Vauxhall Vectra 4dr Saloon - Central Locking Problem

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Wed 25 Jan 2012 18:03
Vauxhall Vectra 4dr Saloon - Central Locking Problem - wellman

I have a 53 plate Vectra C which has been owned since new and has now covered 50500 miles, last weel the central locking system packed - up. When the remote unit is operated all doors try to lock but then imediately unlock and on the dash it shows drivers door open, this also happens if the key is use in any lock. As a temporary mesure a local garage has disconnected the electrics to the drivers door so that nothing electrical works on that door but I can now lock/unlock all the three other doors with the remote and lock the drivers door using the key. The local garage has suggested the problem is likely to be the door motor drive unit and has also suggested that a Vauxhall dealer will have to repair it and that a new motor unit could cost around £200 plus fitting.

Before I involve expensive dealer repairs to what is now a fairly old car has anyone any thoughts on what may be wriong. If the door tries to lock is this a indication that the motor is ok and something else is wrong

Many thanks, Wellman

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Thu 26 Jan 2012 05:47
Vauxhall Vectra 4dr Saloon - Central Locking Problem - Falkirk Bairn

Could be the flexible cable that connects the door switches to the car body - that was the problem on a neighbour's Astra a while back - you will need a meter to test the wiring and patience to get the door cards off!

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Thu 26 Jan 2012 11:37
Vauxhall Vectra 4dr Saloon - Central Locking Problem - TeeCee

Probably don't need to take the door cards off. GM door/tail wiring usually goes inside the flexible rubber boot between the door/bootlid and the frame. The wiring in there is unwrapped to provide greater flexibility, which has the downside of making it more vulnerable to damage too. You can undo the multiplug where it connects to the socket in the frame and pull the boot back to inspect, you'll be desperately unlucky if the problem's not obviously in one of 'em.

Once you've found the knackered one, then remove the one necessary door card to fix. You'll need to do this to buy enough length on the cables to fix the crushed/severed/burned ones.

On my GM car it was the tail door one that had gone and it took the lock / immobiliser ECU with it, as that objected to having the full load of the rear screen demist fed through it......

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