Help with NC dodgy central locking.

Help with NC dodgy central locking.

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Discussion

gazzarose

Original Poster:

1,170 posts

140 months

Tuesday 26th July 2016
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Hi, Im after a bit of help,

Wife was complaining the other day that the locking on her '07 NC RC was intermittent when using the buttons on the key. I told her to try the key in the door and it works to open the drivers door but again intermittent for the passenger door. I did a bit of googling and found references to water getting in past a clip on the skuttle panel and dripping onto the central locking module. I looked under the dash behind the glove box and there was surface rust on the dash reiforing bar so definitely getting water in there. I managed to seal the leak and was hoping that the control module would dry out, but its still doing it 3 weeks on. Does anyone know how you get to the control module? It seems to be above the heater fan assembly, does that mean draining the coolant and taking it all to bits? Are there any relays up there that may be on the blink rather than the whole control module?

Cheers

Gareth

akMX5NCxog

3 posts

57 months

Friday 7th February 2020
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gazzarose said:
Hi, Im after a bit of help,

Wife was complaining the other day that the locking on her '07 NC RC was intermittent when using the buttons on the key. I told her to try the key in the door and it works to open the drivers door but again intermittent for the passenger door. I did a bit of googling and found references to water getting in past a clip on the skuttle panel and dripping onto the central locking module. I looked under the dash behind the glove box and there was surface rust on the dash reiforing bar so definitely getting water in there. I managed to seal the leak and was hoping that the control module would dry out, but its still doing it 3 weeks on. Does anyone know how you get to the control module? It seems to be above the heater fan assembly, does that mean draining the coolant and taking it all to bits? Are there any relays up there that may be on the blink rather than the whole control module?

Cheers

Gareth
Hi Gareth,

I'm suffering the same problem, and it is driving me crazy... How did you end up fixing it? I have already sealed the skuttle panel clip, but the problem is still there.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!!

gazzarose

Original Poster:

1,170 posts

140 months

Friday 7th February 2020
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Unfortunately I still haven't fixed it. I was stuck in work on my own one Sunday with nothing to do so I took apart everything I could but couldn't find any problems. I took apart the door locking motors and everything seemed ok, I even managed to wrangle the locking controller from under the dash (That didn't go very well, the bolts are hidden right up under the dash, and even if you manage to undo them, there is a cable clipped to the top of it ,that you have to try to cut free at fingers stretch, and then you realise you've cut the cable and not the clip. The cables connect to the interior light, which at a push I could live without, but also to the switch inside the latch that holds the roof to the top of the windscreen, cue more finger tip work to connect them back together).

A few months later my wife then bumped the car into the back of another car and damaged the wing, I managed to find a used one in a breaker in the right colour, and they also had a pair of locking motors, so I bought them as well, I just haven't got round to fitting them yet.

If I get round to it soon, I'll report back.

akMX5NCxog

3 posts

57 months

Monday 10th February 2020
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gazzarose said:
Unfortunately I still haven't fixed it. I was stuck in work on my own one Sunday with nothing to do so I took apart everything I could but couldn't find any problems. I took apart the door locking motors and everything seemed ok, I even managed to wrangle the locking controller from under the dash (That didn't go very well, the bolts are hidden right up under the dash, and even if you manage to undo them, there is a cable clipped to the top of it ,that you have to try to cut free at fingers stretch, and then you realise you've cut the cable and not the clip. The cables connect to the interior light, which at a push I could live without, but also to the switch inside the latch that holds the roof to the top of the windscreen, cue more finger tip work to connect them back together).

A few months later my wife then bumped the car into the back of another car and damaged the wing, I managed to find a used one in a breaker in the right colour, and they also had a pair of locking motors, so I bought them as well, I just haven't got round to fitting them yet.

If I get round to it soon, I'll report back.
I had a look this weekend, and I'm starting to think that it is not a problem of the locking controller, but with the passenger side door actuator or microswitch. The reason is that it looks like sometimes the passenger door doesn't lock properly, and it is when the central locking goes nuts, and opens and tries to lock the car again.

Do you know if a malfunctioning of one door will cause this intermittent actuation of the locking controller?

I'll get back to you if find out something else.

kostas_miata

46 posts

87 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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I've had a similar issue, took it to a very well known MX5 specialist and the diagnosis was that the fault was caused by the central locking module.
In order to get it replaced the dash needs to be removed, so that makes it a 1,5-2 days job. I've decided to leave it as and live with it as can't justify the cost.

akMX5NCxog

3 posts

57 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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kostas_miata said:
I've had a similar issue, took it to a very well known MX5 specialist and the diagnosis was that the fault was caused by the central locking module.
In order to get it replaced the dash needs to be removed, so that makes it a 1,5-2 days job. I've decided to leave it as and live with it as can't justify the cost.
I hope what's failing in my car is not the central locking module... Are you able to lock the car? On mine it takes a few tries, where the car itself will lock unlock several times.

kostas_miata

46 posts

87 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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Make sure it's not the door locking actuators first as that's a "simple" fix. Mine locks intermittently at the moment so many times I'll have to manually lock it.

gazzarose

Original Poster:

1,170 posts

140 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
quotequote all
Mine was doing the twitchy passenger door lock thing for a bit, which I origingally put down to a leaking scuttle cover clip gasket, but even after I fixed that it did it for a while. I unplugged every thing I could and checked for water ingress/sprayed with contact cleaner, but no improvement. Ours has now settle down to the passgener door will lock/unlock but have to lock the drivers manually. Although it you lock it and immediately try to unlock it won't fully unlock the passenger door, amnd the more you lock/unlock the less the lock moves. Its almost as though it is running out of current, but if you leave it for a bit it will work.

I did manage to get my locking module out of mine with much swearing, wobbly socket extensions and the aforementioned cutting of some wire by mistake, but there didn't seem to anything visually wrong with it or any visible signs of water ingress. At the moment I haven't got a garage and even though I could stay in work and pull the car in to the workshop, amongst everything else in life I just don't seem to have got round to it. I really should make an effort though.

gazzarose

Original Poster:

1,170 posts

140 months

Sunday 29th March 2020
quotequote all
In the words of Borat, Great Success!!!!!

What with the virus keeping us all house bound, I thought it would be a good time to change the wing on the 5 and try (again) to sort out the central locking. The main reasons I have been putting it off were nowhere to do it (I've knocked my old garage down, and started on the build of the new one) and not wanting to potentially disable the car when my wife needs if for work the next day. The lock down has solved the latter, but ruined all chances of carrying on with the former. The shuttering is all in for the new garage base, but lock down means no concrete or or labour to lay it. That means I had to think outside of the box (or at least inside the shuttering).

I made a bridge over the shuttering and (carefully!!) reversed the 5 into the hole.


That meant I could keep it off the road and leave it immobile if I needed to.

The actuators I bought from MazdaDudes (not sure what their real name is, but thats their facebook name) came with the latch unit and cables all attached and were an easy straight swap with the originals. Then came the moment of truth, I closed the latch with a screwdriver and pushed in the door light button by hand (I'm always a bit nervous about just closing the door in case it doesn't open again), pushed the lock button on the remote, and click, the drivers door was locked. I've only done the drivers door so far (its bloody freezing in the shade with the wind, so I've come in for a cup of tea!) but that was the one that was causing the most trouble. Unfortunately I then had the take the door back apart again, the door handle was sticking and not returning, I had my the lock protection plate thingy back in the wrong position and it was dragging on the mechanism. Another 10 minutes and it was all sort. I'm chuffed that its sorted. If I'm honest I was holding little hope, I still thought it was a problem with the control module related to the leak I had from the scuttle panel clip gasket from a few years ago, but all good!!

I also changed the wing a couple of days ago, but I broke a few clips that I can't seem to source, but I'll start another thread for that.