FLIEGEN

So, when I unlock my doors, the mechanism makes a click or pop sound and tried to relock. If I get the door open in time, it will keep making noise (trying to lock itself) until the door shuts, which it will then lock you in the car (or keys in car or whatever). If you put key in ignition and turn to on position (car on or off) door open or closed, the locks stop whining and trying to lock.

Anyone ever experienced this before? Car is a 1987 S4.

Thanks Rennlist for any help. Im just curious as to whats wrong, and how much its gonna cost (besides a lot of cash~thats not accurate enough).

Jim bailey - 928 International

could just be an adjustment of where the door lock motors sit... and the one to look at first is the OTHER door ! When you manually unlock the door it moves the arm which goes into the door lock that hits a switch which tellls the OTHER door lock..".Hey I just got unlocked you should unlock too" ...the other Lock says " OK and cycles BUT if the contact points /switch in the second door THINKS it is still locked IT tells the first lock ... HEY now I am LOCKED , you should lock too !!!

Hilton

Do you have a long or a short key? If its a long key, does it go all the way into all three door locks?

My car had the same issue - was the alarm part at the end of the key jammingin one direction. (last 2 tumblers - factory alarm piece extends the regular 5-tumbler lock)

I took it apart, cleaned thoroughly and regreased with silicon lube - been fine since.

Hilton.

JKelly

Try the key in the passenger door lock and make sure the passenger side door lock motor is operating. If not, the drivers side will cycle. There are two small inline fuse holders located behind the top side of the fuse panel, which hold 400mA fuses for the door locks. If one of them is bad, it can cause the locks to cycle.
I replaced mine with Littelfuse T 400mA 218" (slowblow).

heinrich

if there is an obstruction like the door trim where the lock pin goes through it, it will keep the one door from fully unlocking and cycle the locks as you describe.

John Struthers

Hmm..
Jim's idea is pretty sound.
And checking those milli-amp fuses is a good start.
But give this a try before you start pulling arm rests and door panels.

1. Make sure both doors are closed, try locking. If one or both locks cycle open ... disconnect battery and lock offending door(s) go have a cold one.
Theory here is that both locks start from the same position.
On rare occasions -like when you are cleaning or unloading the beast- or if the seatbelt doesn't retract ... one or the other door won't be completely closed when you lock one door. In which case one door won't be locked completely. Essentially, according to the owners manual, the locked door will unlock when the other door is closed. However, I've tried it and the doors cycle normally once both doors close, so that is not a cycling problem.
2. Before re-connecting battery lay the multi-meter leads upon it.
Reconnect battery and have another cold one. Hopefully, the locks didn't start the recycle dance ... again.
3. If the locks started an uncommanded cycle again ... get another cold one.
4. If they cycled again climb back in the sHARk put key in the ignition turn to position one and try mechanically locking -door ****-.
If that fails, start engine and try locking mechanically, door ****. As far as I know when you mechanically -****- lock a door it only affects that door, not both.
5. That brings us to a different issue .... is it possible that you or someone else was fiddling with the mechanical - **** - lock? If so it is possible that the mechanical stroke is not identical to the electric solinoid stroke and that the **** was not returned to start/neutral position when the key was used to lock or unlock the car via the central locking system. The difference in stroke would fool the central locking system into thinking that one of the doors was still open causing the cycling. Try rolling both ***** to the rear -ignition on-.
If that fails ... have another cold one and plan on pulling the panels on Saturday :<)
BTW if you do pull the panels, mark those courtesy light wires - why so many brown ones? - or you will have other issues.

FLIEGEN

WOW great stuff guys... #5 is EXACTLY what happened. I forgot to mention. I was at a gas station, and the drivers door was open (me filling it up) and the door lock jammed... The door was LOCKED with the DOOR OPEN. These things are like vaults, so the latch down just slapped the door strike and laughed at me. I didn't want to drive home with the damn door open, SO, I took the key and pushed on the latch. It snapped in place, and then this continous cycling started happeneing. You can get out only with turning the *****. It does this on both sides. The key works in the doors and the trunk, no binding, it just keeps trying to lock the car. The battery has been in and out of the car (has no battery right now) and when I hook it up, it goes back to trying to lock. Did I fudge it up by pushing on the latch to get me home? If so, how I fix it now? Take the drivers door apart and re-allign everything, or is there an easier way? I will check the fuses as well, but Im pretty sure those are ok since both doors work, and the red key lock on the dash works both doors as well. The passenger door does sound VERY laboring though, like its a dying animal vs the drivers that just clicks away and sounds much faster... could this mean something as well?

sharknoob

are you a person that can live without them? ....i am i pulled the fuses so the car cant lock me out with my keys inside! "fixed" in 2 mins flat

FLIEGEN

Well, I'd like for them to work properly, unless it's going to be 5 grand or so to fix it.

stealth

So, if I can pretty consistently lock my 86.5 from the passenger side with the key, but rarely get both doors locked from the driver's side (typically, will get one full lock then unlock cycle, sometimes longer), which one should I examine? Passenger side?