A stuck solenoid in the rear door causing my battery to die?

[User1]

Hello all,

Hope everyone is doing well and ready for summer? I AM!!!

OK so I thought I had my battery dying days were behind me. I replaced my battery fairly recently and didn't think I'd have to deal with that for awhile. That isn't the case. I do have my van sitting for rather long periods, ~25 days. Well I tried to get it started the other day and the battery was dead. I charged the battery for about two days, it's a good used deep-cycle battery, and much bigger than the original battery in it. I charged it and the van started up ok. I saw my neighbor the other day after this charging and he stated he was hearing something clicking like some kind of solenoid in the back door. I noticed that my door unlockers button on the driver's side doesn't open the rear door and I thought that they should have had one there. Do they have one there and I've got an electrical problem? I hung around the vans back door for over 5 minutes last night and tried to listen for some clicking, I couldn't hear anything. Any tips where and how to resolve this?

Electrical is about my weakest on fixing cars, so try to be somewhat like talking to a 3rd grader. I do have one of those multimeters for checking batteries and stuff.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[timsrv]

I don't currently have a van with electric locks, so I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think the lock button on the driver's door is supposed to lock / unlock all the doors (including the rear hatch). If you have a problem with a lock solenoid activating when it's not supposed to, then I'd check the switch on your door 1st. It's a momentary switch, so make sure it turns itself back off when you take your finger off the switch. If that checks out okay you should do a draw test on your battery (while the key is off and the doors are shut). In order to do this you will need a multi-meter with a DC amp function. If you post a picture of your meter I will tell you if it's got the function and how to use it (too many different configurations on meters for me to explain without a picture). Tim

[llamavan]

[...] I think the lock button on the driver's door is supposed to lock / unlock all the doors (including the rear hatch). [...]

Correct. In fact, it's the only way I've EVER been able to lock and unlock Skyler's rear hatch.

Gwen

[User1]

Hey Tim,

The switch on the door for all the locks seems to work fine. None of the other solenoids seem to act up when they're being activated. The button doesn't seem to stick or anything. Here is a pic of my meter.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8168607...in/photostream

[timsrv]

That's an interesting meter, unfortunately it doesn't have a DC amp function, so it wouldn't be capable of doing a draw test. There are cheap meters available $20-$40 range capable of this.......I've even seen them at Walmart. To identify one capable, look for one that has 3 or more sockets for the test leads. One of the sockets should have an "A" or say "Amps". There should also be a place on the dial that reads "DC A", "DC Amps" or just the letter A with a solid and a dotted line over the top of it.

The possibility of a stuck solenoid doesn't make a lot of sense to me as a solenoid of this nature only receives a momentary pulse of power. If it's on continuously or making noise, then that's an indication the switch is not opening the circuit. Tim

[User1]

Looks like my rear lock solenoid decided to work today! It doesn't seem to work MUCH more than working. I'll see about getting one of the those meters Tim. I can get back on this and post up when I get it.

Thanks,

[User1]

OK so my neighbor rang my doorbell this morning and told me that the solenoid is acting up again this morning. I ended up getting a video of it. The van is locked and no one is doing anything. This clicking was going all night long. Also, I didn't know it till after I opened the sliding door, but looks like all the solenoids are acting up!


http://youtu.be/21Z96uns2Yg

[timsrv]

Wow, that's kind of freaky. The 1st thing that comes to mind is somebody must have added an aftermarket keyless entry system that's malfunctioning. Did you get a key fob when you purchased the van? Take a look under the dash to see if you can find any traces of added stuff. Scotch locks, butt connectors, extra wire, and wire ties are a dead give away. Tim

[User1]

Hey Tim,

I'm not getting notices again. I was just browsing the forum and saw this.

There was a car alarm installed on the van. I'm not sure how I alarmed it one night, but I managed to set the alarm off the next morning when I opened the door. There's no key fob with the van and nothing to set the alarm that I know of. There was also that wire under the passenger seat that posted here. I can take another pic or find the one that was posted up if needed.

I plan on sending an message to the manufactures of the alarm and see if I can get some info on the alarm. Electrical problems are the hardest for me and your help and advice is welcomed.

Regarding the video; I was trying to get an image of the what the lock mechanism was doing. It can be seen in the last second or two of the video.

[timsrv]

Since it doesn't work right, I would pull it out of there. I've removed stuff like this before and was able to figure out how to wire back to stock pretty easy. Just get anything that doesn't look stock out of there then match-up any cut wires by color. One of the last vans I bought had "added" wires all over the place and it wouldn't start (that's why I got it on the cheap). I yanked out all the BS wires, repaired the places they had hacked in, and when I was done it started and ran fine. Who knows what goes through people's heads some times . Tim

[User1]

I just noticed today that the driver's button that controls all the door locks is acting up. When pushing the button to raise all the locks, all the buttons work. When pressing to lock, there's nothing happening. I have to play with the button to get them to go down. I guess I should take the door panel apart and clean up that button? You gota remember I'm like a second-grader when it comes to electrical problems.