Faulty central locking on habitation door
- Thread starter torwood
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torwood
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Problem solved. Fault finally traced to shoddy workmanship. (Shame on you Rapido!).
The solenoid which came from the original base vehicle has five wires but only two are used, the control unit sends a pulse of 12 volts (readings may vary depends on vehicle battery!) positive (+12 volts) to lock and negative (-12 volts) to open when you use the key for opening / closing.
The solenoid had another connector inside the door, this lead to a tail coming out of the door through a flexible rubber conduit that sockets into a hole in the interior step surround. This connected to a cable running outside the vehicle, connection was made by using two compression connectors which themselves sit on the outside of the vehicle with every bit of weather borne muck thrown at them
Over time damp has penetrated the cable fully oxidizing the copper strands leading to a poor connection, in effect rotting the cable from the inside.
Now replaced by new cable and solder joints. Once I get a small joint-box I will mount this on the inside of the step surround so there are no joints exposed to the elements outside.
I was able to gently prise the door skin out from the door using wooden wedges, this let me see and (just) reach the cable which was fastened with nylon twist grips. Finding the connector - it had five connections but only two in use - allowed me to test the resistance of the solenoid (2 ohms) and confirm no power (with voltmeter on the cables when locking / unlocking you get a pulse for about 1 second and a voltage of either +12 or -12
Problem solved. Fault finally traced to shoddy workmanship. (Shame on you Rapido!).
The solenoid which came from the original base vehicle has five wires but only two are used, the control unit sends a pulse of 12 volts (readings may vary depends on vehicle battery!) positive (+12 volts) to lock and negative (-12 volts) to open when you use the key for opening / closing.
The solenoid had another connector inside the door, this lead to a tail coming out of the door through a flexible rubber conduit that sockets into a hole in the interior step surround. This connected to a cable running outside the vehicle, connection was made by using two compression connectors which themselves sit on the outside of the vehicle with every bit of weather borne muck thrown at them
Over time damp has penetrated the cable fully oxidizing the copper strands leading to a poor connection, in effect rotting the cable from the inside.
Now replaced by new cable and solder joints. Once I get a small joint-box I will mount this on the inside of the step surround so there are no joints exposed to the elements outside.
I was able to gently prise the door skin out from the door using wooden wedges, this let me see and (just) reach the cable which was fastened with nylon twist grips. Finding the connector - it had five connections but only two in use - allowed me to test the resistance of the solenoid (2 ohms) and confirm no power (with voltmeter on the cables when locking / unlocking you get a pulse for about 1 second and a voltage of either +12 or -12
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