Bodywork, Paint, Interior, Trim, & Wiring

OK, here's the deal... my car has door poppers... which are just solenoids that pull a cable when energized. They work great... except that when I leave the car unattended for a few days, my driver door is open. Only seems to happen when left unattended for 2 or more days. Has never happened when I've just gone into a store, been at a show or left it in the garage over night.

The solenoids are wired thru relays that have constant power and are triggered by completing a ground circuit. Ground can be completed any of three ways:
* magnetic switches hidden behind the body panels (used some house alarm system door sensor switches).
* a mechanical switch on the center console
* an RF signal from my keychain remote to my keyless ignition triggers a relay in the keyless ignition box which completes the ground

As I'm writing this, it's occurring to me the 1st step is probably to eliminate 2 of the 3 ways to see which one is the problem and go from there. If you have other (faster) ideas, let me know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2013 10:09AM by rficalora.

These door poppers actually unlatch the doors; they don't just unlock them, right?

Just to make sure I understand, are these assumptions correct:
(a) the fault has never occurred on the passenger side,
(b) the keyless entry system isn't connected to the passenger side door, and
(c) the console has separate switches for driver and passenger side doors?

Also, what should happen when battery voltage drops? Would it be normal for the keyless ignition box to unlatch the door during a brown out?

Rob,

Are you carrying the remote in your pocket all the time? I had the same problem with my lock/unlock setup until I realized that I was triggering the remote when I bent over working around the house with the other keys on the chain, loose coins, etc.

I carry it in a shirt pocket now so that doesn't happen any more (another reason for pockets on my T-shirts).

Dan - my remote has a sliding cover that covers the buttons when not in use. And it has happened when the remote was in my closet (about 60' away from the car) so I dont think the remote is accidently triggering it.

Curtis - the solenoids actually just pull a cable to unlatch the doors. And the poppers are spring loaded barrels mounted in the jambs at the hinge side of door that cause it to open when solenoids energize and unlatch the door latches. Answers to your questions:

- passenger door was open once a couple of months ago but not since... And i was working on the center console the weekend before so thinking i just inadvertantly left it open. But dont know for certain.

- keyless ignition is connected to both doors. Seperate wires from the control box.

- console has one switch with three positions... Middle is off. Up or down is momentary on.

Don't think the keyless ignition box is designed to trigger the door if voltage is low... and battery doesn't seem to be draining.

Have considered that a neighbor's garage door opener could be triggering it but didn't happen till last few months and only neighbor close than 60 yards or so hasnt replaced his opener.

Sounds like it is time to start disconnecting the inputs to the solenoid one by one to figure out which is the culprit.