door solenoid locks

[lindbergh]

I plan on replacing the door lock solenoids later this winter. I hear if they fail they can lock you in the car. Is there a way you can unlock the doors if this solenoid that controls the locks fails in the locked position? Will the key from the outside (reach around from the window) unlock the door? Is there any other way?

Thanks.

[Chris 16409]

Simply unplug the red power lead on the door lock module in the relay compartment. The red wire pugs into a circuit breaker. Once the door lock module is unpowered, it has no more control over the solenoides. This makes the door locks operate manually. You can use the key to independently lock and unlock each door.

[sdg3205]

I plan on replacing the door lock solenoids later this winter. I hear if they fail they can lock you in the car. Is there a way you can unlock the doors if this solenoid that controls the locks fails in the locked position? Will the key from the outside (reach around from the window) unlock the door? Is there any other way?

Thanks.

Fear not! There is always a way.

IIRC:

1. unplug the door lock module in your relay compartment
2. try and unlock the door and open as usual.
3. If that fails (and I cant see why it would unless the locks have binded) remove the upper door panel and locate the shaft originating from the lock cylinder
4. manipulate the shaft to manually unlock the doors (more common if one of the two latches is acting up resulting in one locked and one unlocked latch on earlier VINs)

[Elvis]

Detailed descriptions are here in the forum.

use the search...

[David T]

What actually fails is the door lock module and when it fails it burns up the solenoids. Cut an inline fuseholder into the big red wire going to the door lock module and put a 10 amp fuse in it. Now if the module fails the fuse will blow before it cooks the solenoids and locks you in the car till the battery goes dead. If the solenoids are already burnt there is a great How-To showing how to remove, rewind, and replace the solenoids. Or you can switch over to powered actuators. In the meantime disconnect the big red wire till you can fix things.

[TTait]

When we brought out second Delorean home - I did not have time to warn my wife about door locks before she locked us out - the solenoids were cooking and there was no way in. Fortunately the drivers window was open, and we had a second car on hand. I retrieved my 4 year old son and walked him through, step by step peeling back the carpet, removing the panel cover, and unplugging the red wire on my car several times, then I fed him through the open toll both window on the new car, and he had the job done in a few minutes.

Four year old kids are handy for going through windows, 10 year old kids are good for installing front speakers...

[Elvis]

Where's the "I Like" Button when I need it ? :-D