Classic Central unlocking.

Buttercup has always been a bit hit and miss with the central locking. When I turn the key in the drivers lock to unlock everything works as it should, all doors are unlocked fine.
But about 8 times out of 10 when locking the passenger side rear door needs to be opened and locked by hand on the button, then I shut the door and everything is secure.
On a fairly regular basis all other doors decide not to play.
All door cards have been off many times, new (chinky I guess) actuators have been fitted and seem to work for a while, I have fitted new door buttons and housings, and that seemed to work for a while.
It don't seem to make any difference with the state of charge of the battery either.

Anyway, that's the long story over, I have found a supplier of quality HD actuators which are reasonably priced at just shy of £9 each. They are advertised as having an actuating force of 10 kilos, if I fit these am I going to cock something else up?
https://www.altecautomotive.co.uk/c...avy-duty-br10kg-forcebr-alts2802-1-6173-p.asp

Probably.

Take pics

RangeRoller dt said:

Probably.

Take pics

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Take pics he says, you know it took me 3 hours today to work out how to put the date and time on my photo's.
I was taking shots of things like engine number, body condition etc to apply to have Buttercup listed within the Froggy system as a collectors vehicle. Nearly tore all the legs off my teddy with that one. Google came to the rescue when I gave up trying to diy it. Feckin digital feckin cameras.

Smartphone does away with that. Have their own issues though.

I’m only joking anyway, pics of calamity’s always the bestest ones. my hidden sinicism was that 10kg seems a lot
Gotta be worth a try at the price

Date and time will should be on property’s on your pc...
And yep smartphone... lol

mikieman said:

Date and time will should be on property’s on your pc...
And yep smartphone... lol

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That is exactly why I spent soooo much time faffing about trying to get the dates on the photo's I had taken. For sure if I was "helping" police with their enquiries, the tame pointy head would get it in seconds, or the other option would be to get a 12 year old to do it for me. Unfortunately I am just a complete plank with tech stuff, I also suffer from over confidence that I can do anything. Like how hard can it be?? I'll just do this and then I'll be sorted !!!!!!!!! DUH.

Finally had time to have a fettle with my central unlocking, door panel off, change actuator, find out locating screws are in a different place, drill mounting plate, refit new actuator, and still wont work.
Did some faffing about and found the following, after I'd thought to check the electrics.
Battery('s) at rest show 12.3 / 12.4 volt.
Door will not lock - other 3 lock fine.
Start engine, batteries show 13.7 volt.
All doors lock fine.
Switch off engine, after 5 minutes, batteries show 13.3 volt.
All doors lock fine.
After 10 minutes, batteries show 12.7 volt.
Door will not lock, others are fine.
Then thought to have a play with my multi-meter, bearing in mind there is only a pulse through the system making it hard to read the meter, I found.
Unplug the connection and fit meter probes, engine off, activate drivers door lock, getting a reading of between 4.6 and 5.2 volt.
Start the engine, and get a reading between 4.9 and 5.5 volt.

OK, so I have no idea what the expected voltage would be to the actuators, but it is obvious that with the engine running, the slight increase in power to the actuator is enough to make it work as it should. Am I even using the meter correctly? I don't have a clue. As far as I know power comes direct from the battery via fuses to the door looms, is there anything there I could check? All fuses have been removed, checked, cleaned, and given a smear of vasaline before re-fitting into the fuse board this morning, I also gave the fuse board the good news with contact cleaner first.

Is your battery in the meter seen better days perhaps?

frog hopper said:

I was taking shots of things like engine number, body condition etc to apply to have Buttercup listed within the Froggy system as a collectors vehicle. Nearly tore all the legs off my teddy with that one. Google came to the rescue when I gave up trying to diy it. Feckin digital feckin cameras.

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I empathise with you as a fellow technophobe
My approach is simple … 1) get other half to take pics with ipad 2) email pics to me 3) upload said pics to whatever, for example onto 'for sale' section on this forum.
My digital camera has gathered dust in the drawer for years

RangeRoller dt said:

Is your battery in the meter seen better days perhaps?

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Battery changed fairly recently thanks.

Could there be any breaks in the wires passing between the door and the door pillar?

Mark Piercy said:

Could there be any breaks in the wires passing between the door and the door pillar?

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I don't think so, I mean I gave the flexy a bit of a squeeze and flex about, it felt alright but I don't suppose that proved anything.
Pants. Now I suppose your going to say take it apart and look at the loom arn't you?

frog hopper said:

Pants. Now I suppose your going to say take it apart and look at the loom arn't you?

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Well the weekend is coming! , unless you compare results with the opposite door? Have you tried locking and unlocking with the door in various stages of its swing..

^^^ is the common one with classics - wire deteriorated somewhere along the line

Check where the wires are crimped into the terminals (at the plugs) for corrosion if the copper is black they may be high resistance . Testing the voltage pulse at the doors with a multimeter will not give an accurate result as it is too short a duration.

Mark Piercy said:

Well the weekend is coming! , unless you compare results with the opposite door? Have you tried locking and unlocking with the door in various stages of its swing..

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UMMM not on purpose no, but over the time I've been faffing about probably have. I'll have a go at that tomorrow though.

RangeRoller dt said:

^^^ is the common one with classics - wire deteriorated somewhere along the line

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I did wonder about that myself, so I snipped off the connector and bared enough to crimp into new terminals, wire was in surprisingly good order, all bright and shiny.

PaulJM said:

Check where the wires are crimped into the terminals (at the plugs) for corrosion if the copper is black they may be high resistance . Testing the voltage pulse at the doors with a multimeter will not give an accurate result as it is too short a duration.

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Thanks for that, I did wonder (being the tech wizard that I am) if I was getting a true reading. As said above copper in good condition, at least just before the old connector.

They may look okay but can burn out in a tiny space somewhere inside. You could run fly wires or try continuity over large a run as possible
Will be easy if you’ve already chopped the connector off

RangeRoller dt said:

They may look okay but can burn out in a tiny space somewhere inside. You could run fly wires or try continuity over large a run as possible
Will be easy if you’ve already chopped the connector off

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Once the door loom - if that's the right description - goes into the B pillar, where does it go from there? I'm guessing it's in the bleedin roof, and thats one of the good bits, don't want to disturb that.