MrLexse

I have been trying to get the door locking motors to perform as designed and came across an odd problem. When the key is turned in the driver's door lock cylinder, I was able to get the driver's door lock motor and the passenger door lock motor to lock the doors and to unlock them when it was turned in the opposite direction. This would be perfect, were it not for the locks being out of sync. Whenever the key unlocks the driver's door, the passenger side motor locks the passenger door! When I turn the key to lock the driver's door, the passenger door unlocks. WTF?
Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, is there a way to re-sync the two, 180 degrees apart ?

dzaprev

Sounds like someone reversed wires around? Did problem just occur or was it always like that?

FLYVMO

Sounds like they are "clocked" out of phase with each other. Shop manual has the info on the door lock motors and mentions new ones come clocked a certain way, and attention should be paid to both locks motors being clocked the same way when changing one. Don't remember the specifics, but it's in the WSM.

Cheers!
Carl

MrLexse

Carl,
This car has been sitting in pieces in a warehouse for about seven or eight years now and I have little memory of what was functioning when I bought it and what was not.
The information in the WSM was what I used as a guide to adjust the door lock motors (DLM's), but the WSM failed to mention an "out of phase" condition. By the response I got to this post and the absence of any repair information in the WSM, I suspect mine is not a common problem. Reversing the polarity of the male harness connector would seem to be the answer, but it is polarized. I did notice that the vapor barrier was not present on the door when I took the interior panel off and that the female connector, which is part of the DLM housing, had no polarization slot (broken away). PO?
The screws holding the DLM to it's mounting bracket are in a symmetrical pattern (on the four corners), and it looks as if I would be able to unscrew the motor from it's mounting bracket, turn it 180 degrees and re-mount it.

gearz

It does sound like your driver's side lock motor was installed out of phase with the other side motor. What you need to do to resolve this is to first carefully pry the white plastic locking rod off its attachment point at the bottom of the motor. Then with your finger you can move the lock motor to the other preset position. The lock motor always has power so all it takes is a little push to get it to cycle to the other side. Then reconnect the locking rod to the motor and you should be good to go. Should be obvious what to do when you are in there.

FLYVMO

Lex,

The post from gearz explains it better than I did. The motor can be installed in-phase or out-of phase but will look like it is installed correctly. Follow his advice and turn the motor (one of them) until it again lines up with the other motor and the linkage. No need to mess with the wiring.

EDIT: WSM section 57, pages 57-22 through 57-24 has the alignment and orientation of the door lock motors.

Carl

MrLexse

Today i swapped out that DLM with the broken female connector for another one. which I knew to be good. Now everything is "in sync". I'm pretty sure it wasn't the motor replacement, but rather the orientation of the rotor on top, as mentioned in some of the previous posts.here. In either case, now when I turn the key in the drivers door lock cylinder, both doors lock and unlock in unison.
However, if I go to the passenger door and try to unlock it with the key, it won't open easily. I have to turn the key with one hand and while holding it in the unlock position (against resistance), I have to pull up on the outer door handle to open the door. I don't hear the motor cycling at all. It's a mechanical resistance to the lock cylinder being turned. Since I'm the only one that will be using the car, I would probably never have occasion to open the passenger door with a key, and I could just let it go, but I know it didn't leave the factory that way. Also, since I want to add a remote unlock feature at some point, I wouldn't want this symptom of something wrong to manifest itself down the line.

FLYVMO

The same WSM section listed above has the trouble shooting for the door locks as well. If the mechanism is not able to move freely then it can cause issues. Also I think the contact switch in the door lock might be gummed up (mine was) and never makes an electrical connection and therefor won't trigger the electrical unlock. Might want to take the door lock out and clean/re-grease it together with the inner locking mechanism. The +20 year old grease gets really sticky with age.

Cheers!
Carl

MrLexse

I went back in and cleaned up "the mess". Everything's working perfectly now. Both lock cylinders will open and lock both doors when the key is turned from either door. Seems like the passenger side door lock motor was just a little out of calibration. I cycled the motor to the #1 position, but observed that the landing spot was about 8 degrees (?) before the #1 position spot shown in the WSM . I just removed the rotor and the rotor cap and then re-installed them, oriented correctly.
I believe you can interchange a right side motor and a left side motor, if need be. I found no difference in the right hand and left hand motors, aside from the orientation of the rotors. Porsche has them listed as separate part numbers in the PET, but I believe that is only because they come packaged with the rotors pre-set in the correct #1 (locked) position, to save the technician the trouble of having to calibrate them. I found no part number or other identifying L or R on the motor housings, which you would expect to find on parts that function differently, but appear identical. If you interchange them, you may have to recalibrate the #1 position. After I re-installed the lock mechanism, everything worked perfectly. I'll submit a separate thread with pictures I took of the re-install. Maybe they'll help someone in the future.

gearz

Good job getting this sorted out. I didn't know the lock motor rotor could be re-calibrated if necessary; I would guess the PO would have done this for some reason as I don't see how it could have moved otherwise. Regardless, thanks for posting the resolution and the great photos.

Brian

FLYVMO

Excellent! Pictures are worth more than a thousand words. Thanks for posting them.

Cheers!
Carl