Xantia central locking fault

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 06 Jun 2011, 22:57

We rarely use the rear doors on our year 2000 90Hdi Forte.

Tonight we found that one rear door hadn't unlocked with the central locking.

Can't make it work. The lift 'button' inside is not quite all the way up and no amount of fiddling will make it work. Can't open door with exterior or interior handles. Rest of the car central locking operates normally.

When you operate the remote locking the 'button' on the problem door does not move - it just stays in the 'not quite fully up' position.

It might have been like it for a few weeks - who knows?

Could anyone please advise what best to do?

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 07 Jun 2011, 10:11

Sounds like a sized rear door lock/catch.. Had this once on a Xantia Mk.1.. At first I removed the plastic button and with pliers rigeriously pulled the rod loads of times then it relaeased... I then swapped the door lock for another..

Im not sure if you can get the door cards off while the door is shut.

Paul

spider · Unread post by **spider** » 07 Jun 2011, 10:16

It sounds like the deadlocking has jammed on (this is quite annoying)

Try locking and deadlocking it and then unlocking. Do this a few times.

I'm assuming deadlocks, try holding the key in the door on the 'lock' position for a few seconds if in doubt / remote not good.

If its no better you have to usually (on most cars) remove the door trim from the inside (possible but annoying) and break the actuator off.

wheeler · Unread post by **wheeler** » 07 Jun 2011, 10:41

If you thump the outside of the door with the palm of your hand in the area where the door latch is while someone operates the locking a few times this sometimes does the trick to at least get the door open to enable an easier repair.

rory_perrett · Unread post by **rory_perrett** » 07 Jun 2011, 13:14

We had the same problem with our Xsara's nearside rear door. As wheeler says, repeatedly thump the area of the door by the lock while operating the lock/unlocking seems to do the trick.

I found that leaving one of the front doors open while locking the car with the plip most effective. When you lock the doors with one of the front doors open, the system immediately unlocks the car again. This rapid locking/unlocking couple with the vibrations from the thumping was successful at getting the door to release after a few tries.

Having got the door open I could remove the door card and give the lock area a good soak in WD40. It still stuck occasionally but now doesn't seem to. However, this may be because it appeared that attempting to open the rear door using the exterior handle while the car was locked caused the problem. Since we started making sure that the car was unlocked before attempting to open that door (took a while to train the kids to wait

) we have not had the problem.

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 07 Jun 2011, 15:44

Thanks for tips, guys.

I've tried the banging-while-locking/unlocking (with and without accompanying swearing).

No luck so far, but I'll try again.

Weird, but this is the first fault in 2 years' ownership and it was discovered about 20 minutes after I got interested in an eBay car which would replace the Xant.

Think I'll be a bit more surreptitious in future.

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 08 Jun 2011, 19:40

No success. What next, do you think?

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 09 Jun 2011, 18:29

Spent a frustrating couple of hours today, cramped up inside the car. Managed to get off the door card and fittings but really that hasn't helped much.

[[[BTW I am very impressed at the attention to detail and the quality of the materials used. Better than any other car whose door workings I've investigated]]].

IF the problem is that the lock has jammed in the deadlock position, would snipping the central locking wiring in that door do anything useful? I did hope to find that the lead had a plug and socket that I could undo, but no, it is complete from entering the door right to the lock.

How the hell do you get to the lock? It's well hidden right at the back of the door.

Might the problem lay in a control box somewhere else? i.e. I am not looking in the right place?

Or, anyone have any other suggestions, please?

French MoT due month. Dunno if stuck door is a fail point.

spider · Unread post by **spider** » 09 Jun 2011, 18:33

Um, the only way I've released one before was with a ultra long chisel and a large hammer (insert chisel into door through suitable aperture) and destroy actuator / lock assembly.

It's possible to go through the door skin if you get really angry with it (I have seen someone do this!) although the couple I did on 406's (same lock I would expect, more or less) were under warranty so was just supplied with replacement lock parts without real question. And no I've not gone through a door skin.

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 09 Jun 2011, 20:05

The wiring does unplug from the lock, it is one of those latching connectors, but disconnecting it is unlikely to help.

You should be able to remove the outside door handle (it is held in by 1 )or more?) screws from the inside.

With the handle removed, you can see a bit more of the lock, and directly manipulate the levers (if that helps).

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 10 Jun 2011, 17:12

I can see the plug onto the central locking unit in the door but I couldn't get at it to pull it off.

So I cut the wire and attempted to measure voltages as I operated the remote control blip.

There are 5 wires in the group. One green and four white; the white ones do have numbers on them, so it is possible to correctly re-join the wires.

I got nowhere and re-soldered the wires.

So, still not working. Might take it to my local (French) Citroen 'mini dealer'.

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 30 Jun 2011, 19:41

Still no joy and MoT due now.

Here in France this is an obligatoire. i.e. an MoT failure, has to be fixed before getting a pass.

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 30 Jun 2011, 20:29

As you found cutting the wires wont help, you need to physically remove the plug.. this is an S2 car, the plug is held on by a "Slide" up lock plug... get a small screw driver and lever it UPWARDS, as it levers up the plug pushes away... Its the same setup as the Main loom harness that goes through the inner wing on the (UK CAR) Drivers side at the front, OR if you have one, the Lexia 24pin plug for S1 xantias...

Paul

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 02 Jul 2011, 08:52

There is some progress this morning, but what ever should I now do?

I got the outside handle off and was then able to remove the central locking plug. Sadly this didn't help.

I tried fiddling the various levers that were now just about accessible - nothing.

I then undid a small screw holding the white plastic cover on (the lower one, visible at the bottom of the lock). Then levered the white part from the lock until ..crack!... definitely won't go back again!

But was now able to fiddle with bits inside the lock and did get the door open.

Will now try to somehow replace whatever is salvageable tso as to be able to open / close the door. There will never be central locking on this door, however.

rmunns · Unread post by **rmunns** » 02 Jul 2011, 09:33

Nearly there.......................

IF I can now get it work 100% on the internal and external handles I'll describe what I've done.

It's believed that this happened because someone tried to open the door just as the central locking was being operated.

This seems to have thrown that door into permanent deadlock.