1994 Pathfinder doors that lock themselves, security system?

[bathbinder]

Aside from celebrating that the Mayans were wrong about the world ending today, I'm going crazy trying to figure out a wiring/security/bad design thing. I have a 1994 Pathfinder XE, 5 speed (though I don't see how it matters for this). The doors lock automatically, though i can't figure out a pattern to it.

 

If I'm driving, pull out my key and close the doors, it locks. (ok) If I unlock the door by key, turning it twice, it unlocks all the doors.. than a second later re-locks them all. If i do it again, they stay unlocked. If I unlock it from inside, 50% of the time they all unlock, the other half of the time they re-lock themselves. On my E-brake handle I have a switch for security- one way is on, other is off and middle senses impact. the LED doesn't light up on it no matter where it is, and it doesn't seem to affect the locking.

 

Where would i start looking? I'd love to make it NOT lock by itself, ever. I'd like to be in charge of my car as opposed to being locked out. Help?

[Slartibartfast]

Welcome to my world, man. The first thing to do is to get a spare key.

 

I don't think it's the security system. Some solder joint somewhere, probably in one of the doors (perhaps for the actuators) is cracked, or the little sliders around the lock are shot, or something. I've tried pulling the lock timer out of mine and re-soldering it (worth a shot if you've got a soldering iron, and dead simple to get to) but it didn't fix the problem.

 

Blowing powdered graphite into the door locks from the outside makes it trip out worse. Don't do that. (This is why I think the sliding contacts that tell it to unlock everything when you twist the key twice are knackered). I tried that on mine... now the lock actuator actually fights me sometimes when I go to unlock it. Then again it acts up more when cold, so it may well be a solder joint issue.

 

I'll let you know if I ever get mine figured out!

[Trogdor636]

My buddies 93 was doing the same thing and I thought it was the lock timer as well. We pulled it, swapped mine in, and it still did it. It ended up being a plastic tab on the rod that runs from the lock cylinder to the latch itself. Snagged a JY one (though I would get one from a dealer if thats the problem, I just happened to have one) put it in and now it works perfect. I've also seen a lock cylinder itself half cracked that made one kind of act the same way.

[bathbinder]

Where is the lock timer? My drivers side door lock is screwed up, i can't unlock it with the key, it feels stiff than just spins without unlocking. Maybe this is part of the problem. I have the factory security system, but no remote-- Its kind of a pain to get locked out, walk around the car, unlock it, then either crawl over the center console or run around the car again I get the feeling people just follow me to get a good laugh at this point.

 

Kind of a side note, but has anyone replaced the factory key fob with an aftermarket one? I want to get one hooked up to my factory alarm to be able to get in with keyless entry, it seems easier (and probably even cheaper) than replacing the door lock and having it re-keyed. If anyone had the alarm manual it would be a huge help, too. I have parts of different manuals in the glove box from the lady I got it from, but most are torn up and the rest are pretty mangled.

[Trogdor636]

That's exactly what his was doing. Its been common on all the D21's and the WD21 I've owned. Its the little plastic tab that breaks off. Its sort of a pain to deal with the first time, but I've been in and fixed them before so its easy now. I had an aftermarket fob and it worked fine but it buy a OEM one, they are like 30 bucks on EBay. The aftermarket one I had would have to be reprogrammed if the battery died.

[Slartibartfast]

The lock timer is behind the driver's side panel in the cargo area. It's a little grey box and it should even be labeled 'lock timer.'

 

Huh... my lock seems fine mechanically, but I'll have to check out this little tab.

 

Its kind of a pain to get locked out, walk around the car, unlock it, then either crawl over the center console or run around the car again

Could be worse, a friend of mine drives an Astro with a busted driver's door handle... he crawls in from the passenger side every time he gets in!

[Trogdor636]

My buddies would unlock with a key, unless you disconnected the door lock timer. The physical part of the lock would not work because that little tab was broken. Follow the rod from the lock cylinder down by the latch. There is a little white plastic piece that blocks the piece you need. There is a little tab that slides up and down within that little white piece that has a tab that connects to the door latch itself. There is also a little piece that slides into the tab that makes it expand for lack of a better term, its easy to lose. Its really hard to explain until you get in and do it. I should have taken pictures but we were in a rush to get it done and move on to fixing his alarm brain at the time.

[silverton]

My truck had this same issue. the fuses for the security brain box were blown, they are tucked under the carpet under the driver seat near the brain box.

Edited December 23, 2012 by silverton

[ahardb0dy]

I recently pulled my door lock timer (94 also) and resoldered a few connections that I guess I resoldered before and locks have been fine since.

 

here is a link to a thread I made showing the timer and where it is:

 

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/34301-wd21-door-lock-timer/

Edited December 23, 2012 by ahardb0dy

[RF600]

Mine acts up only if the passengers side is activated from the inside. If you push the knob down the doors will lock. I can try and use the master unlock and it will unlock, until the passenger tries to open the door. All the doors will lock again. I guess I will have to take off the panel and check it out.

[Canuck]

In my 95 Pathfinder with power door locks I had an issue with door locks that would lock themselves, while I was trying to unlock the driver side door, particularly in cold weather. When I tried to reopen it with a key, from the outside, it was actually fighting me twisting the key out of my hand.

 

Now here in Alberta it can get really cold while I am way out in the woods deer hunting, and when it was below -10 all the doors would lock if the driver door was slammed shut. I had to carry 2 spare keys one in my wallet and one extra one in my pant pocket. No dealer shop was able to fix this.

 

The service manual had no advise for it either. I even contacted Nissan headquarters trying to find a solution, for a person can easily freeze to death, if locked out in bitter cold far from any place to warm up. Nobody had an answer.

 

But recently my driver side lock cylinder suddenly stopped fighting, it had broken and was spinning 360 degrees without any resistance, and did not unlock anything. I went to a local wrecker and pulled out a cylinder from another '95 pathy, I then took it to a locksmith who said he would rekey it to match my car key, and would install it for about a 100 bucks.

 

I let him do it, but he soon called me into the shop, he had discovered a nylon sending unit clipped to the cylinder that broke during unmounting. He wondered whether I would go to get another one, and explained that the lock will work with the key from the outside to mechanically open this door, and once open, the switch in the arm rest would, if pushed, unlock all the other doors. The manual push button or the same switch could be pushed before the door is closed and all doors would lock. So really there was no urgent need to replace the broken nylon clip. This clip has a wire coming out one end which is connected to the door switch circuit. He just disconnected it, and gave it to me.

 

Well, my fights with this stupid power door switch that would always try to lock me out are finally over, for good!

 

I only wish, that cylinder would have broken 18 years ago!

Edited April 29, 2013 by Canuck

[ahardb0dy]

The plastic part with the wire that mounts to (clips to) the outer part of the lock cylinder is what triggers the rest of the door locks to unlock.lock, their is also a plastic part on the end of the lock cylinder. When you turn the key the two plastic parts ( with metal inside) line up closing the circuit and trigger the lock/unlock.

 

Most likely there is a problem with your door lock timer, before the lock cylinder sensor broke, random unlocking/locking is usually caused by bad solder connections on the board in the door lock timer. I started another thread previously about the timer that you can find here -

 

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/34301-wd21-door-lock-timer/

 

Pic below:

 

 

You can see it here too, it's black in this picture:

 

Edited April 29, 2013 by ahardb0dy