking about grounding points in the door area? Are there specific locations to look for?

In the door, unplugging and re-plugging the connectors cleans up their connection. You can spray the connections with electrical parts cleaner as well. The ground points in the engine bay are any wire that attaches to the body or engine.

Be sure to unplug the -ve of the battery before doing any work.

OK, easy enough.

There are no grounding points in the interior under the dash or anything like that? It all goes back out to the engine compartment?

Thanks,

The only one I can think of, with the bose system, the head unit was a ground point. The stereo actually would not work until that ground connection was completed. So I would assume that any Nissan radio uses that grounding scheme. As for others....:gotme:

Actually you can find them all through the FSM....a bit of a read:reading:;

http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/

Perfect into. My passenger side has been doing this for over a year now. Mostly when it is cold out. It drives me crazy. Now I know the problem and can look at it.

Just to close this out... swapped the switch with a previously known working one. It's been a few months and no repeat problems. So, it was either a bad switch or a dirty connection that I fixed by swapping the switch.

Im glad to see this post actually..usually to unlock my drivers door with the fob i have to hit lock then unlock right after...but yesterday i was waiting to get in the pass. door my girl hit the fob and all doors but the pass door unlocked.......WTF??? i dont know where to start now:mad:

Thank you for the post. I guess I should clean the existing switch(es) and see if that cures the problem or not.

Mine did that for awhile when the switch harness was loose. I just replugged it and it was golden.