Doors locking by themselves
 

Hi there guys, I searched and couldn't find anything similar to my issue.

I have 2001 Civic LX 4 door that I recently bought on Craigslist. I'm going through the car and fixing some small issues on it but the one that I'm having trouble with is the door locks.

The door lock switch on the inside of the drivers door didn't work for locking or unlocking the doors. I pulled apart the door panel and found the switch was disconnected. I plugged it back in and tested the switch. It unlocks the doors just fine, but about 1-2 seconds later the doors all lock by themselves. Hmmmm. I'm guessing that's why it had been unplugged, to prevent the doors from locking all the time.

I'm not sure if it's related, but the drivers side door can't be manually locked from the inside. I physically can't push the latch down, it's stuck. Additionally, when I lock the drivers side door from the outside using the key, it binds but I can wiggle it and it will eventually lock.

Electrical problems aren't my forte, but I do have a multi meter to help with diagnosing the problem. Any insight that you guys can provide would be great! Thank you!

Re: Doors locking by themselves
 

If it does not see that the drivers door has locked properly it will do strange things.

Try locking with lock button on doors once the drivers door is locked with key, and see what happens.

Re: Doors locking by themselves
 

That's by design. If you hold either the outside or the inside door handle open while you push the lock button down, it should work.

I believe this is due to worn tumblers inside the lock cylinder. Apparently it's quite common on these cars. I was looking into it earlier because I had this problem on a previous Civic. It can be fixed by replacing the tumblers inside the driver's lock cylinder, which a locksmith should be able to do. Not sure about doing it yourself -- removing the cylinder is relatively easy but I wasn't able to get the parts for a rebuild here for a reasonable price. My local dealers all send these out to locksmiths and don't stock the tumblers. This thread may be helpful: https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...t-problem.html

Or you can buy a new lock cylinder and have a separate key for the driver's door. I've also heard of people poaching a lock cylinder from elsewhere in the car, like the rear seat release lock, and installing it in the door. Never tried it myself. And someone in the thread above temporarily solved the problem by removing worn tumblers without replacing them.

Not sure... Sorry, I don't have much to offer here except the very general suggestion of having a look at wiring diagrams and working systematically to isolate the problem.

Re: Doors locking by themselves
 

All doors will lock when one locks the driver door by pushing the knob down, so if something inside the door is pulling the knob down on its own....maybe the lock rod has been tangled up in that tar-like stuff on the plastic liner.


Anything aftermarket wired in?