Central locking "just stopped"

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hoshy
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Post Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:16 am

Before I start swapping relays and stuff I thought I'd post the symptoms here in case anybody can say for sure.

One just the locking just stopped working, dead from boot and passengers door, also dead from drivers door but I can here the motor in the drivers door it sounds very weak and strained.

Any ideas, or good tests?
E46 M3 CSL but dreaming of another E30.
kam-325i
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Post Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:24 am

When my old 320i did that, i changed the Central locking module. And it cured my problem.

Can you hear the locks "Straining" to unlock the doors ?
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flatfourfun
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Post Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:28 am

This happened to mine last week. It was a broken wire (red/black) in the bellows thing between the A pillar and the drivers door.
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hoshy
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Post Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:53 am

kam-325i wrote: Can you hear the locks "Straining" to unlock the doors ?
Yeap.
E46 M3 CSL but dreaming of another E30.
kam-325i
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Post Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:02 am

Check the connections in the A pillar on drivers side, then check the module.
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hoshy
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Post Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:28 pm

cheers. will do.
E46 M3 CSL but dreaming of another E30.
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Brianmoooore
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:03 am

Remove driver's footwell speaker, find two seperate red/black wires going to the driver's door socket, snip them away from the socket and join them together.
This will cure 80% of central locking problems!
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gazza
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:38 am

bri re the red and black wires do you mean snip them and by pass the connector block and re join them or snip them on the speaker side of the block and join them without them passing through the block
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Brianmoooore
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:04 am

gazza wrote:bri re the red and black wires do you mean snip them and by pass the connector block and re join them or snip them on the speaker side of the block and join them without them passing through the block
Join them without passing through the block. For some reason the supply to the locking ECU goes into the driver's door, turns around on a loop of wire, then comes out again.
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hoshy
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:14 am

CHeers Brian, I'll bridge it out to test first.
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Brianmoooore
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:21 am

Do it anyway. It's a routine mod I do to all E30s that come my way.
The presence of a permanent live pin in the door socket encourages corrosion of the socket. If it isn't the problem now, it wll be one day.
A1BMW325iSport
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Post Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:52 pm

every e30 i've come across seems to have this problem, why they designed the circuit like that i have no idea