Hi guys, My 2008 F430 spider is behaving strange, when I lock the car I can hear the doors locking and unlocking instantly. Larm is on but unlocked doors. If I press the button on the key again and start the car and drive a few meters the larm will go off. I have been working a little with the door handles and had them dismounted but I’m pretty sure everything is put together correctly. I have my battery on a charger so it is fully charged but I did have a instance where it had been totally empty quite recently. Any ideas what could be wrong?
Was this part of your diagnosis for the current issue or did this only happen after you were playing with the door handles? If the door is not closing/latching properly, it may interfere with the locking process (i.e. the movement of the lock actuator). If the actuator can't move to the correct position (triggering "locked" and "latched" microswitches), then the Window ECU & Door ECU unlock the doors. More than you probably need to know, but the Window and Door ECUs operate in tandem to drive the electric motor in the lock/latch assembly (see below) Image Unavailable, Please Login The motor gearing moves the end of the big metal pivot/fulcrum up and down. The position of the components are detected by the two microswitches on the left. Anyway, if the relationship between the fulcrum and that metal post directly underneath are in the wrong positions in relation to each other, the microswitches may not be triggered and the Window ECU rejects the locking command. A shot without the metal pivot/fulcrum: Image Unavailable, Please Login When you unlock the door with the fob, the Alarm ECU talks to the Window ECU which talks to the Door ECU which activates the lock motor. At this point, I'm not sure what's going on.
The "unlatched" microswitch in the latch/lock mechanism in the photos operate the following: The warning light on the instrument panel (door open) The F1 pump (driver's side only) The window drop (2cm) The interior light There is also an input into the Alarm ECU. Are you getting any of these when your alarm goes off? The interior door handle can also trigger the "unlatched" microswitch by causing the door to unlatch (via the cable). The door handles do have other microswitches for other functions (locking and unlocking).
Hmm, only thing i see is the larm triangle when the larm goes off. Its quite interesting how I can, open the door, start the car, with the car on get the alarm going. I turn the alarm of by pressing the key button with the car on then it behaves like normal.
Yes, quite bizarre. It's like the unlocked (unlockable) doors are keeping the alarm active. Then, perhaps, the alarm is triggered by motion. The inner door handle/s may be falsely sending a signal to the Window ECU to unlock the doors. i.e. the microswitch activated by lifting the handle, not the small locking lever. You could disconnect that particular microswitch on one door and see what happens. Are the electrical cables long enough to access the plugs without pulling the door card off? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Maybe you could also cycle the exterior doorlocks with your keys to see if anything changes? Can you lock the doors with the keys or do the doorlocks reopen immediately?
I occasionally get the same issue and have tracked it down to a microswitch in the exterior door handle. I have had a few issues with window drop, doors not locking, window switches staying illuminated and they have all been related to microswitch misalignment.
Strange. As far as I can see, the switch on the exterior door handle only affects the window drop (you can't unlock the door using the exterior handle, unlike the interior door handle). I can't see an input into the Alarm system. Of course, if you manually operate the door handle, that will activate the latch switches. The latch switches input into the Alarm ECU. Can you lock the doors on a 430 with the windows down?
When I lock the car with the key it behaves the same way, locks and unlocks directly. If i lock with the key and hold the key in locked position and very carefully move it slighly back so I can take the key out, it will remain locked. Locking via button just locks and unlocks instantly
Ok, so i opened the door handles just now after i wrote my last message and just looked at them to see if everything looks ok. Didnt see anything special and assembled the micro switches again. Seems like I by chance made it work normally now. thanks for guiding me everyone
I assumed by this that you meant the interior door handles? Did you touch the interior and exterior door handles?
You cant lock them with the doors open . . . maybe that is why? My guess is you either fixed it by "unplugging it and plugging it back in", or something got realigned when you put it back together. The mirco switches can be real touchy.
Understood, but it's not the exterior door handle switch which tells the system that the door is open. The door handle falls back down after you lift it to open the door (and the switch isn't pushed anymore), but you still can't lock the door. It won't lock because the handle triggers the latch mechanism, unlatching the door, triggering the latch microswitch.
