Power lock issues with 2011 Sport

[thaefner97]

I have a 2011 Ranger sport trim. Today the door locks started acting up. The locks act normally with the fob no matter the scenario. When you try to open the driver door only, both doors try to lock. After this happens while the driver door is open, the lock button on both doors will not function, however the unlock button will. As soon as the door is closed again, both lock buttons function normally. Also when both doors are closed and you press the lock button, the dome light flashes. The dome light will stay on when you hold the lock button in. This is quite possibly the strangest problem I’ve encountered. Not sure if there is some sort of interior control module that could be failing? Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Usually with weird/wacky electrical with little reasonable explanation... poor ground.

G200 is behind the left kick panel by the park brake.

No doubt in my mind that would be the first place I look.

 

[sgtsandman]

As a guess, since I haven't heard about this on a Ranger, I would look at the wire bundle going through to the door having an open in a wire or a couple of them. It was a thing on Honda CR-Vs. The wire in that area would flex and fail over time. From your description, it sounds like the issue the CR-Vs had. The wires would be in contact when the door is closed but open when the door is open. The kicker is that the wire sheathing was still intact. So you couldn't see which wires were the offending wires from just looking at them. I think the procedure was to do some power and ground checks while flexing the wire to figure out which ones were bad. Also, not a great area to work in and splice wires either but it can be done.

 

[RobbieD]

As a guess, since I haven't heard about this on a Ranger, I would look at the wire bundle going through to the door having an open in a wire or a couple of them. It was a thing on Honda CR-Vs. The wire in that area would flex and fail over time. From your description, it sounds like the issue the CR-Vs had. The wires would be in contact when the door is closed but open when the door is open. The kicker is that the wire sheathing was still intact. So you couldn't see which wires were the offending wires from just looking at them. I think the procedure was to do some power and ground checks while flexing the wire to figure out which ones were bad. Also, not a great area to work in and splice wires either but it can be done.

Good advice. Very common problem, especially with age. The conductor (copper wire itself) breaks inside the plastic insulation so it's tough to pinpoint.

A good quick test is to operate the item (windows, locks) as you open and close the door, and wiggle the door harness with the door open (again while you're operating the item).

More involved, is to open the door harness (remove the wire bundles' covering), and flex each wire; if one has a break or fray in one of the wires in a lot of cases it will bend at one obvious point instead of bending in smooth arc (with a broken conductor inside the wire bends like a gate swinging).

To repair a break or fray properly, you'll have to pull the harness out of the door anyway, so that you can splice in a good section of wire well before and well after the flexing section between the cowl and door. A splice in the flex area will work for a while, but it will inevitably fail.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I was looking at my 06 EVTM when I made my response to check G200 first. I did that because the OP stated keyless entry system works regardless of door position... and only has an issue with the switches. The switches use G200 to signal the smart junction block when a lock or unlock switch activation occurs. G200 has nothing to do with the lock actuators... both sides of the lock actuators are connected to ground through the normally closed contacts of the lock and unlock relays and use G205. Since the system operates normally with keyless... I made the assumption that all wiring from relays to lock actuators is good. The fact that the dome light comes on with the lock switch... makes me think somehow there is a sneak path to ground through the dome lamp bulb.

I just know the first thing I would check is G200.

 

[Uncle Gump]

These are from my 06 EVTM...

I'm not positive... but I think 2011 is at least very similar. The keyless schematics are the same as the door lock schematics.

 

[sgtsandman]

It looks like they changed some stuff other than wire colors. The component symbols are different. I'll work on scanning the schematics and uploading them here.

 

[sgtsandman]

Here are the 2011 schematics