safulop

OK this is a noob question, but what are the door "pins"? Do you mean the switches that activate with the doors opening?

-Sean

Landseer

Yes.
Little plungers. They have a circumferential contact point that is recessed, therefore difficult to clean unless pried apart. Probably cost effective to buy new ones unless you have time on your hands.





BTW, send me an email address and I'll find a way to send the information to you, probably tonight before I can do it, though.

Jeff928S4

When removing that plunger - do you unscrew the outer nut?

That nut on my plunger is loose and I have to wiggle it to get my interior lights to come on when the door is open.

safulop

I don't suppose that spraying it with WD-40 or similar would accomplish anything?

I tried that on my mirror toggle and it seemed to make it worse for a while until the stuff wore down.

-Sean

Landseer

Well, actually the nut you see is integral with the threaded section, all of with appear to be stainless steel. It all screws into some rough threads (that can rust) on the carbon steel car body. Use an 11mm wrench or socket and wind the whole thing in / out.

The black plastic plunger is crimped to the small metal piece to which the wire is also crimped/soldered. I use a set of picks and thin screwdrivers to pry it apart and pliers to re-fit. Its edge corrodes, and the wire connection can corrode or be loose.

So you have a set of potential failure points.

Rusty car threads.

Corrosion on edge of crimped piece that contacts SS piece.

Loose wire

Also -- skinned wire.

safulop

As some suggested, the problem could be traced to the keyless entry system, which seemed to be shorting out internally. It would cycle the locks every hour or two, at random points. My mechanic told me to go to a car stereo shop specializing in these things, but I found the darn thing myself and disconnected it from the locking system. It was strapped under a bad recarpeting job, on the passenger side of the tunnel between the console and the relay box.

I'm not interested in keyless entry, so now I'm just happy the car won't unlock herself anymore, or lock the keys in.

Thanks to everyone for the many ideas. Watch you keyless entry!

Preston2207

Ok well here's a question for y'all. My central locking and unlocking has been working fine. The central lucking button on the dash still locked and unlocks the doors. But now the key in the door won't lock or unlock both doors as it did 20 minutes ago. Seems to havve quit suddenly.

Is there a sequence to make the doors both work off the driver side locking mech.

Also the windows and sunroof are operational while the key is out of the ignition. Not sure if it's supposed to be that way or not. This would mean there's power to the switches. Could this drain the batt??