The car is almost at the end of its life so a quick bodge will suffice. When trying to lock the car all the locks come up again. When the ignition is on, the red warning light indicating that something is still open comes on. I've double-checked and slammed everything but no luck. Is it possible to remove a fuse and revert to manual locking? Any other ideas?
Another Dave
In message , Another Dave writes
Check that the interior handles aren't sticking out slightly. This happens to my 99 Bravo sometimes, the handle on the drivers door sticks slightly, sometimes causing this symptom.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been out and tried all the interior handles. No luck I'm afraid.
Another Dave
Could try a liberal dosing of WD40 throught the moving door catch mechanics. Sometimes the latch/pawl does not return fully home and this causes the solenoid to signal a problem.
If this doesn't work then it is an interior door panel off job so one can actually access the door lock internal linkages to lubricate and check for correct operation. After that one is down to looking for broken wires in the door jam areas. Common problem on older cars as the wires eventually fatigue and fracture due to all the flexing with door opening and closing. Start looking on the drivers door as this is most likely to be the culprit. You can also disconnect the solenoid connectors to revert to 'manual' mode on a door by door basis.
As for disconnecting the whole central locking it can be done but I don't know the location and wiring of the central locking ECU for your vehicle.
Nick /////
Thanks for for all the info but talking about it coming to the end of its life seems to have scared the car into behaving itself again - although I had to take it to the tip (en route to Tesco) to finally convince it. If it happens again I'll do what you suggest.
Another Dave
Hopefully a long lived success! I hate it when one is finally driven to spending time and effort into investigating a problem only to have the problem disappear before one is able to apply the long lived and sought after information.
Fingers crossed
Nick /////
Nick ///// wrote in news:4640e158$0$8759$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net:
Had exact same problem on my old marea, Its an eay fix - just take the bulb out of the boot light.
On these mk 2 mareas and brava/os post 2000 ish, theres a safety feature on the central locking preventing the doors from locking if any of them are open. Detection is through the interior light circuits.
Any load on the courtesy light cuircuits and the central locking will pop open all your locks within a second of you turning the key to lock them.
There are TWO seperate courtesy light circuits, one for the 4 passenger doors and one for the boot light. If your interior courtesy lights are working properly the fault must be with the boot light.
It's a simple enough task to trace the wiring from the microswitch on the boot lock stricker to the boot lamp and check for damage. Although the bulb holder is a poorly designed thing without any shrouding around the contacts and is probably the culprit. If the live feed shorts the fuse blows, no boot lamp no problem but if the return wire shorts it will place a load on the circuit and confuse the central locking to thinking the boot is open.
It's even more confusing because the boot lamp itself goes out automaticaly after 10 minutes or so so there's way you can just look through the rear seats and check if the light is on. don't ask me ask FIAT.
If a problem can't be found and rectified, the simple answer is to remove the bulb from the boot lamp. Without a bulb there won't be a load and without a load the doors will lock. Simple.
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