Central locking problems - Finally a solution! PICS added.
After 1 year of problems with locking my car, I found something. I have searched the net everywhere, but the only thing I found was this: "Ford Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 05-10-21 says to clean any corrosion from the door latch connectors, then pack them full of dielectric grease."
But it did not work.
My problems with locking/ unlocking:
Happens when the weather is cold and/or moist.
Central locking doesn't work on the driver's door either with a key or remote.
I can open all doors with a key in the passenger's door.
Sometimes I hear a click from the doors, after 5 minutes from a cold start.
My exploring led to this solution:
I unplugged the driver's door latch plug. All 3 other doors suddenly worked.
Focus central locking works like this. There are 2 tiny wires controlling the locks. One is for lock and one for unlock. When one of these wires gets earthed it locks/ unlocks. But these wires never get earthed at the SAME time.
So I used my voltmeter a bit. WTF! Both wires were earned. A SHORT CIRCUIT in my driver's door latch. [ohcrap]
So I wanted to have a little fun. I unplugged the latch plug-in driver's door. Then I short-circuit these two wires myself to simulate how the car would respond.
The car responded exactly as described over, but nothing worked. It even made this click sound when i took away the short circuit. Hurray!
What would you do if your wife told you to go left and right at the same time? Nothing right? That's what happens when you give a signal to the car to lock/ unlock at the same time.
So now I have the biggest problem left. To either buy a new latch or take it out of the door to clean it. The short circuit inside is probably by water or dirt.
Tonight i sat in my car ready to take out the central lock mechanisim when i noticed it was full of water. I was raining a lot. Looks like the water is going through the water strip at the bottom of the window. The window has a edge below where water i dripping from, and this edge is right over the central lock mechanism. It's dripping right at the electrical power plug for the central lock motor. Bummer FORD!!!
Is my waterstrip worn out? And is it easy to change it?
Is it normal with water inside the doors?
This explains my short circuit, because i only have problems when it rains.
Any help would be great.
Here are pictures. First picture is most important. Look how wet it gets. The one in the middle is taken from top where the window goes inside the door. In the right picture i have dried the central lock mechanism out with paper.
The window 'edge' is not a water tight seal. It is designed to encourage water to channel away. That being said. If you are getting a lot of water inside the door (and it looks like you are) then that is a problem only solved by having the strip replaced OR there is also the possibility that the window guides are worn so that the window is no longer snug against the strip. Does your window bind at all when your raise/lower it?
It looks like the water strip is binding closely to the window. Exept for 1 inch at the rear part of window have a tiny clearance. But even where the strip looks tight, i can see water going trough it watching it from the inside.
It might be my fault because in the winter i am very lazy scraping ice of my windows. I push the window down button instead, using my weather strip as a ice remover [sleeping]. So maybe its this habbit that causes the strip wear down?
My central lock has worked fine for a month now. Even when its raining or are cold.
What i found after cleaning the lock mechanism was that it has a microswitch like in your PC mouse buttoms. In picture you see the black switch with the red dot on it. This red dot is a water proof rubber seal for the switch pin. This red seal made the switch pin hang when it was cold. In my case it was full of grease. I measured the switch with a multimeter. When pin is pushed inside the doors are locked, when the pin is out the doors are open. So what happend was that when unlocking the car the switch stayed closed. And the other doors sent a negative signal that was telling the driverdoor that they were unlocked. Then you had two negative signals making a short circuit. And then all doors stopped working. So i believe many focuses have this problem. And have probaly changed the whole unit with a new one. But that is expensive.....
Tip: Clean and spray microswitch with WD-40 if you have this problem.
Thanks exsodius! I've had the same problem for a while, looked everywhere for a solution, all of them failed (including fuse 63 check and spraying inside the locks in case they stuck), but now you give me new hope! Heck, I even tried the Russian fix by banging on the door!
Now I need to figure out how to get to the lock unit! [bawling]
Sorry i didn't answer before. How long have you come with the disassembling?
It has been a long time since i did this thread, but my memory can return bit for bit.
I have got a new tip that might work without disassembling anything.
You know the 3 torx screws at the end of the door, the one that is lowest on the door and that is closest to the cabin. Unscrew that one. This hole is right over the microswitch. If you spray WD-40 into this hole it will run down to the switch and lubricate it. The best have been to use a tube or something to get the spray beam to go right downwards. If this works you will save a lot of time.
I am not 100% it will work, but last time i disassemled everything i tried to look at the lock unit too see if there was an easier way to lubricate, and if i remember correctly the switch is about 2 inches under that hole from the outside of the door. I even thought about drilling a hole under these 3 torx that goes directly into the microswitch, and put plastic plug into it. That would have been an easy modfix/ service hole.
OK, now I managed to remove the door panel and the dampening chunk of foam. I can see the lock mechanism alright, but can't figure out how to take it out! I got the 3 torx screw holding the lock itself to the door frame, but there seems to be more than that. Can anyone give me some explanations please?[wave]
I can see the lock mechanism alright, but can't figure out how to take it out! I got the 3 torx screw holding the lock itself to the door frame, but there seems to be more than that. Can anyone give me some explanations please?
Anyone can help me out please? I still didn't manage to take the lock assembly out, and my door panel is still in my leaving room! Any help would be greatly appreciated, I look forward to have my assembled door back while driving! [thumb]
There are two metal rods or linkages that hook to the door handles. It can be pretty tricky twisting and turning them to manuever the lock motor/latch assembly out of the door interior. Just take your time and note where everything is hooked up! Be patient and good luck!
Exodius, thanks for a nice tip on how to fix this annoying problem !
I share the norwegian climate with you (Asker), and have exactly the same problem during the cold season.
When temperature drops below 10C the central locking can not longer be operated with the key in the drivers door. After some minutes of driving all other locks suddenly snaps open. It scared me the first time it happened.[ohcrap] The strange thing is that this delayed opening is almost proportional to the degree of coldness.
Almost a year ago I took the whole locking motor unit out of the door, inspected it, greased it up, but to no avail. The problem persisted.
I have booked time in my motorclub garage on monday, and Im looking forward to implement your procedure.
I can warmly recommend the Haynes manual, which describes the disassembly process in detail[wrenchin] .
I will report on the results next week !
Well, I tried the WD40 trick in the bottom screw hole, orienting the jet downwards, left and right, until the WD40 started pouring from the door and onto the pavement, but it didn't solve the problem
Oh well, thanks anyway, it was worth trying.
Your description matched the problem exactly. When I took out the locking unit, and studied the microswitch I immediately noticed that the pin was full of half-stiff wax-like grease (stiff, probably due to water and moist).
When I pressed the pin, and released, it came slowly back out with a small delay. When the parts are cold, the grease is probably stiffer, and the pin sticks.
A quick clean and lubrication with WD40 made the pin work like its supposed to [] And after reassemly, the central locking was working again, even in the cold night.[wave]
Thanks again Exodius for taking the time to explain this fantastic solution, that saves us a lot of irritation and expenses ! [clap]
Great news Bonna
Any chance you can give me step by steps instructions on how to take out the lock unit? I can get as far as removing the door panel and take a peek at the unit.
I bought an Haynes manual for the Focus a couple of years ago, and it has proved very helpful. Pictures say more than thousand...etc.
However I will try to explain in short (from after removing door panel):
-Take loose the interior door handle (2 screws, one under a plastic lid, feel behind, and snap it loose forward, do not detach wire)
-Use a sharp knife to cut through the black glue to remove weather cover upper left part. (careful not to damage the cover, or touch the glue too much)
-Slacken (not remove) 2 Torx screws on the inside of the Exterior door handle/lock (you need an extended torx screwdriver and a headlamp)
-Take your time and slide off the exterior lock cover, and exterior handle (forward movement of handle), and remove the two seals.
-Disconnect the locker cable from the locker unit (connector on the lower part of unit, press clip and ease off)
-Remove 3 larger torx screws from the door rear edge, and maneuver out the door lock unit. (you dont need to detach any handles or wires)
-Put it on a bench under a good lamp, and put your bottle of WD40 to good use. Check operation of the switch (positioned close to the main connector) with the tip of a thin steelwire, before and after cleaning/lubrication.
-All of the sticky grease shall be washed away with WD40.
Update: The passenger door must be fixed in the same manner. It hampers operation of the now working drivers door. If the car is unlocked on the passenger side during cold weather, the problem of delayed unlocking is back. It is then impossible to operate central locking from drivers door until the weather turns warmer again.
The microswitch on the passenger side is soaked in the same type of stiff grease, and hence both sides must be fixed for trouble free operation.
I will be an expert on disassembling Focus doors after this !
I'm not surprised: I've got a British car, so my driver door (which is the one that had the problem all along) is your passenger door (which just started having the problem)
I still didn't get time to take my lock out, but hopefully soon. In the meantime, I can still use the key in the driver's door, so it's not all that bad for me.
Since you are an expert, you're welcome to do the 2000 miles return trip to fix mine
Update 2: The passenger was fixed yesterday in the same manner. The microswitch on the passenger side was soaked in the same type of stiff grease, rinsed and lubricated with WD40. It now works, but the drivers door is not working any more, even in room temp.
Can some grease have moved down from parts inside the locking unit onto the microswitch again, or are we facing some kind of multiple error ?
Any tips from experts will be greatly appreciated ! [scratch]
There's a lot of talk about WD40. Anyone tried another lubricant to get the job done?
I work for Jig-A-Loo and am interested if anyone has tried the product and I'm free to answer any questions about it. It's a sillicone based lubricant and water-repellent. It can be used like WD40, but since it contains on grease, oil or wax, it's much safer and won't cause build up.
If anyone is interested, we are letting people try it out for free (to see for themselves if they want to make the switch). Head to http://www.jigaloo.com/us/e_tryonefree.php for the downloable rebate form.
After one year, I eventually moved to a place with a driveway!
So I got around to take my door apart, found and sprayed clean the microswitch, and my central locking is working again! [woot]
So thanks to everyone around for the great tips [clap]
This problem will come back unless you keep spraying som wd-40 on the microswitch. I have made it simple to do. Just have the lowest screw on the door unscrewed all the the time. You know the 3 torx screws at the door lock. Now i can spray wd-40 in that hole whenever i want. It works very good, i can even hear a click from the central lock while spraying. And then it suddenly works again. It would have been nice if i could find a spray that is better than the wd-40 so i wouldn't need to spray it once a month.
In norwegian:
Problemet kommer tilbake så lenge du ikke smører mikrobryteren. Jeg har gjort det så enkelt nå at jeg har den nederste skruen av de 3 skruene på låsen i døren utskrudd hele tiden. Så nå er det bare ett hull der som jeg kan spraye inn wd-40 når jeg vil. Det fungerer så bra at jeg til og med hører mens jeg sprayer ett klikk fra sentrallåsen nå den plutselig virker igjen. Det er bare litt wd-40 som skal til. Hvis jeg hadde funnet en spray som var bedre hadde jeg sikkert ikke trengt og gjort det 1 gang i mnd.
Yep, my fixed central locking stopped working few months ago again. I'll have to try your tip exsodius, although IIRC, the bottom screw hole is nowhere near to the switch, so I guess that you need a WD-40 flood for anything to happen Still worth trying since I don't fancy taking the door apart again.
Yes i know the hole is nowhere near the switch. But when i had my the central lock in my hands last time i thought of this. So i studied these holes an where the wd-40 would go when aplied from the outside So the microswitch is about two inches below this hole. If you use the plastic tube on the wd-40 and insert it in the hole and spray right in the hole while moving the tube a little in circles you should be ok.
Exsodius, your last fix is just incredible ! Thanks a lot !
I did what you described on the front doors, and nothing happened. Then I gave the rear doors a real spray, and while I sprayed the locks started to kick !
Now everything works fine for the first time in 5 years ! Fantastic [cheers]
Another fix here! I was getting intermittent locking/unlocking of my central locking, tried loads of things and now tried blasting down that hole where the bottom screw goes and bad a bing its working every time!!
Cheers for the tip!
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