Well, I'm back to posting. I have a 97 Explorer and have a problem with my drivers door lock. When I hit the lock switch on that door, it locks but when I hit unlock, nothing -- none of the doors in the truck unlock. So, I swapped switches with the passenger side and I was surprised -- same problem with a different switch. I then put the "suspected" drivers side switch in the passengers side and it worked fine (unlocked and locked all of the doors). Apparently not a switch problem. To further complicate this, when a switch (other than the drivers side), including the key fob and wireless entry, is used to unlock the doors, you can see the drivers door actuator engage but does not unlock the door (the drivers door lock switch does not engage any of the doors). Help?!?
JW

 

Are you changing the lock/unlock switch to different doors or are you changing the actuating solenoid inside the door?

 

Whats it do when you try to unlock it from the "liftgate lock switch"

 

merlynr: I swapped the switches only because that is what I suspected (they are the same switches with the lettering inverted to match the side). The actuators are too difficult to take out to experiment unless I get a better feeling that it is the actuator causing the problem. Both switches lock and unlock when put on the passenger side and both fail to unlock when on the drivers side. Also, when on the drivers door, no locks unlock.

87 XLT: The symptoms are all the same from any unlock mechanism (any door, the fob, liftgate, keyless pad) -- the drivers door actuator is "engaged" but fails to unlock.

I am convincing myself I have two problems -- one the actuator and two an even more difficult electrical problem. I could dream up a scenario that a dead short on the switch side could draw down the actuator enough to not fully "throw" the lock which would require only one fix....

Any advice would be helpful. I am finding that every problem I have is like a deep dark Ford secret -- blend doors, wiper motors, front end push, now this. I just thought I was unlucky.

 

the non actuation is common, you will find broken wires in the black rubber bellows harness in the driver door jamb, the other problem usually is sticky mechanism in the door, spray with a cleaner/rust penertrator, then a good lubricant, (not WD40)

 

The lock/unlock relays are in the jack storage area and like aquanaut20 sez it looks like theres a break in the wiring, most likely in the drivers door jamb.

The unlock side of the drivers switch is wired pink/yellow & theres always voltage from the relay to the switch.

 

does the lock/unlock in the back (by the lift gate) work fine? As mentioned, the usual places to look at the wires that go through the door (as they fail). But in my case it was not there, it was a break somewhere in the path back to the tail gate (mine would not lock the doors, unlock was OK). I posted my question in this thread:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=245258

the advice I got there about how they wire them was what helped me solve the problem.

Good luck.

-JB

 

The lock / unlock at the liftgate works fine. I looked at the https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=245258 thread and it sounds like in my case that the wire problem is between the switch and the splice since all of the other mechanisms seem to work. I'll give her a shot, thanks for the advice.
JW

 

Well, part of my 97 Explorer door lock problem is solved. The unlock function on my drivers door did not unlock any of the doors. I used the info on https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=245258 with one major exception. You only need to focus on the Pink/Yellow wire when you are having problems with LOCKING the doors. If you are having trouble UNLOCKING the doors, you need to focus on the Pink/Light Green wires. The splice for these wires is in the same general place as the P/Y (under the back seat / drivers side).

I could not have solved this problem without the thread above and the other inputs. Thanks to all.

Now to the sticky actuator and the broken door handle.

 

I'm surprised that you found a break in pink/light green. The97 Explorer EVTM shows Pink/yellow wired to the unlock side of the switch?? I guess it's wrong.

The other error i've found is the wiring diagram shows the trailer towing relays wired to fuse 6 , but the fuse list in the same EVTM shows fuse 7. Go figure, i guess even the factory wiring diagrams can be wrong

Just curious, but do you know why the wire broke? Is it exposed & vulnerable??

 

XLT,
actually, he was looking for an unlock problem. I just thought it was similar to the lock problem I had with mine so I pointed him to the thread where I managed to get info to fix mine. JonBoy88 was just adding more information to those that might also have this. The wire in question for unlock issues is the Pink/Light Green and when locking issues it is the Pink/Yellow. So at least in that case the EVTM seems right.

Funny, I have a prelim EVTM for a 97 Mountaineer and in that one the fuse for the trailer stuff agrees in both locations. Odd.

-John B

 

If it is the same as in my truck I was not able to track down exactly where the break was in the wire (and in all honesty I did not care to try to hard) I was able to just jumper from a known good point to another and all was well. My guess is that somehow folding the seats in that area must stress the wiring harness that is there or something like that as there is no good reason for a failure at a midway point in the wiring.

-JB

 

Not sure why it broke or where. I'm embarrassed to say that I found it by mistake. I was putting a jumper across the P/Y and the jumper fell out (I didn't realize it). Neither the lock nor the unlock worked. I then suspected the wiring schematic and referenced my Haynes book. It shows P/Y controlling the lock relays and the P/LG controlling the unlock relays. Just an extra step, I am happy to get it resolved.

 

Thanks for the added info guys. I think this is the 3rd or 4th post with a break in one of the lock wires in the same area. As k2jjb sez it's probably something to do with folding the seat since nothing else back there moves around.

Jonboy, thanks for the corrected info from your Haynes. I'll correct that in my EVTM.

K2JJB do you show PDB fuse 6 or 7 for the trailer relays? I'll correct that info in my EVTM also. I got the EVTM from a friend when he traded his 97 Ex, so I dont have the owners manual to verify which fuse it is.

Glad to hear you got the locks fixed & good luck with the lock actuator.

 

Apparently I did not RTFM the whole thing and only now looked at the pages with the actual fuse box layouts (I always just looked at the fuse number in the diagrams). Much like yours mine shows fuse 6 for the trailer relays in the wiring but fuse 7 on the charts. I know that I blew that fuse on mine once and it was a 20A (yellow) one I had to replace... I guess I need to go look at the truck when I get home and see what position it is actually in. The owner's manual also says that it is fuse 7 and I seem to recall that it was right when I replaced the fuse that day.