Intermittant random unlocking of doors....WTF?

[sixsick6]

My girlfriends 94 Camry suddenly started unlocking itself randomly at the most inconvient times, when it's sitting in a parking lot. She said that she had this problem before and her father replaced the battery at which point the problem went away. *I* don't think it's battery related and even if it is, I'd rather solve the problem rather than band-aiding it with another battery every year or so because the doors start unlocking by themselves.

Her car is nothing special (until I get around to finishing the turbo project) so there isn't much worth stealing in the first place. However, I just bought her a new CD player and I don't want to make it easy to steal it by simply opening an unlocked door.

This problem is intermittant where it sometimes occurs, usually doesn't, but when it does it's always when the car is at Wal-Mart, Sea World, work, some place where the car has been sitting for a couple hours. No she is NOT forgetting to lock the doors, I am with her most of the time and she is anal retentive about locking them in the first place. I am positive that she is locking the doors.

I haven't checked much out yet on her car nor these forums. I tried searching once but didn't come up with much. The again I didn't try all that hard.

No car alarm but she does have the factory lock/unlock function by way of hand held device. (Although it doesn't work and hasn't worked in years)

The hand held device has a new battery and the light works, however the unlock/lock function does not. I'm leaning towards it being the actual unit in the dash rather than the battery. I think her father replacing the battery and the fact that it stopped unlocking itself was pure coincidence, although I have been wrong before....once.


Relays to look out for? Battery drainage? A dying alternator? Anyone else had this happen?

Excorcism maybe?

[ModifierMR]

no, you have one of two problems i can think of (I have dealt with this before). Either the Brain to the unit is bad. Or it needs to be re-programmed.


It could be a bad relay. Is it a aftermarket Lock system?

[sixsick6]

AFAIK it's the stock handheld unit that the car came with from Toyota, her family have been the only owners since 1994.

She has this silly pushbutton underneath the dash that you have to push when you turn the key but I highly doubt that has anything to do with the doors unlocking. She doesn't have any starting issues nor throwing any codes (battery or alt) no stalling no nothing.

The handheld like I said was installed AFAIK from the dealership. She said it hasn't worked in over a year but the door unlocking problem is new, except when it happened about two years ago and the battery was replaced and went away, but has come back again.

It's hard to get accurate info from her because she could care less when or where or why, she just wants it fixed.

Women, can't live with em








































and they can't pee standing up.

[ModifierMR]

to disable the unit alltogether, Look under the dash (above the pedals) and look for a black box with wire harnesses coming out of it somewhere near the vicinity of the steering coloum. Unplug all those harnesses and the problem should stop.

If u dont want to disable it you can try replacing the relay that controls the doors. On some older units if a fuse blows inside the unit it can cause the relay not to work right because its not getting the right signal

[sixsick6]

I'm not sure if I want to disable the whole unit as being able to lock all four doors with one touch of the lock is kinda nice. It seems like it would be a hassle to make sure that all four doors are always locked manually rather than simply hitting the lock button making them all work at once. The doors lock fine, they also unlock fine. The problem is that they randomly unlock themselves

I'm going to give the repair manual a look through and replace the batteries in my ohmeter/voltmeter. I betting it's relay related as well.

Thanks for the help BTW.

[ModifierMR]

no problem, thats what TN is for

[karazy]

Originally Posted by sixsick6

She said it hasn't worked in over a year but the door unlocking problem is new, except when it happened about two years ago and the battery was replaced and went away, but has come back again..

I don't understand why you don't want to disconnect it, if it hasn't worked for over a year. Disabling it will help to confirm what the problem is. You still have the master control switch on the door to lock them.

[sixsick6]

The hand held remote hasn't worked in over a year and the unlocking of the doors started happening before the handheld stopped working to lock and unlock the doors, and after as well. I highly doubt the handheld has anything to do with the doors.

So, disabling the handheld junction box under the dash would still allow function of all the doors locked at once via the locks up front correct? I guess I figured that they are all connected and that disabling the auto locking device would also disable use of the master switch due to the fact that the handheld was a factory option from Toyota and was installed at the stealership AFAIK.

[ekim55121]

one time i got my key fob wet and it started doing that.......... try takeing the battery out of the fob and see if it stops, also the dealership installed alarms are from DEI so you prolly could just get a newer model and plug it all up and it should be ready to go if you think abouts it they havent changed their wiring harnesses in a long while i know that for sure

[karazy]

Even with a remote opener installed, it is still the master switch (m/s) that does the locking and unlocking. Disabling the remote, will let you know if the problem the m/s or remote.

[smt_007]

I have the problem too sometimes, and i come from the shops to an unlocked car , i think its the alarm.