[Jinster]

I have had this problem for a while now. I will try to describe this in detail. The car is a 97 Tip without alarm or remote modules.

Initially - and I don't know if this is related - the driver's side window will not stay slightly lowered after the door opens. But pulling on the door handle both inside or out does lower it so I have been pulling on the door handle to lower the window to close the door to avoid hitting the window against the top frame for a few months. That problem is gone spontaneously now. And at about the same time, the new problem started:

Driver's side:

I can't lock the doors from the driver's side.

If I try turning the key once on the driver's side, the doors (including the fuel door) would lock, and then all three doors would automatically unlock straight away within the same mechanical sequence (I hear the mechanism's locking sounds, straight away followed by unlocking sounds).

If I try to emergency lock on the driver's side by turning the key three times, the driver's side and the fuel door would stay locked, but the passenger side is not locked at all. Also, the doors can be opened from the interior door handle if locked with the triple turn like this (I don't know if this point normal, never did it when the car was working fine).


Passenger's side:

If I try to single turn lock from the passenger's side, all three doors would lock and then straight away unlock much like if I tried to lock from the driver's side.

I can, however, lock all three doors successfully if I emergency triple turn lock on the passenger side. If locked this way, I can unlock all three doors normally from the passenger's side. But if I unlock from the driver's side, the passenger door would stay locked from the outside and the central locking switch light would stay lit as I drive the car. The passenger door can be unlocked via the interior handle.



I am completely baffled. I need some thoughts as to the logic of what is happening. I can't think of a sensor or actuator failure that could single-handedly lead to such symptoms...

What exactly is emergency lock anyway? I assume it was designed to bypass some circuits or mechanism which may be faulty to make locking possible in an emergency situation in case of component failure. But what exactly is bypassed?

Also, the fact emergency lock works on the passenger side would seem to suggest that the actuators on boths sides are working properly (unless emergency lock doesn't actually use actuators?).

The fact that emergency lock on driver's side doesn't work may suggest some sort of one-way communication failure between the driver's side and passenger's side, but what could that be?

I think it may well come down to the mechanism that'is actually involved in emergency locking. Part of it may have failed. If you guesstimate the emergency lock to be a "skeleton system", the most basic system, the simplest electromechanical pathway to lock the doors then this would account for the higher functions of normal single turn lock not working on both sides too. The question then remains, which electromechanical parts are actually involved in the emergency lock pathway?

Anyone have any thoughts on the situation at all?

I plan on opening up the doors to have a lock, but it would help if I know where I should be looking at.