You would expect only a few ohms or tens of ohms for the solenoid as a few
amps would be needed, but I've looked at my old Haynes manual circuit (I
used to have a P10) and there's 2 diodes in the solenoid circuit which may
effect readings on a meter, it will depend on the meter type. Most meters
will read much higher than the real resistance. It can be best to check
such circuits continuity with a small (3 volt or more) battery and low power
bulb as the diode's effect is negligible then apart from it being polarity
conscious (try the battery both ways round).
In fact, even though my trade is electronics, the circuit doesn't make a lot
of sense as it couldn't work at all as shown. I reckon the 2 diodes common
connection must go to ground in the door for it to work, dunno for sure.
The diodes are there to allow current to flow in either direction in the
solenoid for locking /unlocking. As none of your doors are working it can't
be the actual solenoids at fault. If there is a childlock I would suspect
that as being open circuit from non-use as I had a few switches pack up on
me on my P10 and it was always the ones that never got used that failed. I
managed to strip a fog light switch and fix it (it just needed the contacts
wiped clean even though they looked like new), springs and ball bearings
flew everywhere LOL. Good luck.
> Thanks for the suggestion - but it wasn't that (I did go and check
> though!)
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>> > Regards
>> > Phil
default - 24 Jan 2005 00:51 GMT
Thanks for your suggestions re. testing the diode circuit, I'll give it a go.
(I'd also stared at that diode circuit and given up trying to work out how any
current would flow with the circuit as printed!)
I guess I hadn't considered that the child locks would have an electrical as
well as a mechanical action. I assume that they are the switches shown in the
Haynes manual in each door lock actuator circuit (despite the fact that the
passenger door doesn't have a child lock).
The only problem with that theory is that unless they were all broken,I would
have expected maybe some doors to work (assuming that the passenger door really
doesn't have a child-lock switch buried somewhere).
I'm also puzzled by the diagram in the Haynes manual for the 'Lock/unlock
switch' (ie driver's door). In my version of the manual there's three
components with the same reference number - the basic door lock switch with 2
contacts, and two versions (one for electric windows, one without) of what
seems to be more circuits switched by this component - yet as far as I can tell
there's just the two wires from the main key-operated lock switch, although more
wires go to the timer. Not sure where the others come from! This may be a red
herring of course.
I suspect what I'll have to do to progress things further is to have a look at
the passenger door; if I can manually wire the solenoid into the timer (or just
momentarily connect 0/12v) and it works, that will at least show me if there's
a fault in the wiring after the timer but before it splits for the individual
door circuits. . Mind you even if that's the case, by-passing the wiring loom
to fix the problem might just be difficult!
Thanks for your help
Phil
> You would expect only a few ohms or tens of ohms for the solenoid as a few
> amps would be needed, but I've looked at my old Haynes manual circuit (I
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> wiped clean even though they looked like new), springs and ball bearings
> flew everywhere LOL. Good luck.