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My car suddenly started having its first small glitch since I've owned it.
The key unlocks all doors from the driver's side. But it will not lock all the doors, it only locks the driver's door.
Inefficient in Washington's inconvenient weather.
Any ideas, suggestions, smart axx comments?
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Onkel and Art:
Thank you for your specific and helpful tips. When the first opportunity arises, we (meaning husband Tim) will tackle this. Probably with dry weather a dry spell as we usually have in January.
yes, Bellingham. Tim is working there for another 2 weeks, living in our small motorhome. What a nice little town. Would love to call it home. Doubtful we can afford the housing.
Chewelah. Rustic and delightful. However husband says "unique wears off quickly." Lots of work for me there. Not so much, for him, marine trades and all.
Thank you again.
For an entertaining vignette, see my entry under Stories, where I am posting the story of 240 nearly T boned by mooose.
k
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I've about lost track of this, but I think it was Onkel who said:
"I am still confused but my initial question was totally serious...it just the regular posters spurred on by me could not leave it at that.
So, right now, when you are sitting in the car (with the driver's door shut) and push the driver's lock button swiftly down...all the doors do lock?
If that is the case, you are on the right track with the lithium grease but maybe not all the way there. When you get the driver's door panel off you can actually see the working of that lock and how the nub pushes on lock plunger rod. When well greased and cleaned, this should all happen seamlessly but when crusty and dry it may not.
If the lock plunger does not lock all the doors but does unlock all the doors, we have a lock relay or wiring issue"
Well, the answer is, when sitting in the car with driver's door shut, pushing the drver's lock down DOES lock all the doors. I've never thought to do it until this week when I was in downtown Spokane for my first time, and it was after dark. SO yes, it does lock all the doors. I did not think to try unlocking the doors from the inside. I am unaccustomed to city life.
Also, over here on the "dry side" of the state, not only does it lock all doors with driver in driver's seat and door shut, but it also locks now all doors from the outside. Key in door lock does lock all doors. AND, oddly enough, the dome light turns on when the door is opened, and turns itself off after the key locks all the doors. Which it never did before.
Maybe the solution to this problem is to move away from the rain forest to the high desert, something I've wanted to seriously consider.
Husband says no way. Sigh. I guess it's going to mean a mechanical fix, then.
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You need to have the key switch replaced. It is a most common repair. Doing the inside lock test was not one we expected you to think of; Onkel Udo provided that suggestion two weeks ago, and I followed up with an explanation why it needed to be done.
Replace the key switch. It is fiddly work, not greasy Tim-Taylor-testosterone-laced mechanic stuff. Just take the door panel off, unsnap the switch from around the key lock, disconnect it from the wiring, and replace it.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
"...real expertise is never appreciated. People would always rather muddle along in their own dim, blundering way than have someone else point out where they were going wrong--even if that other person is clearly brighter." -Jeff Lindsay
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As Art indicates, it is the switch...particularly the part on the left of the picture.
Regarding the dry side of the state. I would happily live in the Ellensburgh/Wenatchee area if there was consistent work on that side of the mountains that did not require a commute to Moses Lake or the Tri-Cities. Spokane has some cute neighborhoods but does remind me too much of a wild west version or a gritty rust-belt industrial city like Toledo or Columbus.
I almost had the wife convinced to let me accept a job in Bellingham until she found out how many days per year I would be on the road. I was not real excited at the prospect of the housing costs but the offer almost made up for it...and the pretty much guaranteed OT would have picked up the difference.
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Onkel said: "Regarding the dry side of the state. I would happily live in the Ellensburgh/Wenatchee area if there was consistent work on that side of the mountains that did not require a commute to Moses Lake or the Tri-Cities. Spokane has some cute neighborhoods but does remind me too much of a wild west version or a gritty rust-belt industrial city like Toledo or Columbus."
I can only imagine the rust belt, have never been north of Cincinnati in that part of the country.
Spokane was totally uninteresting to me, appearing to be one strip mall after another, or one suburbia mall after another, with no end in sight. At one point while waiting for a light I saw 4 Starbucks stores at 4 separate shopping clusters. Has anyone in that town heard of urban planning? To be fair, I only had a minimal amount of time to investigate. Most of my time on the job was spent north of Chewelah.
Yes to Ellensburg/Wenatchee area. Two thumbs way up.
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"Spokane was totally uninteresting to me, appearing to be one strip mall after another, or one suburbia mall after another, with no end in sight. At one point while waiting for a light I saw 4 Starbucks stores at 4 separate shopping clusters."
Although I did go to the mall one weekend because I needed a suit for an interview back east, I never saw much of this side of Spokane. Funny how you can get two totally different impression of the same city just by the parts you see. My impression was of 3/4 empty 60's strip malls and neighborhoods with lots of vacant houses from the 20's adjacent to miles and miles of commercial/industrial strips.
"Has anyone in that town heard of urban planning? "
I will give that. Spokane seems to have grown organically and probably has seen a lot of its tax dollars disappear in Olympia never to make the trip back over to the dry side of the mountains. I think Puget Sound would like to deny the existence of anything East I82
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Your door lock problem doesn't sound major.
The lock is actuated by two separate switches. One is attached to the push-pull knob, the other to the key lock. If the push-pull knob is still working, then the problem is with the key switch.
The wire from the key switch that actuates the locking may be broken. Just remove the door panel to check. If it can't be fixed, then you could disconnect the key switch completely so that it doesn't open the other doors. You can still use the push-pull switch to do that. It even provides better security as the other doors only open when you want them to (by pulling up on the knob).
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.
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"Your door lock problem doesn't sound major.
The lock is actuated by two separate switches. One is attached to the push-pull knob, the other to the key lock. If the push-pull knob is still working, then the problem is with the key switch.
The wire from the key switch that actuates the locking may be broken. Just remove the door panel to check. If it can't be fixed, then you could disconnect the key switch completely so that it doesn't open the other doors. You can still use the push-pull switch to do that. It even provides better security as the other doors only open when you want them to (by pulling up on the knob)."
FINALLY! a logical approach to a question that may seem insignificant but which represents a major p-i-a when it is pouring down rain (6-9 months of the year) and arms not long enouh to reach every single door latch from the drivers seat!!!
I will follow up on this ASAP.
THANK YOU
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What you say is true but it makes locking an '88 difficult and inconvenient. Since the plunger cannot be used to lock the doors with the driver's door open, the OP would have to exit the vehicle, open the rear door, hit the driver's side lock button, close the rear door...or some alternate version of this scenario.
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"What you say is true but it makes locking an '88 difficult and inconvenient. Since the plunger cannot be used to lock the doors with the driver's door open, the OP would have to exit the vehicle, open the rear door, hit the driver's side lock button, close the rear door...or some alternate version of this scenario"
Exactly. In the rain. Did I say, the pouring down rain?
We laugh, if only because it prevents the alternative.
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That's where the suggestion to alter the latch extension comes in. With the door panel removed to examine the key switch, one can watch how the plunger works and make the cut.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.
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"That's where the suggestion to alter the latch extension comes in. With the door panel removed to examine the key switch, one can watch how the plunger works and make the cut."
With a woman's intuition, I sense that we are sneaking up on the root cause.
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all this is a hoot and a half.
sorry to take so long to get back to you gents. my day job interferes with my volvo enthusiasm.
my 1988 240 wagon is my favorite car ever. it right now has 196,666 or something like that. i think the guy who flipped it to me last year trimmed the odo. i have evidence.
anyway i drive a 2 county rural area for my job and this car makes it all fun. don't know how long she's going to last but i'm betting it's going to be another many many miles.
if i solve my door lock problem i'll post an answer.
i can't figure out how to respond to individual messages without making a long list, maybe i'll get that down at some point.
thanks for the good tips and good humor.
oh yeah, and in case anyone mistakes my smart ass cmments about my husband in the above posts, he is the hero who figured out in my first month of ownership that the loud rattle and hum and bad odor coming into the cabin was simply a loose exhaust pipe, for which he fashioned some kind of homemade bracket and fixed it in about 15 minutes. genius, and accustmed to my smart assery. a godsend, really.
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Both of my 85 240s have had strange lock issues,(due to decayed wiring)..On my white car,the locks refused to lock,so I clipped the wires and went for the old manual lock system.On my blue car,(Doctor Bombay),the locks will sometimes pop back up after I lock the driver door...
.Solution:meticulously replace all wiring in doors...powder coat or chrome differential,,,trim fenderwells to allow for 20 inch rims,,, install hood scoop, and daytona style rear spoiler,, paint brake calipers red,, Armorall all hoses,valve cover, and transmission....use sawzall to make crude sunroof,,,tint windows, ,buy Swedish Volvo factory air freshener,,purchase aftermarket rear window defogger from JC Whitney,and install...replace rear trailing arm bushings with chinese kevlar units made by Boeing... tune car to try and pass smog test...
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my good man, those extended solutions are genius! so far, my solutions have only gone as far as sanding and paintng the hood flat black and the roof the stock gold, putting 15" all seasons, and flashy wheels, and a fine stereo with satellite radio, way too expensive speakers, also rebuilt the drivers seat with parts from wagonmeister dave, and new fake leather seat cushions that husband got in there like a pro custome tailored fit...
oh yeah,i changed the oil, put a new windsheild washer pump, $18 a piece windshiled wipers,and...a custom auto parts store tint job with vinyl kit...
next summer or whenever it stops raining i'm going to strip off the crappy plastic fake chrome trim off the wheel wells and paint them flat black on the edges about an inch deep...and the same for the plastic trim along the bottom edges of the doors
besides i want an idp kit for the front end. husband says wait and see if it still runs by then. subaru man, what does he know?
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Thank you thank you redfoxglove!
Of course the extended solutions are whimsical jocular absurdities,,yet I actually came very close to painting my front calipers red after I got my Virgo rims.
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ah, you mock my own extended solutions.
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"powder coat or chrome differential,,,trim fenderwells to allow for 20 inch rims,,, install hood scoop, and daytona style rear spoiler,, paint brake calipers red,, Armorall all hoses,valve cover, and transmission....use sawzall to make crude sunroof,,,tint windows, ,buy Swedish Volvo factory air freshener,,purchase aftermarket rear window defogger from JC Whitney,and install...replace rear trailing arm bushings with chinese kevlar units made by Boeing... tune car to try and pass smog test..."
Huh?
All this done, or planned, and you cannot repair the fuel pump relay to as intended?
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Onkel Udo II;..My fuel pump relay works fine.,,I keep a spare in the glove box.
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Sorry, I was referring to this thread and confused you with OP there...
http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1547798/220/240/260/280/fuel_pump_relay_workaround_bad_idea.html
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posted by
someone claiming to be akwagon
on
Thu Nov 15 12:09 CST 2012 [ RELATED]
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are any of the wires leading into door broken?
that's what happened to my 89 245
gary c
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hmm..good suggestion, have not looked at wires. will look.
did check bentley mechanical answers book.
time on the job has taken precedence over all this volvo detective work and socialization.
and it's raining, in earnest now, with 60 mph gusts. oh, the lovely days of indian summer, just a memory now. indian summer, time to wash and wax the old girl and even change the oil.
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Does pushing the driver side lock button down locks all the doors?
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Here's a smart axx comment for you Mike: The button won't work unless the door is shut (depending on the year).
But smart axx aside, that's a good test you suggest. Hope the OP replies with a clue to what year 240 he or she has.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Select-a-joke Analog Joke Generator
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no to the push down drivers side locks all others. push down drivers side locks drivers side.
yes to the smart axx characterization.
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I am still confused but my initial question was totally serious...it just the regular posters spurred on by me could not leave it at that.
So, right now, when you are sitting in the car (with the driver's door shut) and push the driver's lock button swiftly down...all the doors do lock?
If that is the case, you are on the right track with the lithium grease but maybe not all the way there. When you get the driver's door panel off you can actually see the working of that lock and how the nub pushes on lock plunger rod. When well greased and cleaned, this should all happen seamlessly but when crusty and dry it may not.
If the lock plunger does not lock all the doors but does unlock all the doors, we have a lock relay or wiring issue.
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"So, right now, when you are sitting in the car (with the driver's door shut) and push the driver's lock button swiftly down...all the doors do lock?"
See my above reply, Art. Geez Louise, I never thought to try to lock myself in the car. If it will solve the mystery, I shall try to do so, post haste. Or at least, tomorrow. It's dark outside.
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"The button won't work unless the door is shut (depending on the year). " True, but you can still lock the car using the button while standing outside...for good or ill.
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funnily enough, i do know how to lock the car using the button while standing outside...inthe rain
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"True, but you can still lock the car using the button while standing outside...for good or ill."
Hmmm. Still lacking in model year information. Lots of improvements occurred in those 19 years. I can do as you say with my older cars (79, 83, 84) but to do it on the 89's, on the 90, on the 91's, I have to open the rear door or window and reach inside to use the button to lock the driver's door.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Select-a-joke Analog Joke Generator
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ok, since you insist, it's a 1988 240 DL wagon. without electric windows.
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It really does help to have the information. Thank you.
Now, does the button do what the key does not (with the door closed)?
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," says Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaims Daisy.
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"It really does help to have the information. Thank you.
Now, does the button do what the key does not (with the door closed)?"
Hmm...I never thought to try pushing the button while inside the car. Is that what you mean?
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Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The answer to that question would confirm or refute the guess you address at the bottom of the thread with the word "FINALLY!" in it. If it works, then the key switch is at fault (usually rotten wires) but if not, a wire through the door jamb tunnel (green) is probably broken.
Just trying to save you a little time and disappointment by diagnosing the problem as close as possible instead of joining the guesswork contest based on individual experiences.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things. - Jilly Cooper
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You can get the '89+ driver's door lock to work like the older models.
Remove the outside latching mechanism from the door. Notice the small extension that protrudes into the door. Cut a small amount off, re-install and see if the driver's door knob will now push down with the door open.
Basically, Volvo added an extra piece to the interior locking mechanism that is blocked by the tip of the extension until the door is closed.
(This annoyed me with my sister's '89, until I took a closer look. I had a spare outside latch that I could adapt. I hid a spare key on the car.)
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.
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now this, this is the first message which seems to address the problem sans smart axxery.
alas, my 240 is a 1988.
but, your answer approximates the surmise of my husband, a subaru man. who, upon hearing the suggestion posted in another unfortunte's thread about doors not opening, went down to auto parts store to buy white lithium grease. no word yet on results of that foray.
and yes,i have a magnetic key box that has yet to find its way to underbelly of this fine machine.
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"I have to open the rear door or window and reach inside to use the button to lock the driver's door."
See, you took all the fun out of it by stating the obvious. I was hoping you would fall into my (not so) clever trap.
So now tell me how I can make this system do what I actually want it to do:
When I unlock the trunk with the key, it unlocks the doors. When I unlock the door with the driver side button it does NOT unlock the trunk. Bonus points if I can unlock the drivers door with the key and it does unlock the trunk...
I strongly suspect no combination of actuatosr and relays will get me this, but that is the system I have always wanted...until I realized i never wanted a sedan I the first place.
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you are trying but i am not drawn into foolery so easily. on MY car, unlocking the trunk does not unlock the doors.
but still, locking the drivers side, while standing outside the car with the door closed, using the key,does not lock all the doors and the trunk.
as it formerly did.
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/271030304138
I've been using this one on our wagon since Oleseahorse sent me one over a year ago. Works as reliably as it did the first day.
On the 86+ trunk lock, you can disconnect it from the central locking system by withdrawing the key in the horizontal position after turning it counterclockwise. It is all in the owner's manual.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Select-a-joke Analog Joke Generator
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