Door lock mechanism - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

97 Boxster · 06-29-2010, 06:32 AM

OK, so here is the latest.

When I get into my car and turn the key my door lock button on the dash lights up automatically and the "system" is set. While the car is running I have to push the toggle switch a few times to get it to the "unlock" mode. The interesting thing is that when I am in the car with it running and the doors locked if I toggle the switch to get it to the "unlock" mode the lights flash and the alarm (double horn) sounds.

I should also say that when I open the passenger door the interior lights turn on like they should. The drivers door when opened does not kick the lights on. Any thoughts??

One last item is that my drivers door window does not go down when opened and so you cant close the door without lowering the window with the switch then closing the door and raising the window.

This is really bugging me. HELP!!

sb01box · 07-08-2010, 07:44 PM

this reply is of no help to you at the moment, but my 2001 is having the same problem with the passenger side.
Based on searching this forum, it sounds like the door mechanism has gone bad.
Behavior of my car.
The door lock LED on the switch would come on and off and if I try pressing the console switch when the LED is on, the horn would beep twice and the lights would flash.
It was not too bad with just the horn, other than the car beeping when I open the trunk, but now the window does not drop fully and at times would go go fully up with the door opened and the window top hits the frame of the convertible when the door is shut. the door does not shut properly if the window is not down.
I have taken the door panel off and found that the harness connected to the door latch mechanism when wiggled would modulate the window up and down as though the door is being open and closed.
I can't find any fault on the harness and the corresponding pins on the door mechanism appear to be solid. So I'm guessing that when the harness is wiggled, a mechanical movement within the door mechanism is inducing short/open on the switch sense line(s)
I need to get hold of 8 mm tripple square wrench to loosen the two bolts so that I can pull the mechanism out of the door for examination and replacement.

good luck in finding the source of your problem.

Tad

chaudanova · 07-09-2010, 02:29 PM

Had the same problem a while ago... Most likely culprit is that your door lock microswitch (of of few) is toast... I'd suspect the microswitch that is in the door latch... That's the one that did the trick for me..

sb01box · 07-09-2010, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaudanova

Had the same problem a while ago... Most likely culprit is that your door lock microswitch (of of few) is toast... I'd suspect the microswitch that is in the door latch... That's the one that did the trick for me..

I took the mechanism apart and found cold solder joint between the printed wiring board and the connector. Reflow solder and it's back to normal. Mind you that my unit behaved erratically when the harness/connector was wiggled.

If you encounter similar situation, you may want to open the unit up and see. an hour of labor saved me $$$
here's a photo of the printed wiring board

Jinster · 11-08-2010, 08:06 PM

sb01box, before you fixed it, did you have problem with the door unlocking itself?

I too have the "wiggle the harness" problem - my windows would go up and down with it. I didn't open DLM up. I just secured the harness with lots of cable ties. This has fixed the erratic window not dropping problem.

But my door automatic unlocking problem remains. I don't have alarm/remote.

I can't lock the passenger side door from the driver side.

The driver door would automatically unlock if I try to lock it.

sparker · 11-09-2010, 01:35 PM

I had the 'wiggle-the-harness' lock issue, appears it was just a matter of re-routing the wires to the lock mechanism. They were squashed between the door frame and that metal bracket that is bolted in by the three or four 10mm bolts. As soon as I un-squashed them and put them in a more sensible path, the problem seems to have gone!

Will keep the solder joint issue in mind though. Makes me laugh how so many of us are going through exactly the same strange problem though!
Sam

Jinster · 12-02-2010, 02:24 AM

Ok, my door auto unlocking is in fact due to broken wires on the passenger door side - detailed in my other thread.

Back to the driver side "wiggle" DLM socket/plug phenomenon, my cable tie solution started to fail after a few weeks. So I decided to do what sb01box did - open the DLM and re-solder those joints.

But I got lucky.

Instead of opening the DLM, I tried heating those joints by applying the soldering iron to the pins through the socket on the DLM. All the while having faith that the solder on the joints would melt and re-solidify without me seeing any of it happening.

And it worked! No more window problem and "wiggle DLM socket to fix" phenomenon!

Of course, anyone with some soldering experience knows that you don't need to apply the iron directly to the solder joint to melt it. The challenge (and luck) here is to make sure when the solder re-solidifies, it holds the pin to the circuit board rather than forming a ball on the pin and comes off the circuit board completely.

Credit goes to sb01box who thought of opening the DLM to re-solder everything in the first place. That was my intention today until I got lucky.

seningen · 12-14-2010, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sb01box

I took the mechanism apart and found cold solder joint between the printed wiring board and the connector. Reflow solder and it's back to normal. Mind you that my unit behaved erratically when the harness/connector was wiggled.

If you encounter similar situation, you may want to open the unit up and see. an hour of labor saved me $$$
here's a photo of the printed wiring board

Where do you find this -- is this inside the door panel?

thanks,

mike

sb01box · 12-15-2010, 05:45 PM

seningen,
The pwb is in the door lock mechanism. The harness connector attaches to a mating connector that is soldered to the PWB.
I was going to buy a new mechanism, so decided to take it apart. For my car, this was the root cause.
If you plan to take it apart, be aware of jigsaw puzzle-like assembly of the door mechanism.
I think the original message has some photos and here's one of the broken solder joint