Astro Van worsening electrical gremlins

This is a 2001 Astro Van with about 60k miles that is displaying increasingly unreliable performance with the power door locks, power windows and rear cargo door latch.

It started some time ago -- maybe as long ago as 18 months -- with the rear cargo door latch. Basically, you'd have to push it two to four times before it would successfully unlock the door. It would click, but it was like it wouldn't move enough to totally unlatch it.

Then, the passenger side window stopped going down reliably. It will move a few inches, then stop. If you wait several seconds and push the button again, it will go down a bit more, etc. It appears that the longer you wait between pushes, the more it goes down with each push, but it never goes down more than a few inches at a time.

Finally, the power door locks stopped working for all doors. Like the rear latch, you can hear stuff clicking in each door, but the locks don't move enough to actually lock.

As for the rear cargo door, it also got worse as time went by and now it won't open at all, no matter how much you fiddle with it.

There are no more problems with power accessories that I'm aware of.

All the fuses in the fuse box check OK.

My guess is all of this is related. I'm horrible about just living with little problems until they become big problems.

Anyway, any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Reply to
midwestmotocross
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's at least possible that all of the problems are completely unrelated. The passenger window could just have a tired motor (or dry, binding tracks) BUT, it's at least possible that the door lock and passenger window problems are related, and due to worn wires in the bundle that enters the drivers door.

Power window power for the passenger side is routed through the switch in the drivers door, as is the power for the door locks.

The rear tailgate problem is different. First -- will it open with the key? If so, the solenoid is OK and there's an electrical problem between somewhere between the switch and the door (good luck) . If not, it could still be a bad solenoid, but I'd probably suspect mis-adjusted latch mechanism(s).

Let us know what you find,

Mark

1994 Astro with 270K miles
Reply to
Mark Sparge

My first thought when reading the OP was that the symptoms seemed quite related. I think I'd have the BCM investigated.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:1154521952.152203.83250 @i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Was there a chance this van was in a flood? Perhaps the relays are bad.

Reply to
grappletech

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, that might be. My core of experience comes from a '94 Astro, which was pre-BCM.

Thanks for the update.

Mark

Reply to
Mark Sparge

Don't rush to thank my thinking - it was a stab.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

There's certainly a chance. It is a 2001 that was bought used in 2003 from a dealer with about 35k on it. They didn't say it was in a flood, and I didn't know what to look for -- is there anything I could check for that?

If it helps, all the issues have gotten progressively worse. In other words, the switches, etc., didn't just go bad. They started to take one or two extra attempts to actuate until they just click but don't make anything happen.

The more I think about it and the more I research it a bit, I'm wondering if perhaps the power window motor is unrelated (it seems like those do go bad on these from time to time and exhibit the symptoms that mine has) but that the door locks are.

Reply to
midwestmotocross

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