Car Electrical Problem

Bombbastic22

My car locks and unlocks randomly and the garage told me I need to simply replace the locks. However, someone else told me it could be simply a bad earth connection. So I found the earth connections and accidentally touched one with a screwdriver and boom, the car locks itself. There are three connections in the same spot and the outermost one of them is all green and oxidised looking and I suspect this to be the problem.

Could this be the problem and is there some way to clean it without replacing the whole wire as replacing the entire wire seems it may be a bit of a pain in the ass with a lot of panels needing to be removed.

Hal1

Car is?

Bombbastic22

Hal1 wrote: »

Car is?

a 99 1.6 Skoda petrol

listermint

You can clean the area with some electrical cleaner, (basically alcohol) and a short stiff ended brush. make sure you disconnect the battery first and leave the car for around 10-15 minutes to lose any risidual power to be on the safe side.

make sure the joint is all clean and when finshed insure the connections are tight and secure.

best of luck.

Bombbastic22

listermint wrote: »

You can clean the area with some electrical cleaner, (basically alcohol) and a short stiff ended brush. make sure you disconnect the battery first and leave the car for around 10-15 minutes to lose any risidual power to be on the safe side.

make sure the joint is all clean and when finshed insure the connections are tight and secure.

best of luck.

My thoughts exactly! Seem to remember someone leaving battery connected while doing something electrical and blowing all the fuses.

10-15 minutes? Would there be much residual power floating about? Cheers.

You sound like you've done something like this before, have you?

Well, if it works it sure beats the crap out of spending 400 euro on new locks only to find out it still happens!

listermint

Bombbastic22 wrote: »

My thoughts exactly! Seem to remember someone leaving battery connected while doing something electrical and blowing all the fuses.

10-15 minutes? Would there be much residual power floating about? Cheers.

You sound like you've done something like this before, have you?

Well, if it works it sure beats the crap out of spending 400 euro on new locks only to find out it still happens!

10-15 on the safe side. Its best not to send a unwanted current down the wrong way i find.

10-15 minutes or couple of hundred on relays etc

If you doors actually lock when it does work. Its not the locking mechanism its an electical / relay or control unit fault. People fob off electrical issues like this as they dont want the hastle, id say thats what happened when advised by the garage.

Bombbastic22

listermint wrote: »

10-15 on the safe side. Its best not to send a unwanted current down the wrong way i find.

10-15 minutes or couple of hundred on relays etc

If you doors actually lock when it does work. Its not the locking mechanism its an electical / relay or control unit fault. People fob off electrical issues like this as they dont want the hastle, id say thats what happened when advised by the garage.

Hmmm...ya. They always seem to want to keep it simple (as opposed to unscrewing two screws which is all it took me to find the earth wires) and try this and that and see what happens while you are paying them with every trial and error procedure that doesn't actually work!!

Well, will keep you posted. Will try cleaning the connections this evening and if it works - then it's time to find another new garage!