Xantia - no doors will open

Neil T · Post by **Neil T** » 29 Aug 2004, 22:46

Hi fellow fault sufferers,
Bit of an emergency.[:0] My normally 5 door 94 Xantia has just converted itself into a one door Xantia.[:(] Since I don't always have a child with me to crawl through the boot and open a window for me to climb through I thought it might be nice to try and convert it back to a 5 door, so much more convenient don't y'know.
The one door of course being the tailgate, which was nice of the designer to leave as a possibility when the electrics inevitably do what electrics inevitably do at some(usually hugely inconvenient) moment, (as now). (I never had this problem on my 1955 Standard 8, that's for sure. Plenty of other problems, but nothing quite this sanity threatening.
Sorry, here are the (possibly)important details:
This car has always had one lock barrel which didn't work, either because of damage, but visual inspection reveals nothing, or because it doesn't belong to the vehicle's key, I don't know the history.
Ergo, only one door lock operates. Just to further limit the possibilities, the key fob button locking/alarming feature never worked either, which since I've never aspired to such hi-tech (and expensive to fix)luxury before hasn't bothered me up until now, and still doesn't. All I ask is to be able to turn a key, and open a door, something that's been a possibility ever since blacksmiths were invented - until now it seems.
Sorry again, it's my antidote to the insanity of modern life, and the bizareness it creates.
I deadlocked the car, and when I came back to it, although the key will raise and lower the stalk, that's all it will do.
The car thief that broke into it a while ago knew just how much of a joke Xantia security is, and that he didn't need to break any glass as he did with the Discovery parked next to me. He simply levered off the door handle with a screwdriver or possibly strong finger nails, without leaving a mark on the paintwork, never mind a dent in the metal work, so scandalously wafer thin is the sliver of plastic that holds them in place [:(!]
Once the token door handle has been picked off with your little finger nail or whatever, it is a very simple matter to reach in and manually work the deadlock - duh Citroen - do car manufacturers still not employ car thieves to test their so called security, or is all this deadlock nonsense just for the sale[?][:0]
£10 from the local scrapyard replaced the door handle, but I'm bored, I really don't want to go through that depressing procedure again, even while its fresh in my mind, because it's still an insane way to get into your own car, and I'm keen to preserve as much sanity as modern life allows, if any. After all, if I had to do it for a third time...............
So, fellow sufferers of planet Citroen/earth/whatever, the solution I would like is, in the absence of a sane overide that would allow me to open the door and re-experience that thrill of removing the door panel for the nth time, the location of the point where I drill through the inside door panel to insert a wire to work the deadlock! I know, this does assume that the deadlock is workable from the inside, but even if it isn't, it would be nice to know that the Citroen God couldn't continue to strike me at his pleasing, thus illustrating John Lennon's "life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" (duh, like driving home!)
And yes, I did check the central locking fuse.
Nice car when it lets me in and out.

andycarter · Post by **andycarter** » 29 Aug 2004, 23:57

Hi Neil,
If you're lucky, this might be a solution:
Find a friend or dealer with a working remote keyfob, climb in through the boot as usual and program your car to work with this key, to enable you to unlock the doors.
You might want to disconnect the remote receiver afterwards if you don't want to allow the person you borrowed the key from continued access to your car.
Andy

Neil T · Post by **Neil T** » 30 Aug 2004, 19:17

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by andycarter</i>

Hi Neil,
If you're lucky, this might be a solution:
Find a friend or dealer with a working remote keyfob, climb in through the boot as usual and program your car to work with this key, to enable you to unlock the doors.
You might want to disconnect the remote receiver afterwards if you don't want to allow the person you borrowed the key from continued access to your car.
Andy
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thanks Andy, your suggestion has prompted me to look again at the remote. I've a small jpg here: http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/showphoto.php?photo=346733 of the roof sensor (the bit inside the binacle, it just unclips. Can anyone tell me if it looks complete, as I have a suspicion it isn't. This part of the car has been severely abused, even the core of the sunroof motor was completely missing.
I have an original key fob with good batteries in it, and the light works when you press the button, but I've never got it to interact with the car. Getting this working would be a bonus, but not my main object which remains simply getting the doors open!
It occurs to me that it ought to be possible to short a couple of wires together somewhere either in the 'door locking control unit' which is easily accessible down by the handrake, or the wires emerging from the binacle remote unit since the output from that must presumably involve switching power?
If I ever get the doors open, the fuse is coming out from that whole circuitry. Mechanical de-centralised locking will do just fine! If everything worked as new I'd still have suffered the same break in and burglary, so even locking it at all seems of questionable value.

andycarter · Post by **andycarter** » 31 Aug 2004, 17:48

Neil,
Your receiver looks complete, so you could try programming with your key as described somewhere on this forum.
Also, lock wiring data is here:
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... IC_ID=3268
The above thread suggests that removing the doorcard is possible with the door locked, failing that if you've got a haynes, it should be possible to find the appropriate wire colours inside the car to apply 12V to and unlock the doors.
Andy

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 31 Aug 2004, 21:53

Yes; I think that this will work.Run two wires to the battery and unplug the central locking box. Pull the tailgate inner trim and find the lock solenoid. Unplug it and apply the battery wires to the terminals. All the locks are wired in parallel so they should all spring up. If they don't, reverse the polarity. Now break open the C/l Box and put it in a bowl of boiled warm water. Give the PCB a good scrub and dry it off in the airing cupboard overnight before reassembling it and refitting it. It will probably work.

Neil T · Post by **Neil T** » 31 Aug 2004, 23:44

Thank you Andy, and the sun god!
By tracing the wiring path from the tailgate and filler cap lock, I'd finally worked out that if I could find which wires on the white terminal block by the handbrake were B5 and B6 in the wiring diagram (probably not), I was going to remove the plug and apply a current which should have operated all the locks. I mention this for other possible beleagured victims, obviously with no guarantees, and now, no intention of ever trying it.
When I came to try the drivers door lock just now before unlocking the tailgate and crawling through to try this, lo and behold, that nice clunk sound which meant all the doors were magically re-opened!
But I'm not giving this ageing system a second bite of me, so out with fuse 26, and bye-bye central locking. After 2 days of denied access and too much wasted time, manual door locking feels a sane and reassuring future. With a brief interlude of a year, it's been good enough for the past 33 years.
Now the interior light flashes on and off if you open one (either, but not both) rear door, but I'm sure I'll find a similar cure for that if it becomes irritating [;)]
Thanks again.