Power locks going nuts!!

[Tony T]

Never seen this problem before ('91 Lebaron 'vert, V6 w/ A543 swap).

When first starting out, at the time when the door locks automatically engage, the 'key in/door open' chime starts and the locks cycle erractically. I don't suppose it is an coincidence, but recently the driver's door lower hinge must have gotten sloppy enough to catch the body molding and rolled the fender under the door - still need to get in and pull out the fender to get the door to open correctly again.

Would a bad body switch freak out the locks this badly?!? And if so, please tell me mother Mopar still stocks 'em...I always heard bad things about Neon door switches, but I thought that was a late '90s thing...

TT

[cordes]

I have had something similar way back when. It was a bad ground that was causing come craziness. I don't know that it is the exact situation you are having though.

[jamesmonty]

I would say its the body control module. At least I think that's what it is called. It controls the locks and a few other things. My friend Mark has rebuilt a few for his cars (90 daytona and lebaron) with success. I don't think he posts here much, but go to http://www.mmohio.org and talk to Turbobearcat.

[Dodge Aries K]

Yeah, a 90 LeBaron I was looking at for a first car started freaking out... locks went crazy, digital dash displayed garbage, wipers and lights were going nuts, and then the engine stalled when the alarm went off...

The BCM was bad.

[Tony T]

...and then the engine stalled when the alarm went off...

HOO HAA!... That's exactly what I didn't want to hear!!

Before this thing leaves me stranded someplace (again), where is the BCM and how many beverages is it going to take me to swap it out!


Would this by chance have anything to do with the 'low fuel' gas pump light in the dash staying on and the intermittant wipers and all the upper dash warning lights (door/deck ajar, wiper juice low) not to work? I imagined all these little gadgets not to be related in failure - if they all have a common failure, so much the better!!!

TT

[cordes]

When my ignition switch in my 90' omni went haywire I had problems with some of the key on accessories not working. The ign. switch wasn't allowing power to be fed to a whole bus in the fuse block. I also has some issues that seemed like bad grounds. Bad grounds were what caused my crazy power lock issues way back when.

It could just be coincidence though.

[Dodge Aries K]

If I remember right it's in the passenger kick panel where on older cars the logic module used to be. Here's a way to find it... BCM cars have the speaker for the chime built into them... open the door and turn on the lights so it starts bitchin and you'll find it.

[Turbodave]

Yep, usually behind the passenger side kick panel.

[bakes]

When the door ajar switch go they start to cycle the door switches had it happen on my vert , just unplug each on at a time till you find which on then get a new one i paid like $18.00 my cost for a door ajar switch.

[Tony T]

Thanks guys...I'm going to attack it this weekend, I'll post up the results.

TT

[WickedShelby88]

Shame as there was a 92 in the local yard they just crushed.. I should have nabbed that part. IIRC its just a box full of relays and switches.. Tony I believe this is something you might be able to even fix with your electronics skills. However, with no schematic it might not be as easy to trace the wires.. With a diagram at least you might be able to figure out the inputs and outputs going to and from the module though. 90 should be the simplest year as I think in 91 up they got even more complex. Let me know what you find Tony.

[Tony T]

Will do, thanks Joe.

TT

[Dodge Aries K]

BCM isn't just relays... it's actually a computer module.

[WickedShelby88]

There are relays in there that can go bad, but as mentioned grounds and switches play a huge role.
A loose wire on my aftermarket door locks fried two out of 3 actuators so I had to unplug the thing. I think the FSM if you can get one goes into some good detail about how to actually diagnose and pin out this thing.. This is the type of thing that is going to plague a lot of people in the future so I think we better start to get to figuring these things out now before they get so obsolete the info isn't even available.

[Tony T]

Quick update:
After pulling the trim off to get the number off the BCM, the lock problem has magically disappeared. It was clear a previous owner was in this area before - he had a amp lead running to the trunk under the trim here and used the wrong screw to fasten the trim at the top by the BCM. I can only imagine the screw was in a bad place and possibly causing the problem. I've got one coming from Marty at Arizona Parts just in case.

And the beat goes on...

TT

[Tony T]

Just to put a wrap on this thread, (and in case this info helps someone else): After swapping out BCM's, the locks continue to work correctly, now my delay wipers work and the Traveller now calculates 'Distance to empty' (in the past it just displayed "0").

Thanks Marty!

TT

[cordes]

Glad to see you got it working. Fortunately I have never had a car with a BCM to go bad.