Little background before the question; About 3 weeks ago when we had a real
cold snap, a couple of weeks of temps going below zero at night and only
getting into the upper single digits during the day, the electric lock solenoid
on the drivers door of my 99 Dakota started to make a lot of racket when
locked. Sounded like the coil that pulls the lock plunger had come loose and
was vibrating in the latch (only does it when locking). The electric lock
mechanism still works and I removed the door panel to see there was any thing
obvious there wasn't but lubed up everything any way which didn't help. Also,
along with this condition is a intermittent related occurrence. When you grab
the door handle to open the door and the door is locked it normally unlocks the
door, occasionally the button comes up but not all the way to the unlock
position and once the handle is released the door locks again.
Now to my question if the key is in the ignition and no one is sitting on the
seat should the body controller allow the doors to be locked under any
circumstances?
On my truck both the key-fob remote and the door switch are inoperative if the
key is in the ignition and no one is in the seat but if the button is pushed
down manually the door will lock.
My 97 Avenger if you tried to lock the door manually, with the electric lock
button or with the remote and the key was in the ignition and no one was
sitting in the drivers seat the door would immediately unlock. The wifes PT is
the same way.
This intermittent occurrence of the button going back into the lock position
after opening the door resulted in me being locked out of my truck with the
engine running and my cell phone in the holder on the dash at the side of the
highway yesterday. :( Luckily I was able to grab a piece of heavy wire from
the comm house I was checking on and fish it down between the window and the
glass and get the door unlocked.
I know I need to get a new latch mechanism but I want to understand how the
system actually works and make sure there is not something else that needs
repair.
Thanks,
Dave Clement
99 SLT+ CC 4x4
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