power locks going crazy!

[my white eddie]

On my 97 V8 EB, had a dead battery other morning, jumped it, all seemed fine.
Its been below 0 at night and my ride sits out so I figured the battery was just getting old and the cold was killing it. But I was out doing some shoveling
and as I walked past my ride I hear chunk, chunk WTH?? Well it seems that
the power locks just keep randomly trying to unlock all night till the battery is dead. Thought it might be the bitter temps, but were actually warming up and it is still doing it. Anybody got an idea what I can do to at least stop this till I can make a real diagnosis and repair?

 

[1992fordgreen]

Open that hood, remove the negative battery terminal and leave it there for 20 minutes or 20 years or how ever long you need. PCM reset. No more crazy door locks.

 

[bobflood]

You can try this, but the door locks do not involve the PCM at all. The GEM (generic electronic module) does work with the door locks. The door lock switches put a ground on the door lock relays to operate them. You might have a broken wire in one of the front door bundles (driver's door very common) that is grounding the circuit. Good luck.

 

[koda2000]

a nearly flat battery will cause all kinds of strange electrical gremlins in these trucks. charge/replace the battery and they'll go away.

 

[swshawaii]

a nearly flat battery will cause all kinds of strange electrical gremlins in these trucks. charge/replace the battery and they'll go away.

Ditto. All in on a faulty battery. Any takers? LOL

 

[X~FACTOR]

Anybody got an idea what I can do to at least stop this till I can make a real diagnosis and repair?

Having the same problem. I haven't figure out the solution for it. But in the meantime you can temporary stop the problem by removing the 2 large relays in this black box below. It controls the lock and unlock.

 

[my white eddie]

well, I had some time finally. I did unhook the cables from the battery for about 4 hrs, and so far it has not done it again. Could be a coincidence
but It seems o.k. so far.

 

[koda2000]

well, I had some time finally. I did unhook the cables from the battery for about 4 hrs, and so far it has not done it again. Could be a coincidence
but It seems o.k. so far.

i don't see where having disconnected the battery should have helped anything. your door locks have nothing to do with your ECU. did you replace/charge your battery?

 

[my white eddie]

Nope, I don't see how it worked either, but it did seem to work somehow. Never charged the battery at all. I would just jump it and run to work. It would stay charged all day even in the bitter cold temps. I am still keeping
an eye on things till the weather warms up and I can actually get my hands
on things without sticking to them. So we will see what happens.

 

[mheyting]

My 95 XLT V8 just started doing this this morning. My quick fix: holding down the unlock on both driver and passenger front door for about 10 seconds. It stops the erratic behavior temporarily until I get out or get back in. This weekend I will start with the battery cables and go from there.

 

[mheyting]

...and this didn't work... it may have been because I only left the cables off for about 25 minutes, not sure... anyhoo, next will be to remove the relays just to keep my sanity...

 

[45Frank]

I had a 2000 that did this the entire time I owned it, not as much as yours but for the 6 years or so I had it. Went back to 3 Ford dealers including where I bought it and they supposedly changed the BCM and some other module in the steering column several times. One dealer even suggested I had mental issues, another said the other dealer never changed anything. So one morning I made him stand next to it and the keys were in it and he said I had issues. Well the doors locked right in front of him. It never was fixed I traded it in finally! That vehicle in 6 years spent at least a year or more in the shop and they never fixed a thing. Oh with mine the windows would work intermittently too and the blinkers rarely ever worked. That Explorer was the biggest headache I ever owned.
Good luck.
One other thing the seat belts would ALWAYS lock up, it was nearly impossible to wear them because you were always pulled back into your seat.

 

[my white eddie]

My problem ended up being the wiring harness going to the drivers door.
I had a broken wire and a scuffed wire in the bundle that comes out of
the pillar and goes to the drivers door. It became very intermittent after
I un hooked the battery, but that was just an anomaly I guess. It has
remained fixed since April of '14. I just soldered a 3" piece of wire in with
heat shrink to give it a little more slack and girth.

 

[lobo411]

Mine went away when I replaced the driver's side power door lock switch with one from the junkyard.

 

[mheyting]

Ok, update... Removed the relays, problem temporarily solved... However, relays also control rear wiper, lol... But like i said... A TEMPORARY fix...

 

[slaughterrt]

With my 99, the front passenger side lock button would stick in the lock position and continuously try to lock the door (similar to continuously hitting the lock button over and over). Prob just needs to be taken apart and put back together to keep it moving without it sticking. I would check that because it killed my battery once. Just gotta be mindful of it.

 

[Turkeybiscuits]

I accidently left my headlights on with the engine off in my '98 when testing new headlights. Was waxing the car and had my keys inside, i heard it lock. Battery died. Door keypad didnt' work. Coat hanger came to the rescue after 2 hours.

 

[Turdle]

On my 97 V8 EB, had a dead battery other morning, jumped it, all seemed fine.
Its been below 0 at night and my ride sits out so I figured the battery was just getting old and the cold was killing it. But I was out doing some shoveling
and as I walked past my ride I hear chunk, chunk WTH?? Well it seems that
the power locks just keep randomly trying to unlock all night till the battery is dead. Thought it might be the bitter temps, but were actually warming up and it is still doing it. Anybody got an idea what I can do to at least stop this till I can make a real diagnosis and repair?

The first sentence is the fix.

You need a new battery.

 

[PNWoods]

I had a similar issue twice in the last couple months.. I even have a brand new 800cca battery so that's not of issue. I have a feeling some sort of signals from a very large military base nearby is to blame (especially since there was an increase of neighboring drills/activity during the last instance and I've read of other ford owners experiencing the same thing near police/military establishments) OR the door switches are simply shorting out from the rain.. Or the previous bad battery left some gremlins
Regardless, my lazy fix involved doing this stupidly simple power lock-reset cheat code thing.
1)turn key on and hit unlock 3x within 5 seconds
2)turn key off and hit unlock 3x within 5 seconds again
3)turn key back on, horn should honk and the locks should be reset
4)if that doesn't work, repeat but with the lock button instead

hope this helps in some way.. it did for me, at least until the next up-tick in activity

 

[danveronie]

I had the crazy door lock situation in my 2016 Explorer XLT. Browsed all these forums for some help before sending to the shop. Hopefully long story short...

Car sitting in the driveway, off, I happened to be in the garage and the locks were on off on off going spastic. Obviously it was weird. Two days later the battery was dead. Got it tested turns out it was bad, only a year old. Got a new one under warranty, dropped it in. Battery drained overnight. Able to charge back up with my truck. Never saw the locks go crazy again. Battery drained again two nights later. Pulled the negative, didn’t drain for a few days. Voltmeter says battery and alternator still good. Pulled driver side door panel, no obvious wiring issues. Brought to the dealer, they left it hooked up overnight despite me stating in the service order “battery drains overnight due to power drain somewhere in the car.” Dealer says they need me to bring a new battery so they can do their testing. I took my car back. Brought to a recommended shop. Took them a week and a half to notice the plastic panel on the B pillar of the driver door was peeling off at the top, allowing water from rain and car wash to seep in and short out the keypad for the keyless number code entry feature. I’m not mad at the shop for taking so long, it was a weird symptom from a weird cause. The adhesive weatherstripping keeping the panel on was pretty skimpy. Replacement panel was $300 but they only charged me 2 hrs labor since it took so long to find.

Obviously this won’t be everyone’s issue, but just food for thought if your locks are going crazy, try and think of everything possible linked to the locking system. Also, the computer kept throwing an error code for the lift gate. Which is controlled by the keyless touch pad...