locks, driver's won't lock, passenger stuck locked no motor

[clydesdale]

Yes. That is where I am stuck. Once I lock the passenger from the driver's, I can only unlock the passenger from the trunk. What is involved with the remote locking upgrade?

[DanThe]

So its not deadlocked?

If you turn the key 90° to horizontal and leave it there the doors are deadlocked , if you turn it to 90° so the doors lock then turn the key back to the vertical position the doors will be in the standard locked state.

In the standard locked position you should be able to unlock each lock independently
In the deadlock position you can only unlock from the drivers door

[Brianmoooore]

Does the L shaped piece on the back of the lock barrel swivel properly from side to side?
Can't see how the locking could work at all if you'd cut the wrong wire, but are you sure you didn't cut a red/brown wire by mistake? Deadlock wire is red/brown, and red/black on the door side of things.
Pull the plug off of the driver's door lock motor, and use a piece of wire to briefly earth the green/blue and yellow/blue wires in turn.
Yellow/blue should lock the doors, and green/blue should unlock them.

[clydesdale]

ok, I have a little update. The spring on the lock cylinder is broken. It APPEARS that part of the spring should attach to a lever on the back of the cylinder. One end of the spring broke and is no longer attached. What was that spring supposed to do?
As far as the wires being cut, I thought for sure that I cut the right wires. I will double check if needed and I left some wire still intact on the connector just in case anyway, so I can undo this mod if necessary. But what is the deal with the spring?

Danthe, once I lock the car from the driver's side. There is no way to unlock the passenger side, unless it is done from the trunk. Even if I return the key to vertical, I cannot undo the double lock on the passenger side. I have to go in from the trunk.

I thank you guys for your help, keep it coming.

[clydesdale]

I will try earthing the wires, but do you mean on the connector side or on the motor side? Also, I may not be looking at the right thing. Right off the back of the door lock cylinder is a connector. It has a yellow/blue wire and a brown wire. It is held there by a retaining clip. Is this the door lock motor connector? I am not sure. I can see part of the lock barrel strike this connector and it then makes contact and locks the doors. What is this thing? Thanks.

[clydesdale]

ok, I think what I was looking at was a micro switch. Where is the door lock motor? Thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

The spring is what makes the L shaped piece swivel, and effectively decides whether the key is in dead lock mode or door lock/unlock mode. This the reason the 45 degree action doesn't.
You make reference to loosening and sliding the lock motor further up the thread????
Disconnect the plug from the motor, and earth the wires in the plug.
The micro switch you have found works the deadlocks.

[clydesdale]

OK, I will earth the wires. Is the motor just lower in the door? Is it the long vertical running thing that is referred to as the "central locking drive" in the Bentley manual? Also, can I replace this spring or am I looking at atleast a new lock cylinder at this point? Thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

Don't think the spring is available separately from BMW, but there's plenty of second hand ones around.
Check the condition of the alloy L shaped piece for wear where it contacts the forks that work the doorlock, as this piece isn't available separately as well. Both parts come as part of a new barrel assembley.
Lock motor is Bentley's "central locking drive".

[clydesdale]

I have called bavarian auto for a lock cylinder, but if I order it then I will have a new key and it won't work the passenger or trunk. How can I get the original key to work all the doors? Do I need to get a junk lock and take off the parts that I need? I thought I read something about being able to buy a lock refurbishing kit or something like that. It is raining here, I will earth the wires on the lock motor soon. Thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

The lock cylinder that you want comes with the lock tumblers seperately, IIRC, for you to assemble them to suit your key.
Alternatively, remove the lock tumbler assembly from your existing barrel and fit it to the new.

[DanThe]

Yes, its a lock repair kit you want, approx £20 from the dealer, comes with all the parts you need

[clydesdale]

I called my dealer and $59 is the first quote that I got. He does not know if it comes with the spring that I broke. Are you confident that this comes with the spring? He did say that it comes with all the tumblers. Thanks

[clydesdale]

I found another dealer that has the part for $40. It is ordered. This weekend I will earth the wires and see if I can get some updates on the electrical portion of the problem. Thanks.

[clydesdale]

ok, here is what I found. When I earth the yellow/blue at the door lock motor, the doors lock perfectly. However, when I earth green/blue the door DO NOT unlock as they should. I repeated this at the module that is behind the driver's speaker and get the same result. I earthed the wires right at this module using the back side of the white connector. The yellow/blue caused the doors to lock and the green blue DOES NOT unlock.
I also checked to see what I did last weekend with connecting the two red/black wires on the speaker side of the door connector and it appears I did it correctly. I did not touch the red/brown wire which we thought I may have done. So, where do I go from here? My lock rebuild kit will be here tomorrow, so that should solve the broken cylinder issue, but I don't think it will help with what I have going on here. Any thoughts?

[Brianmoooore]

Try earthing the green/purple to unlock it unstead.

[clydesdale]

Where are you finding the green purple or green violet? I do not have that color in the door.

I can't remember the color, but I earthed the wire that comes out of pin #9 on the module in the kick panel. I am pretty sure that it was violet and something else. It is the wire that should connect the trunk lock motor to the central lock unit control unit. On the wire diagram it is pin 9 on central lock and pin 3 on trunk. The bently has it as yellow black., but that is not what I found. I found violet and something else.
The car will lock and unlock from the trunk, but I could not find the proper wire to earth to get the passenger to unlock. Keep the ideas coming, thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

There are two seperate lock request and two seperate unlock request pins on the deadlock ECU.
Since your car will unlock from the boot, but not from the doors, I suspect that one of the unlock request inputs on the ECU had failed internally. This is a fault I have never seen before, but it's full of electronic components, and any electronic component can fail.
The two lock request inputs are on pins 7 and 8, and should be yellow/blue and green/black. The two unlock requests are on pins 6 and 9, and should be green/blue and green/purple.
The pin I asked you to earth was pin 9, which is the unlock request line from the boot.
Pin 6 is the unlock request from the doors.
The pin earthing is to be done at the ECU socket, not inside the doors.

[clydesdale]

My bentley show pin 7 is yellow/blue- lock and pin 8 is green/ black -unlock at the trunk.
It shows pin 6 is green/blue- unlock and pin 9 is yellow/black - lock at the trunk. But, I did not find yellow/black there. I found violet and something else, which I can't remember.
But on page 57 of section 15 in bentley, pins 8 and 9 do unlock and lock at the trunk. 8 is unlock and 9 is lock. We tried earthing 9 and we could not get things to lock. I will try again. Please let me know what you think of the wiring differences. This is an 87 325is.

[Brianmoooore]

The colours/pins I am quoting are for a facelift E30, and are correct, as I've just checked them against a car in the workshop.
An '87 car could be pre or post facelift, or a mixture of both, but AFAIK the locking ECU itself was unchanged, although I don't know about the wiring colours.
Either way, pins 7 and 8 are the lock request, and 6 and 9 are the unlock request.
You say the car unlocks from the boot, so one of the unlock pins should work if earthed.

[clydesdale]

I tried earthing the 6 and 9 pins but could not get them to work. I am using a wire. Maybe I need to use a circuit tester or something with a needle type of end to get into the connector better. The connector has green oxidation on the wires as well. I will try to get the car to unlock from the trunk pin.

[Brianmoooore]

I've found a circuit diagram for pre facelift cars now, and the only difference is that the wire from the unlock request on pin 9 to the boot lock is yellow/black instead of green/purple.
You say that the unlocking works from the boot lock. All that turning the boot key does is to momentarily earth the yellow/black wire, so doing the same thing on pin 9 of the ECU should do the same thing. If it doesn't, try unplugging the connector to the boot locking motor, in case it has an internal fault that's holding the lock request line to earth.
Ideally you need a spare connector for the locking ECU with a short length of loom attached, so that you can connect up the ECU with only the red/black, brown, white and blue wires connected.

[clydesdale]

I disconnected the harness at the trunk. I have a green purple back there, even though my diagram says yellow black. I don't have a yellow black back there. But either way, I am right back to where I started. After I disconnected the trunk, I double locked the car from the driver's side. I then tried to unlock, which of course did not work. I no longer could open the passenger door. So, I reconnected the trunk harness and now it won't lock or unlock from the trunk. This is what originally happened and then I got lucky and the trunk worked and I got into the car. So, I am sort of right back to where I started with the original thread, the passenger door is double locked and I can't get it to open any which way I try. Thoughts?

[clydesdale]

ok, I was able to get the passenger unlocked. The way I did it may tell you more. I pulled the central lock control unit out from the kick panel. I removed the small relay and reconnected it. This did nothing. I removed the white connector and reconnected. As I connected it, I could hear the lock motor try to lock all the doors. I then tried to unlock and it did not work. I then removed the connector again, reconnected. This time I went around to the trunk and the car unlocked. My questionn is what is with the locks trying to lock while I am reconnecting that harness?

[Brianmoooore]

I removed the small relay and reconnected it. This did nothing.

What small relay??

[Brianmoooore]

If the deadlock microswitch (on the plate held on by the same C clip that holds the lock barrel) is pressed in, the locks would try to operate as you plug the module in. Otherwise, it's either a permanent lock signal from one of the doors/boot (as I suggested in my last but one post), or the lock ECU is faulty.

[clydesdale]

The relay that I was talking about was sitting right next to the big central lock component in the kick panel. They are both attached to the triangular metal mounting bracket. I tried unlocking the car with the boot disconnected and the car would still only lock, but not unlock. When I connected the actual harness to the central lock brain in the kick panel, it immediately tried locking the doors before I could even fully reconnect the harness. Just touching the harness to the pins caused the lock motor to fire. So it does seem like it is getting a lock signal.
Right now the car is back to where it will only unlock from the trunk. How do I further determine where the lock signal is coming from? Thanks again for your help.

[Brianmoooore]

The 'relay' on the same plate is the switch off delay module for the interior lights, and is nothing whatsoever to do with the locks, other than they share the same power supply on the red/black wire.
Are you sure the deadlock microswitch isn't switching in intermittently and confusing things? Can you see for certain that it's not pressed in? If not, then disconnect it at the switch, and try earthing the lock/unlock pins again.
Any chance of getting hold of a spare white socket for the lock ECU, as I suggested further up?

[clydesdale]

I am not sure where I would get a spare socket. I imagine I could hit the U.S. forums and see if anyone has a used connector. I will try some further diagnosis over the weekend. Thanks very much for the help.

[clydesdale]

ok, update time. I put a new lock cylinder in and tumblers to work with my original key. The job was tedious, but very effective. I now have single locking ability. I get both locks to lock when turned to 45 degrees. This now allows me to unlock the car from the passenger side. Previously, at 45 degrees, nothing would happen. I would have to double lock the car. Now, I can single or double lock. But, the unlocking problem remains. I cannot unlock electrically from the driver's door. I cannot unlock the passenger or trunk from the driver's door. In order to unlock the passenger door, I have to either turn the passenger key or the trunk key.
I did manage to find a spare white socket for the lock ECU. What did you want me to do with this again? I will unhook the micro switch and try the whole earthing process again. We are getting there. Atleast now I can single lock the car and know that I will be able to get back in without having to use the trunk. Thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

The idea was to connect the power feeds (red/black and brown) and the lock motor wires (blue, white and black) only. You can then pulse the four lock/unlock request wires and connect the dead lock wire (red/brown) to earth, and be sure that there's no interference to these signals from other wiring.

[clydesdale]

Brian, I am goint to try to get a little further into this. I have altleast been enjoying the new lock cylinder and the fact that I no longer have to double lock and finally get some action at the 45 degree position.
Is there a microswitch to lock the doors on the passenger side? Could this be giving a constant lock?
Although, the trunk still unlocks everything perfectly. But the driver's side and passenger side will not unlock electrically, they will only unlock there respective door. Both doors will lock all doors though.
I have a spare white connector, but I don't want to break that out yet. Plus,won't I have to hack my current connector off and splice this one in temporarily?
Is there anything that I need to rule out on the passenger side first?

[DUBGT]

Hi there guys, I have just had my car painted and the doors were removed for some of the work. I am now having issues with my central locking too. All connectors have been cleaned and reconnected but the central locking is now working probably 1 in 10 attempts. You can sometimes here a strange noise coming from the front of the door, possibly the kick panel area.

I guess the question is, does this sound like a faulty part or would I be able to fix the problem with this modification? It's just so frustrating as it all worked perfectly before!

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

James.