SOLUTION for the Doorlock failure before you buy new mechanism

[jaak16]

After posting about my windows doing the usual popping up and down, I was planning to replace my door latch mechanisms, as this is the solution everyone has posted here.
Once I took the bad one out of the driver's door and still attached to power, I noticed, if you twist or move the harness that the latch would work. I thought at first it was bad contacts, but it wasn't.

I decided to see what really happens.
Of course this is not necessarily what happens to all out there...

I spent an extra few minutes to see where the failure was.
If you remove the 8 Torx screws that hold the cover on the translucent part of the mechanism, the unit comes apart nicely.(6 x T10s on the face, 1 T10 on the edge, and the 1 T20 on the side). Also remove the brass spring on the face (not sprung very tightly).
Inside, you find a couple of plastic gears and a circuit board. (don' worry, nothing will pop out or get lost)
Remove the circuit board and check the solder points where the harness attaches.
On both of my doors, the only solder that had a tiny hairline crack in it was the circuit that leads to the micro switches.
Simply soldered the one contact and all is as good as new.

The first door took me the better part of an hour to figure it all out.
But by the time I did the second door, i was done in less than 30 minutes. I think it too coincidental that the doors had the identical issue. And it wasn't the microswitches.

I believe the problem is with the repeated closing of the doors, as the solder joint on this spot on the circuit board isn't supported by anything. So every time the door is slammed and the wire wiggles, it torques the joints.

I didn't have to spend $320 for 2 new mechanisms

[newlife]

Originally Posted by jaak16

After posting about my windows doing the usual popping up and down, I was planning to replace my door latch mechanisms, as this is the solution everyone has posted here.
Once I took the bad one out of the driver's door and still attached to power, I noticed, if you twist or move the harness that the latch would work. I thought at first it was bad contacts, but it wasn't.

I decided to see what really happens.
Of course this is not necessarily what happens to all out there...

I spent an extra few minutes to see where the failure was.
If you remove the 8 Torx screws that hold the cover on the translucent part of the mechanism, the unit comes apart nicely.(6 x T10s on the face, 1 T10 on the edge, and the 1 T20 on the side). Also remove the brass spring on the face (not sprung very tightly).
Inside, you find a couple of plastic gears and a circuit board. (don' worry, nothing will pop out or get lost)
Remove the circuit board and check the solder points where the harness attaches.
On both of my doors, the only solder that had a tiny hairline crack in it was the circuit that leads to the micro switches.
Simply soldered the one contact and all is as good as new.

The first door took me the better part of an hour to figure it all out.
But by the time I did the second door, i was done in less than 30 minutes. I think it too coincidental that the doors had the identical issue. And it wasn't the microswitches.

I believe the problem is with the repeated closing of the doors, as the solder joint on this spot on the circuit board isn't supported by anything. So every time the door is slammed and the wire wiggles, it torques the joints.

I didn't have to spend $320 for 2 new mechanisms

Nicely done.... thank you for the very valuable post.

Rod

[jaak16]

Thanks,
I actually posted the wrong photo. I have a photo of the suspicious area on the circuit board, but being a newb, I don't know how to upload and replace.

[Wayne 962]

Just post the photo in a followup post - I can swap it for you.

-Wayne

[jaak16]

Here is a photo of the circuit board after removing it from the cover and turning it over.
You can clearly see the faulty connection on the solder (bottom-right of the 6).
That was enough to cause the failure.

[newlife]

Hmmmmm call me blind or....well blind..... but I don't see the (bottom right of the 6)

Thanks

Rod

[faverymi]

Awesome. You saved me some money.

Can I get you a beer?

[paulv]

Originally Posted by newlife

Hmmmmm call me blind or....well blind..... but I don't see the (bottom right of the 6)

Thanks

Rod

Rod,

On the bottom right of the six solder joints, you can see a slight circular crack in the solder joint going from 12:00 to 6:00.

It's good that jaak16 took the initiative to explore this module and discovered the "easy to fix" failure. Big benefit to him as well as the rest of us.

Regards,
paul...

[rdougan]

Thanks for this, I am having the exact same issue.

I will look for this tomorrow. Did you have any alarm issues before this, and if so, did it fix them?

[drl911]

Awesome, thanks for posting the details!

[rdougan]

Just tried this today and it didn't fix it for me.

[justanother986]

Nice work on the fix! No matter how complex a whole part is, it's usually something simple inside it that breaks. Thanks!

[FRice]

My problem is that my driver door window stopped popping down a few centimeters when opening the door and putting down the top. Do you think this issue could be due to the a bad solder joint? like the one in the posted picture?

[optogy]

I realize this is an old thread but I used this same procedure to fix my GF's 2001 996 last night. I found this post afterward because I wanted to share the same info in case it wasn't out there.
I found the problem after replacing a bad regulator and when I bumped the door lock wiring harness, the window jumped up and down. An easy way to diagnose this issue is to bend the wires at the harness back and forth. If the window moves, your solder joints are bad.
Taking the door lock mechanism apart was a little tricky but I had a helluva time getting it back together and working properly. We found that after completing the repair, we were still getting 2 beeps from the horn when locking. Disconnecting the battery for 15 minutes seemed to solve it.
Feel free to PM me if you're having this issue and need help.

[Crispy]

I see the OP's car is a 90's Box. Does anyone know if my '07 Cayman has the same mechanism? I need to repair or replace my drivers side, can't take it anymore. Thanks in advance, C.

[Linderpat]

Originally Posted by optogy

I realize this is an old thread but I used this same procedure to fix my GF's 2001 996 last night. I found this post afterward because I wanted to share the same info in case it wasn't out there.
I found the problem after replacing a bad regulator and when I bumped the door lock wiring harness, the window jumped up and down. An easy way to diagnose this issue is to bend the wires at the harness back and forth. If the window moves, your solder joints are bad.
Taking the door lock mechanism apart was a little tricky but I had a helluva time getting it back together and working properly. We found that after completing the repair, we were still getting 2 beeps from the horn when locking. Disconnecting the battery for 15 minutes seemed to solve it.
Feel free to PM me if you're having this issue and need help.

I have been looking at this problem too. Over the weekend, I pulled the door panel (not a bad job) and accessed the lock mechanism. I couldn't get it out tho, so I buttoned everything back up in order to do more research. Do you need to also unbolt and remove the door handle to get the door lock mechanism out? If so, it sounds like a pita to get it back together.

[Linderpat]

okay, just tried to fix this door lock microswitch. My printed circuit board had a resin over it, unlike the one in the picture above, so I could not tell if/where the solder might have been broken. So no fix (yet - it is on the bench for later study). (I have an '03 S)

In any event, I had purchased a spare from someone on the 986 board. I swapped in the spare, and it fixed the problem of the window dropping but not staying down while the door is open. That part now works fine. The window now drops 10mm, stays down until the door is closed, then pops back up like it should.

BUT - I have a new problem - I can't open the door from the inside of the car. It only opens from the outside now. Tug on the handle - nothing. Also, the key does not lock the car. I tried it hoping that maybe I had some sort of reset problem, but the key does nothing.

Any thoughts? Is there a separate microswitch for the door locks?

[Linderpat]

Jebus - never mind - I know exactly what the problem is - I forgot to connect the bowden cable to the friggin handle! Just looked at the parts diagram and the light went off. So even relatively easy jobs can bite you when you aren't careful! I'll pop the panel and hook the cable and report back in a couple of days.

[Linderpat]

fixed; popped the cable back on now everything works as it should.

[sandmanrr]

hi friend can you give me any tips on getting the lock out of the door .thanks