'97 XLT 4.2 SC no antitheft or remote keyless

The drivers side switch will not lock or unlock (the switch appears dead - no movement of any kind). Nothing happens at all on either driver or passenger side.

The passenger side switch locks both sides. Will not unlock either side. When trying to unlock from the passenger side there is no movement on the drivers side lock. The passenger side lock moves a little but does not unlock.

Fuse #3 looks ok. According to my owners manual there is no power door lock relay documented.

I had a problem like this 1-2 years ago and reseating the wiring harness into the switch on the drivers side fixed the problem. I tried this now but the drivers side door lock switch still appears dead. When I removed the wiring harness I didn't see any burn marks on the switch.

Switch or actuator?

 

i would suspect bad actuators but it might be a good idea to look for broken wires where they pass to the door from the cab under the rubber boot. could be a switch too,

 

Since Ford dealers are closed for the weekend I couldn't buy a switch. I got curious about swapping the switches between the driver and passenger side. I removed the molding with the switches and found that the switches are different colors with different part numbers so I decided not to swap the switches. I reseated the wiring harness back onto switch on the drivers side. When I snapped the molding back into place everything started working again. Both sides. Lock and unlock. Seems To me there is a short somewhere. Has anyone ever heard of a switch having a short in it? I haven't opened up the door to look at the wiring yet.

 

could have been a loose connection at the switch. or a breaking wire in the harness close to the switch that you moved around when you popped switch out and in. if it keeps working i wouldnt worry about it anymore.

 

I started having problems with the door locks about a year after I bought my truck (used).

the locks would move slightly but didn't have the force to completely unlock the doors. (This problem for me started with the passenger side door and then the drivers side started acting up also).

First I tried replacing the relays under the dash, Located under that nice long oval shape on top of the dash in front of the passenger seat. (I could hear the contacts working but it could have been that they were worn or causing resistance). $30 later and no luck.

Then I tried to rebuild one of the actuators myself, wasnt too difficult to remove from the door. Wasnt very hard to remove or rebuild thanks to another poster in this forum. No luck there either, worked just like it did before.

Finally I went to the ford dealer and bought a new actuator for about $48. The nice fellow at the parts counter told me that ford has been thru several redesigns for this particular part. It looks different than the original yet mounts up with no problem at all.
This solved the problem. The next day I went back and bought one for the other door. Now the locks act all nice and new!

Bottom line is, go ahead and play a bit with the locks, you can't make them worse, and they arent too expensive to replace anyways.

I also own a 92 cougar and have NEVER had any problems with the electric locks, windows, or switches.

 

The actuators on the Ford 150 trucks have a thermal protection system built in. If you press and hold the power door lock button, the thermal protection is SUPPOSED to prevent the tiny motor from burning out. However, I believe they speced the termister completely wrong. It heats up far to fast and prevents the system from working at all. A complete post on this problem is here:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=154123

Board search feature is your friend.

This link gives you complete removal and replacement instructions. It also details a working do-it yourself fix to remove the termal protection and makes the existing actuators work properly. However, if you sit and hold the button down for 10 minutes, I take no responsibility for smoke coming from the doors.

G.

 

Well I no longer believe it's the actuators or the switch. I'm looking for a problem in the wiring harness.

It rained a fews days ago and in the morning everything was dead. By the time I finished work everything was dry and started working ok. This morning it was really foggy and everything was dead. By lunchtime everything was working again.

I'll open the door up in the next week or two and inspect the wiring harness.

 

Search the posts for wiring. I saw a post not too long ago about wiring in the doors. I know that problems exist where the wires pass through the rubber grommet from the door to the door post. Not really a rubbing problem but more of the wire breaks from being bent back and forth with the opening and closing of the door. I think the person posting ended up having to resplice the whole harness but I don't remember for sure. I would search the threads I am sure its here somewhere...

 

Quick Question Guys. I have a 98 with factory security. My door locks are freaking out...Jumpin up and down by themselves, humming, buzzing, and then not responding at all. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Even when I lock them from the outside, they act bizzare. Wiring? Security System? Switches?