325 touring central locking

[Scotty200]

Hi all I'm after some advice with my touring central locking it's been playing up since I got the car as I'm changing my interior to leather and changing door cards I thought this would be a great time to have a look, I've got it working but only from the boot if I use either door it just locks that one door, I've checked my central locking module and the solder looks good to me ( I used the wiki guide), my door locks do seam to be a bit hard to use
Any help would be great thanks scott

[Sanchez]

There's a "red black" wiring mod you can do which eliminates a circuit in the door which falls.

I did it many years ago and can't remember exactly what I did but I think it's in the wiki pages of this wonderful site.

[Sanchez]

Copied from wiki.




Red/Black Wire
BMW use a logical wiring system where all red wires are constantly live. One of these wires, coded with a black stripe, makes a loop into and out of the driver's door via the A pillar socket. This is known to cause corrosion and general mayhem both within the socket and to other wiring in the area.
The fix is to eliminate the live loop through the door. The modification to the red/black wires will cure 90% of locking faults, and it is not necessary, or desirable, to dismantle the door hinge pillar plugs and sockets to do so. All the work can be done through the speaker hole.
Note that Cabriolets have a slightly different wiring arrangement, for some reason known only to the E30's original designers, and you will have three red/black wires to connect together.

[Scotty200]

Hi
Thanks for the reply I did see about the red/black mod trick looks like I will be doing this, is it just the drivers side I have to do this? Do you think it has anything to do with the locks? They feel like there full of gravel really ruff and hard to turn both front doors?

[Brianmoooore]

Copied from wiki.




Red/Black Wire
BMW use a logical wiring system where all red wires are constantly live. One of these wires, coded with a black stripe, makes a loop into and out of the driver's door via the A pillar socket. This is known to cause corrosion and general mayhem both within the socket and to other wiring in the area.
The fix is to eliminate the live loop through the door. The modification to the red/black wires will cure 90% of locking faults, and it is not necessary, or desirable, to dismantle the door hinge pillar plugs and sockets to do so. All the work can be done through the speaker hole.
Note that Cabriolets have a slightly different wiring arrangement, for some reason known only to the E30's original designers, and you will have three red/black wires to connect together.

Copied from the wiki, and I think copied from somewhere else to there! All looks very familiar!

This mod. should be done on all E30s, whether or not they have central locking problems, but it won't help with your specific problem.
From your description of the symptoms, I think you already really know the answer - remove thirty years worth of hardened grease from the linkage, etc., and re lubricate.
There is an alloy L shaped piece which swivels on the end of the driver's door lock barrel which may be partly seized, or badly worn where it engages with the mechanism. The part is available as a component of a door lock repair kit to do the job properly, or the steel forks it engages with can be bent slightly closer together to compensate for the wear.
The locking on the driver's door is operated by a switch inside the lock motor, so slack in the linkage mechanism can easily result in the central locking not operating.
The passenger door unlocks in a similar way, but is locked by a microswitch attached to a plate behind the lock barrel. This doesn't usually give trouble, but the reasons may be obvious when you inspect it.
I'd recommend fitting a 20GBP remote locking kit, (Rightclick) so that the key can be semi retired, taking the strain off of the mechanism.

[Scotty200]

Thanks for the advice Brian, looks like I've made myself more work on the old girl

[BenHar]

This page: http://www.billswebspace.com/BMWE30Door ... ebuild.htm

has good pictures of the door lock rebuild.

Ben