# the power locks



## nagal (Feb 13, 2003)

the power locks dont work on my maxima and i hate. When ever ppl get into my car i have to unlock there doors. i know it sounds stupid but if i could avoid it i would like to? does any body know anything?
:banana:


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## Slurppie (Oct 15, 2002)

It would help if you could tell us what you have checked so far such as fuses etc.


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## nismo1989 (Jan 13, 2003)

nagal said:


> *the power locks dont work on my maxima and i hate. When ever ppl get into my car i have to unlock there doors. i know it sounds stupid but if i could avoid it i would like to? does any body know anything?
> :banana: *


It's likely that it's caused by a short in a wire or something like that. Maximas are plagued with wiring and electric problems...

clock 
window regulators
power locks
alarms

they all fry eventually. Start with fuses, then check wires and silinoids...


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## Engloid (Jul 7, 2002)

mine does the same thing. I was told it was something that's behind the steering wheel...but I forgot what exactly it is, and havn't gotten around to fixing it yet.


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## Engloid (Jul 7, 2002)

I found the problem...it's very common.

Pull the panel from under the steering wheel. Above your right knee is a black box that the wires from the ignition switch go to. It's a timer for the door locks. There's 2 harness plugs going to it and 2 screws holding the bracket on..take them out and box will come out. The internal card in the box will come out the end with connectors. Pull it out.

Then if you look on the bottom, all the solder joints are exposed. Get a pointed soldering iron and heat them all back up to ensure good connection. 

On mine, I could look on the end near the plugs, and there was a spot with 2 rows of about 6 joints...and 2-3 of them looked like they had little or no solder added originally. I dabbed a bit more on there and the door locks work now.

There's a guy on another forum that will fix them for $30+shipping...what the heck...I'll do it for that also if you don't want to do the soldering.


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## igh2003 (Jun 14, 2004)

*I think I have the same problem*

Engloid,
I have a keypad entry system and my power locks sometimes work and sometimes don't. when they don't work from the keypad they also don't work from the switch inside the door. It appears to be some kind of intermitency - the problem is usually worse when the weather becomes warmer.
Do your remarks pertain to a '93 maxima?

By the way, my (original) radio also has a similar problem in that usually just one of the four active speakers work when I start the car, then a few minutes later the rest come alive as well as the power antena. Thinking that's it's the radio I intend to purchase and install a new one.
Any comments?

Thanks



Engloid said:


> I found the problem...it's very common.
> 
> Pull the panel from under the steering wheel. Above your right knee is a black box that the wires from the ignition switch go to. It's a timer for the door locks. There's 2 harness plugs going to it and 2 screws holding the bracket on..take them out and box will come out. The internal card in the box will come out the end with connectors. Pull it out.
> 
> ...


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## xander51 (Jun 15, 2004)

*power door locks*

 I too am having a problem with my power door locks. I have a '92 SE. I am afraid to lock my car now too! All this because the locks will work some days and not others. (its quite annoying/embarrassing going through my trunk with a golf club to pry the back seats lock up outside of my job). So i don't lock my doors anymore.... which sucks big time. 

SOOO i got annoyed one day and went out to the car to figure out this problem. I too would hear a clicking sound when i tried using my locks from the switch inside my car. The sound came from where your right knee would be if you were sitting in the driver's seat. I unscrewed the bottom of the dash there and took it off. The thing making the clicking noise was a small grey box. It had TWO connecters going directly into it. SO i fiddled around with the wires a bit. And after just moving the wires around the locks started working when i used the switch. Im guessing its the wiring down there thats causin all this.

I unplugged both wires and unscrewed the little grey box. Took it inside for a closer inspection. I pryed it open CAREFULLY to find a small circuit board. Now I have already looked up fixes for this door lock problem....some suggest to resolder points on this board....so i tryed that..( i didnt think i would do anything cause it all looked fine to me)..it didnt help any.... 

went back outside hooked it up and it didnt change a thing.... It must be one of the TWO connectors. (one connector is large and white and resides on the right of the box..and the other one is a smaller black one which is to the left of it) I'm pretty damn sure its the "smaller" black connector. It must not be hookin up right. The only reason i know this is because when i just shift the wires going into this connector..only then will the locks work. Of course that isn't a fix.

So I'm just stuck as to what to do now...
Could i find another connector and replace it by snippin the ends of those wires???
Is there another way to connect the wires to the port with out the use of the connector???


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

I'm still 99% sure your problem is the solder points on the door lock timer. I fix them for $35, and have done about 50 of them so far. every single one of them has had a few bad solder points on them, as well as some have had a few fried resistors.

The reason it works after you wiggle the connections is that it causes the solder joints on the board to make contact again for a short time..

as for the original poster of this thread (which was over a year ago!), the '89 does not have the door lock timer. they started that system in late '90 or early '91, so the 89s and some 90s don't have the door lock timer. after that, the problem with imtermittent power locks is the timer 99.5% of the time.


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## xander51 (Jun 15, 2004)

So these solder points are located on the little circuit board right? Like the back of the board? Is there any special technique you do to get this done? I would really like to get my locks working ASAP.

The first time i simply tryed reheating the all of the points ( i dono if that would do anything ), and on some where it didnt look like there was a lot of solder I dabbed a bit more on. Perhaps I'm missing something here...

All the help so far and any future help is greatly appreciated.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

it takes a bit more experience in soldering than that.. you'll need to remove the old solder from the bad joints and reflow new solder into them.


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## mike92gxe (Nov 28, 2003)

Matt93SE said:


> it takes a bit more experience in soldering than that.. you'll need to remove the old solder from the bad joints and reflow new solder into them.


Matt hooked me up, well worth the $ to get those locks fixed.


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