Ah Hah! Door Switch Or Solenoid?

bob@triconnect.net · April 26, 2004

My 1992 ES 300 has been surpising me for a while with an intermitent dead battery. If I left it for a week I could just about count on it being dead but some days I would drive it to lunch, come out and Bingo - dead. Jump start and it would run great. Might go for days or weeks without an issue. The battery and alternator tested fine.

Last week I may have found at least part of the issue. Took it to lunch, drove back with no problems and about 15 minutes later realized I had left something in the car. When I went out the front passenger side door lock was opening and locking and opening and locking and .... well you get it. Opened the hood and started pulling fuses until silence... Car barely started up but it did and I let it run until charged.

Kills the dome light and remote locks but so far no repeat. Any opinions on whether or not this is a bad switch, the solenoid going bad or some kind of short. I have the door panel off and haven't spotted any obvious "smoke". It only seemed to affect the one door (the other three were not making noise and did not appear to be moving at all).

Bob ;)

Thank you for the advice!

The Contoller might be a good guess since as I recall the switch activates all of the locks and it doesn't seem like the solenoid would always be receiving voltage. I'll find a shop amnual and see if I can find that critter.

Bob

branshew · April 27, 2004

Good luck with that one. It could be tough to determine the cause.

My guess is either the switch or the central controller. Is there was a short, it would probably blow the fuse.

If it is only the passenger side door, I would start by disconnecting the wiring to the lock switch on that door only. Leave the connection to the lock mechanism itself intact though. Then wait to see if it happens again. If it stops, then chances are that it was the switch in the door that has gone bad. If it keeps happening then something is probably wrong with your central locking controller.

((A caveat to the above, I don't know if disconnecting the switch on the door will have any effect on the central lock mechanism or not. If it shorts out the lock for that door all together then my test method above will not work. Get yourself a copy of the Lexus Service Manual and that should help with the wiring schematic. If you have a volt meter or other current detector, it may help make the diagnosis easier since you will be able to determine where the current that is tripping the lock is coming from.))