One question to do with drivers door lock

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:33 am

Those of you that have read my post called "Name that relay" will know the full story and all the different questions I had. I now have one question that I could do with a quick and difinitive answer to:

Can you tell me whether I am right to think that the central locking has nothing to do with the drivers door not unlocking with the key? The key should always work the drivers lock....unless something mechanical is broken?

The reason I ask is that the garage are almost certain to tell me that this problem is due to the buggered central locking, I want to be able to look them in the eye and tell them they are wrong and that it has to be something to do with the lock itself (the one they fitted only hours earlier).

Typical that it worked fine when at the garage then as soon as I get it home it goes wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 10:12 am

Danstable wrote:Those of you that have read my post called "Name that relay" will know the full story and all the different questions I had. I now have one question that I could do with a quick and difinitive answer to:

Can you tell me whether I am right to think that the central locking has nothing to do with the drivers door not unlocking with the key? The key should always work the drivers lock....unless something mechanical is broken?

The reason I ask is that the garage are almost certain to tell me that this problem is due to the buggered central locking, I want to be able to look them in the eye and tell them they are wrong and that it has to be something to do with the lock itself (the one they fitted only hours earlier).

Typical that it worked fine when at the garage then as soon as I get it home it goes wrong.

Thanks in advance.

It's possible that the Dead lock micro switch is being made all the time. In this case, it's possible that the Central locking will stop the drivers door lock motor from moving, and therefore stop the key working.

This is about the only electronic thing that is likely to stop the drivers lock from working.

Cheers,

Ian.

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:39 am

OK, but the microswitch is a 'part of' the lock barrel right?

What I want to make sure is that they can't say that the door won't open due to a faulty central locking control box, or dodgy wiring in the connector between the door and the A-pillar.

If the microswitch is faulty in some way this is due to it not being re-fitted correctly? Also, is the microswitch something that would have come as a new part with the lock set, or is it a seperate item?

Thanks for your response.

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:57 am

Danstable wrote:OK, but the microswitch is a 'part of' the lock barrel right?

What I want to make sure is that they can't say that the door won't open due to a faulty central locking control box, or dodgy wiring in the connector between the door and the A-pillar.

If the microswitch is faulty in some way this is due to it not being re-fitted correctly? Also, is the microswitch something that would have come as a new part with the lock set, or is it a seperate item?

Thanks for your response.

The micro switch is a separate part, and is not part of the lock barrel. It would also not be supplied as part of a lock set.

The switch is pressed by part of the lock barrel, so I guess it's possible for it to be damaged/moved when the lock barrel is removed.

I guess it's also possible that the control box could fail in such a way as to tell the dead lock to engage, but very unlikely.

After typing this, and having a look at the circuit diagrams, I'm starting to wonder if I'm talking a load of old bollox

. I'm starting to convince myself that the drivers side is purely mechanical, and the micro switch tells the rest of the system to dead lock, but does nothing to the drivers door.

I guess that really hasn't answered your question after all. Sorry.

Ian.

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:04 pm

As far as I know the drivers door should be mechanical, and the micro switch jus tells the rest of the system. However when my c/l failed the drivers door was stuck unlocked even if I turned the cke any way etc it would'nt lock so it could be your central locking I think. I replaced the relay in the kick pannel and it now works again. Hope this helps.

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:32 pm

Feck and arse! The tech articles I've read say that the drivers side is purely mechanical and that the microswitch is to send signals to the rest of the system.

This is an absolute nightmare. I can only open my boot, luckily its a Tourer so I can clamber through to replace the control unit if worst comes to worst......although it will be a tight squeeze down there without the drivers door open!

If I simply remove the central locking control unit, will I still be able to deadlock all the doors from the drivers door (using the key)?

Does anyone have a 100% guarenteed working control unit from a four door/tourer that I could buy?

Dan

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:38 pm

If you remove the control unit I think you will not be able to do any thing, you'll simply be left with all the doors still locked, I think. I'm not the expert though, brian_moore seems to be the man on this stuff

Post Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:56 pm

As far as I know, there is no deadlock motor in an E30 drivers door, but it too late in the day to go out to the workshop and double check. If the deadlocks are jambed on, then you need to access the control unit, unplug it, and apply power to the Black and blue wires. Power applied one way around should engage the deadlocks, the other way around should release them. If this doesn't work, then it's a matter of taking of the doorcards, and unscrewing the solenoids, so that the door buttons can be pulled up.
Unless you're a contortionist, I would unbolt the driver's seat, and pull it back out of the way.