CivEx97

In a post to another board I said:
"I also have a question about the power locks. The other night I went out to clean snow off my car and warm it up (I had not driven the car for 2 days and it has been pretty cold outside) and as I went to unlock the door I'm pretty sure I heard the power-door-lock actuator turning on (I guess that is the best term to use). I swear it sounded like someone was repetitively pressing the lock button inside the car. I put my key in the door and opened it with no problem, but this really freaked me out. Any ideas? I've had the car for about 3 weeks and have never noticed it doing this before last night."

Well, tonight around 8pm I go out to get in my car, put the key in the passenger door and turn it and I notice the door is unlocked... ODD! As I had locked the door the day before. I look over and notice the driver side door is also unlocked, and what do I hear? I hear the same power lock noise over and over. So something is wrong I'm guessing? So I go around and climb in the driver side and manually push the lock lever to the lock position just to see what happens (i.e. wondering if it is going to unlock itself)... it doesn't move the lever to the unlock position but the power locks are still firing. I close the door and turn the car on and it stops! What does this mean?

Last time I drove the car was the day before at around 3pm, I got out of the driver side door and locked it with the power lock switch. Later on in the day I came out to get some things out of the passenger side unlocking it with the key and then manually sliding the lever back to the locked position. I checked and both doors were locked. Ironically both times I have noticed this happening were on Saturday nights, and the last time I drove it was on Friday around 3pm.

My car is a 1997 Civic Ex, which from reading the manual I found has a keyless entry system, but I do not have the remote control for it.

Any ideas? I figured maybe it was just and odd happening last time, but the fact that this happened again and this time I noticed both doors were unlocked really bothers me. I don't need my car unlocking itself.

Thanks

CivEx97

UPDATE...

I go out this morning to move my car and I lock the doors before going inside. I came out a little later and noticed they were unlocked and doing the same thing again. I lock them, go back inside, come back out 20 minutes later and they are unlocked and doing the same thing. Put the key in the ignition and turned it on click forward and it stoped.

I sat in the car and studied the noise a little more this time... When you normally press the power lock switch you hear a two part noise there is an initial noise when the locks open and then there is sort of an after noise (hard to explain go press your power lock switch and it will make more sense). I've never been around my car when it does the first initial unlock, as it will only unlock them once (see above, I pressed the manual lock lever and it wouldn't unlock them)... but the noise it makes over and over is that "after noise" I talked about and not the initial unlock noise.

Ideas?

fastball

Power door lock actuator. You need to have your dealer trouble shoot as to which one it is (driver or passenger). Since you have central locking and both locks are tied in to each other, they also "talk" to each other. So you need to have your dealer figure out which one it is. They run about 100.00 each. I hate dealers, but something like this your dealer will know what to look for. There's really no way to stop it but to remove either of the acutators, which will remove your power door locks and illuminated entry (yes, they're all tied together). Damn computerized door locks! Would be nice if it was just the switches and solenoids, but unfortunately, it's not.

CivEx97

Well, only the driver side door has a power lock switch, so the passenger door has no control over the driver side door.
I was thinking there was a short or something is wrong with the switch on the driver side door?

fastball

You still have two actuators (one in each door). It is possible that the switch has a short, but I've seen this before with Honda power door locks. If you have keyless entery, then you have central locking. They keep clicking and sometimes start to click for no reason at all, right? Here's a schematic of your power door lock system and rough estimate on prices:

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...gry5=DOOR+LOCK

You should still have a good dealer look at this. There may be a technical bulletin on your car. I doubt a recall, but I have seen this happen. Ref.#'s 5 and 27 are what I'm refering to. Again, have your dealer confirm this before you buy the parts (electrical is non refundable).

CivEx97

>They keep clicking and sometimes start to click for no reason at
>all, right?
That seems to be the case... Why is this exactly?


>You should still have a good dealer look at this. There may be a
>technical bulletin on your car.
Technical bullentin?

>Ref.#'s 5 and 27 are what I'm refering to. Again, have your
>dealer confirm this before you buy the parts (electrical is non
>refundable)
So... I should take it to the dealer and explain what is going on... should I ask anything? I just don't want to get screwed by the dealer...

fastball

You can always trouble shoot it yourself by checking with a volt meter. But that entails you tearing both doors appart to check which actuator is sending the 12v pulse out for no reason. If you want to get in to that, I can help the best I can. But without being able to show you I may not convey the correct information.

CivEx97

How will I be able to see which actuator is sending out a 12v? I'm hoping this won't involve having to test when they decide to start for no reason, because that is very random... and spread out so far by a few weeks.

I'd be very happy to know how to check this if you are up for explaining :-) Now what if neither of them are the problem?

Thanks again for all of your help.

fastball

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner on this..... here's what you need to do:

1. Take your driver's door panel off, but if you need to unplug any components, be sure to plug them all back in after the panel is off. You will need to have everything operational for troubleshooting.

2. Look for that actuator. It should be white and bolted to the door frame. On your car, it may be inside the window area (between the door frame and sheet metal), so you may need to roll your window up to access it. It should be in series with the solenoid and the switch.

3. I don't know how many wires there are on yours or the colors, but you should be able to figure out which ones go to the inside lock switch, the solenoid, and which one comes in from the main power and remote control reciever (that's in the passenger kick pannel under the dash...... it may be the problem as well, but I'll get to that)

4. Get a meter, set it for DC, put your ground lead anywhere WITHOUT paint, and first test the point that comes from the door switch in the car. Hit it, and you should get a 12 volt pulse. Now, hold it there untill your locks start twitching. If you don't get any pulses reading on your meter on that point, your door switch is fine. Next, put the test probe on the line that comes in from the receiver. Same thing. If you don't get pulses there, your receiver is good. And finally, test the line that goes to the drivers door solenoid. If you get pulses showing at that point, and you haven't touched the door lock, you have a bad actuator.

You should buy yourself a Chiltons service manual or similar...... they have excellent schematics for the door lock circuit, as well as color codes and which wires go where. Without looking at it, I don't remember exactly what is what. If you are good at reading schematics, you should have no problems. Which is why I recomend seeing a reputable dealer if you don't read schemos very well. Door locks for cars today are not very simple anymore, and what you think may be wrong, it may be something totally different. That's why you need to trouble shoot everything. And I didn't even get to the passenger door! Try it, and let me know what you find before you just start buying parts. Good luck!

CivEx97

Update: I haven't been able to take the panel off cause the weather has been really nasty... Anyway, I go out today and the damn door is doing its thing again, first since 02-02-2003, over two weeks, interesting time spacing heh.

But I did some more testing without having to remove anything, and I was wondering if this gives any clues...

I get in and its firing over and over (but not the complete noise you hear when you usually press the switch to open... read post #2 for description). I decided to press the power lock switch button, up and down a few times, to no avail it did not do anything... the locks just kept firing as if nothing happened. I think this is interesting and surely must give more insight as to what the problem might be.

Any ideas?

Thanks