95 Explorer. Power locks are not working.

[Tomoc]

Folks,
Hope this gets formatted the way I'm typing it. I have a 95 XLT. I attempt to describe below how the power lock switches are working (or not). Before I give my mechanic a lot of money to fix, I was thinking of poking around myself. Given the below, can anyone comment on what you think may be broken and where to attack? I am on the low end of mechanical, so clear descriptions and pictures would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance to all who can respond.

Driver side switch:
Unlocks: all but passenger right side.
Locks: all

Passenger side switch:
Unlocks: all but passenger right side.
Locks: front right, rear left. hatch Doesn't unlock :front left and hatch.

Hatch switch:
Unlocks: all but passenger right side
Locks: front right, rear left and hatch. Doesn't unlock: front left and rear right.

 

[Tomoc]

Sorry, I realized I wasn't consistent. I modified it slightly and corrected. I use front, rear and hatch to describe the sections where the switches are and then left and right side, with left being driver's side...and of course the hatch has only one lock....thanks again!

Driver side switch:
Unlocks: all but rear right side.
Locks: all

Passenger side switch:
Unlocks: all but rear right side.
Locks: front right, rear left and hatch. Doesn't unlock :front left and rear right

Hatch switch:
Unlocks: all but rear right side
Locks: front right, rear left and hatch. Doesn't unlock: front left and rear right.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread into the stock 95-01 section.

 

[J_C]

One thing I would check is the wiring harness section in the rubber boot between the front fender and the driver's door, repeated flexing of those wires can break them... so if that is the problem you'd just cut at the break, but don't just solder together a stiff section there with the two old wire ends, instead add about a foot of new wire so after you solder it in you can slip the stiff soldered portions into the door and fender areas where they don't flex anymore. I prefer covering solder joints with two layers of heatshrink tubing.

 

[Tomoc]

JC, thank you very much for the suggestion. I peeled back the rubber boot and there is a large bundle of wires. By just pushing on the bundle and gently moving it back and forth a bit while operating the power lock switches (between lock and unlock), I was able to intermittently get most of the locks working. So looks like you identified the problem area. Thank you very much! However, there are no visible breaks in any of the wires that I can see. They are all very close together and hard to move get a visual on more than just the ones in front. So there are probably very tiny cracks in some of the wires. I'm afraid if I try to take the door off and manipulate them to find the broken wires, I may damage even more of them....these wires are quite old (95'). But at least it looks like the root cause is identified. I may just give in and bring it to the mechanic to find the broken wires.....unless there are any other suggestions on how to take it from here....using my limited skills......thanks again.

 

[J_C]

I didn't have to take the door off, there was (barely) enough slack to pull the wires out and slide the boot away... though I am used to tiny electronics soldering so what seems like enough room to me may be little room.

I don't have a wiring harness schematic/color codes for that, it might help. You are right that manipulating the wires could break some that still work right now, but that's what the repair shop will have to do too so it is a matter of how confident you are - at worst you won't be able to fix it if you try but if you leave the windows up and can manually lock and unlock, failing to fix it at worst means you still have to take it in to the shop.

I wouldn't consider '95 wires all that old though, except for the fact that they flex every time you open and close the door. The "best" repair option would be to replace the entire harness from the driver door switch to wherever the next connector is but I don't know how far it goes... could be a lot harder to string that in a finished vehicle than it was done in sequence at the factory, and I don't know if a dealership can even get that wiring harness section.

Personally, if mine ever breaks again what I will do is hunt down some wire designed to withstand flexing a lot unlike their generic wire used originally, disconnect all from the driver's door console and pull them out of the door so that end is free of the vehicle, and redo all of them at once with the hope they will never go bad again... but I have this crazy idea that if I can I should improve something so it never breaks again, other people only repair till they expect to sell or junk a vehicle which can be a little more sane approach.

Doing it like that would be a lot easier if you put label tags on all the wires since it is unlikely to be able to find high-flex wire in all the colors needed to represent the color/stripe scheme used on the original wires and you won't be able to see which wire is which otherwise once they are strung back into the door to reconnect to the console. I may be wrong about this last part, I don't remember if the hole they pass through in the door is big enough for the connector nor if the connector is modularized to plug into a mating connector on the console or if the console itself just has a clip on it that holds them all in individually.