First posting...Love the site ! My 96 4x4 doors started locking and unlocking all by themselves. Started when I unlocked the doors using the key the other day. They simply began to lock and unlock. Probably would have gone on forever but I discovered that I can stop the problem by holding the unlock button down for a few seconds. This has worked so far but I'd like to fix it. Any ideas?

 

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Did this occur after a rainfall or after washing the vehicle?

If so, the problem may be water in the electrical contacts.

 

I was in Seattle. Of course it was raining! Haven't been "brave" enough to try the locks since. I'll try them today and see what happens. It's been garaged all week since our return on Saturday so things are dry now if moisture was the problem.

 

My 94 Aerostar began locking and unlocking intermittently a couple of years ago. At first it was just every so often, but it ultimately got so bad that it wore the lock actuator out on the passenger door. It was just ridiculous. Driving down the road, the silly things were almost deafening. I had to remove the fuse to disable them. Never got to the bottom of it. Funny thing is, after it became more than an intermittent problem, there was a definite correlation between the rear air switch and the locking. I recall sitting there trying to see what triggered it, and there was a point when they would lock and unlock when the switch was on high, but stop when you turned it down to low, then start again when you turned it up to high. But the more I tried testing my theory, I would get occasional locks when it was on low, and eventually it locked and unlocked all the time.
I asked around a few places, and it has been suggested that there may be ground wire back feeding current somewhere. I haven't had the time or resources to try and track this down, so I just lock my van the old fashioned way now.
I actually came across this site because I am trying to troubleshoot my lack of heat coming out of the rear air vents. I wonder if these two problems could be related? I also currently have problems with the thermostat (maybe - we tried replacing it last winter and it didn't immediately fix the problem, but we got heat again before we could try the next fix, so we forgot about it till this winter). I am looking for other possibilities on that one, I'm going to search the site. It recently has been coming and going (regardless of water level being full). Currently it is gone, but when it is working, doesn't work in the rear vents. The fan blows, but it blows cold air. Anything to do with pulling that fuse on the door locks, I wonder?

 

Hi mom to 4 boys

Welcome to the forum.
It sure is annoying when you type for a while and then the server loses your post
I deleted the second post for you.
What I always do is if I type something that is long at all, before I post it I highlight the whole thing by left clicking and dragging the cursor over everything i typed, then right click and hit "copy". That way if the server dumps what I typed I can just paste it back into a new message.

 

I did think about pulling the fuse but so far the problem's not self-initiating. It took locking or unlocking the door with the key or with the switches. I hate when electrical goes bad! Unless it's very simple I'm usually at a loss. Good luck with the rear heat problem. So far mine is O.K. but of course, now that its been discussed....well, I hope not!