neattouch648

Hey y'all. I'm new to the Porsche world. I recently purchased a 2000 Boxster as a daily driver and I absolutely love the car. I'm still getting to know it though. Since I've owned it, the door locks haven't worked. When I push the button on the remote, the door locks make a noise in each door, but don't actually lock. I can manually lock the driver's side and it will lock, then when I push the button it unlocks, but the sound doesn't change. it actually sounds like the doors are trying to continuously unlock, rather than lock. Also, the red light on the lock button in the car is on. I'm not too familiar with all of this, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Macster

With the purchase of a "new" car (used but unfamiliar to you) I would start by having you check for signs of moisture in the cabin, at the floor. The car's security control module is under IIRC the passenger seat and is very much at risk if any water gets into the cabin.

Absent a top leak the usual path for water to get into the cabin is from body water drains that fill with trash and allow water to accumulate and overflow into the cabin.

There are some drains under the plastic panels on either side of the battery. There should be one on either side of the top at the back of the top the catch basins located in the area that is covered by the clam shell arm.

Check these and if you find any trash carefully remove it. Be sure you do not damage the delicate styrofoam catch basins.

Be sure water poured into each of these drains out directly to the ground. If one has a damaged/leaking hose this can still put water into the car and it could make its way into the cabin.

The other place to check is the doors. A door membrane can leak and let water into the door and its electronics. This water can initially cause door/window problems but if left alone electrical gremlins can appear at other places.

Give both doors a good shake listening for water sounds. Check the door bottoms along the inside bottom edges for any signs of dampness.

If you find no signs of any water then what is more likely is some electro-mechanical component inside one of the doors has failed. A shop equipped with the proper Porsche diagnostics computer can have a tech read the error codes from the security module and pinpoint/identify the offending piece of hardware.

The door lock assembly could be the problem -- when it goes bad it can account for some pretty weird behavior -- but I am a bit bothered by both doors being affected. This suggests a common failure mode and this could be with the security module and perhaps its exposure to water sometime before you bought the car.

Unless you are skilled at door disassembly and reassembly -- tricky -- and willing to throw expensive parts (the door lock assembly can cost several hundred dollars) at this behavior my advice is to seek out a qualified shop and see what the error codes are and what they point to.

neattouch648

Thank you for the response! I will check everything out that you mentioned and see what I can get into. I'm a very skilled shade-tree mechanic so taking things apart are never a problem . I did not see any dampness when I purchased the vehicle a couple of days ago and I did a pretty thorough inspection. Do you know if the security module is Bosch?

Thanks for the advice! I'll check on this tonight. Is there a way to manually lock the passenger door?

Thanks!

Macster

If the car is dry and has no signs of being wet in the past then likely one of the door lock assemblies is acting up.

They are rather complicated modules. In the case of my Boxster a bad one in the passenger door sometimes caused the horn to sound when I locked the car, sound the horn like something was ajar. At other times the car doors would lock on their own after I would get in the car and be on the move. I'd push the unlock button to unlock the doors but a moment or two later the doors would lock again. The next to the last straw so speak was the passenger door window would not drop when I went to open the door. The last straw was the window would drop when the door was opened but then once the door was open would go up again. It was when this last symptom appeared I took the car in to have this sorted.

The tech connected the Porsche diagnostics computer the car and queried the security module for error codes to see if something else might be involved. He said the door lock assembly is the most expensive part in this system -- well not counting the security module -- and he didn't want to replace the door lock assembly if the problem was with something else. But it wasn't with something else, it was with the door lock assembly, so he replaced it and that was that. All symptoms gone.

I had the old one tucked away somewhere but I can't remember where now. And I might have tossed it. After the repair I looked it over -- not much to see all the interesting stuff is inside -- but I can't recall the brand.

Dave H.

the controller might be Bosch, but i think it and the door lock module could be VDO.

neattouch648

Sorry for the temporary radio silence. I have checked the car and cannot find anything wet or moist. I was recently at a mechanic's shop and the gentleman told me to check my fuses. Nothing was bad there either. could one door module acting up cause a problem on both sides? Both doors sound like they are trying to lock and then unlocking themselves again, or just making two attempts at trying to lock. Same thing happens inside the car if it is not on and I push the lock button. With the car running, the red light is illuminated.

Thanks for the help!

Macster

Yes, in the case of my 2002 Boxster just what proved to be a bad passenger side door lock assembly affected both doors, but not both windows.

The doors would lock on their own shortly after I would drive away after starting the engine for example when leaving the office in the evening. As I'd drive through the parking or shortly after I'd get on the road I'd hear the locks engage and the dash light would come on.

Since I seldom lock the doors and do not like the dash light glowing I'd push the unlock button and the doors would unlock and the light would go dark. Roughly 1 in 4 times the doors would lock again just moments after I'd push the unlock button. I can't recall what I'd do then whether I'd just leave the doors locked for a while or unlock the doors again.

This doors locking on their own was not an every day symptom. I can't recall now how often it appeared but not too often. Generally, but not always, if something happens often enough I remember the last time it happened that is when I decide to do something about it.

It was not the doors locking on their own that drove me to get this looked into, it was the passenger window dropping when opening the door but then going up again after the door was open.

Unless I noticed this when I went to close the door there was a horrible smash of glass against the top rail. Fortunately the glass never shattered but every time I expected a shower of glass fragments. At the time I was giving a co-worker a ride to the train station in the evening and I was afraid the glass would eventually break.

neattouch648

I attempted to replace the little computer under the driver's seat. Luckily the junkyard let me "try" the old unit before buying it and it made no real difference to my car. Therefore, I left the old one in it. I had a gentleman with PIWIS come by and read the codes from my alarm computer for me. The following is what was on it:

21 W Lead (DME immobilizer)
58 Tank Servo motor not energized despite relay activation
7 Central Lock Button Closed
11 Voltage failure during alarm output
45 Short to B+ at servo motor
10 Voltage failure at terminal 30 with alarm system active
48 airbag signal acknowledged
47 control locking synchronization
61 central locking limit position unlock not reached
25 terminal 86 s not detected.

We then cleared the codes and played with the car a bit. Code 61 (central locking limit position unlock not reached) came back almost immediately.

Does anyone have any ideas what to do with this information? realistically, it doesnt' tell me much.

Thanks!

ECU Doctors

It's very likely that you have immobilizer issues.

Did you open the Alarm / CLU from under the driver's seat?

Check if it has corrosion or water damage because this is common and consistent with the issues and codes that you are describing.



If you do, then the only solution is to do an Immobilizer Replacement because these circuit board are very fragile and any kind of "band-aid" repair is only temporary.

Also, bear in mind that a "donor" Immobilizer can only allow you to talk to the DME, but will never allow you to test your door locks or remotes because all these funstions are programmed into the original Immobilizer.

Let me know what you find...

neattouch648

Thanks! Believe it or not, I did that yesterday. It is corroded, not nearly as bad as your photo but there is certainly some on the board. I just got back from the junkyard and picked up one that looks good. I'm going to meet with a guy that has PIWIS this afternoon to program it to my car and see if that fixes my problems.

Thanks!

ECU Doctors

Great sound like you have it all handled.

One problem though, "junkyard" or "used" alarm units are not programmable a 2nd time. This was done on purpose by the dealership to work like this. You'll see.

Another thing to consider it that depending on how bad that water damaged was in the Immobilizer the "coding data" of your remotes (which lives in the Immo) may have been corrupted and you may need to get new remotes.

Stay in touch and let me know what happends tomorrow. Also consider waterproofing your CLU in the future: http://goo.gl/BoLfPg

neattouch648

Does that mean he will not be able to program it to work with my car? What is an alternative option?

When I push a button on my remotes, it attempts to lock the doors. I can hear each door making a noise, but it does not actually lock the doors.

Thanks

ECU Doctors

Unfortunatelly he will not be able to program a "used" Immobilizer Alarm to your car because these are one-time programmable.

You need to replace the Immobilizer module. There may be hope to clone the Immobilizer "Coding Data" to a new Immo, hence saving you the money to buy new Remotes. We would have to check the programming to see if it is uncorrupted.

More info here: http://www.ecudoctors.com/porsche-bo...34-m535-2.html

Now, we have seen that sometimes if your door are locking and then immidiatelly unlocking you may also have an issue in the door handles where the CLU cannot detect if your doors are closed. (Can you see if one of your door handles is ajar one inch or so?) When this happens you can usually hear a double beep/horn noise when you press the remotes.

neattouch648

They aren't locking at all. They are simply making an odd noise. It actually sounds like they're trying to do it twice before giving up. Neither door stays open and the horn never beeps, no matter what I do.

georgeramosjr

did u ever fix this?