Doors Keep Unlocking Themselves

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Danweis1

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Hi everyone. Searched the forums and could t find anything like this exactly. 2016 Ram Big Horn. After my doors lock automatically, all the doors randomly or not so randomly unlock themselves at the same time. When this happens it’s almost always on a left turn/curve or when I hit a medium bump. After they unlock, I can hear the mechanism constantly trying to unlock them again. If I lock them manually, they again unlock at one of the aforementioned situations or lots of times after an unlock. I swear I can hear a clicking in the drivers door or nearby while this is happening. I’ve turned off autolock and it does‘t change the behavior if I lock the doors manually; they still unlock themselves. Doesn’t seem to be speed related as it can happen from 17-50+ mph. When it first started I thought it was related to a passenger being in the truck, but it soon progressed beyond that and now happens if I’m alone or not. It’s progressively getting worse.
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
 

Jeepwalker

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I would probably concentrate my efforts on 3 areas:

1) Battery & terminals (grounds too). How good is the battery and the terminals (clean)? Is the ground good. Even if your battery is 'good', what is the voltage? Is it on it's way out. What is the alternator putting out? On my H3, the battery is on it's way out. It's so-so good, but not great. When the battery gets low, guess what the first thing that becomes flaky is? The door switch module. It acts wierd. The fix is to let the vehicle sit (with cables unhooked and tied together) ...and remove the module and let the door module sit in the house overnight. Then it's good again for many months. The module itself on my H3 pries up really easy ...like a 30 second process to remove it w/o having to remove the door panel.

2) Door window/lock module. Usually part of the door switch control mechanism. There's generally a whole control circuit board beneath the driver switch controls. I'm not 100% sure on the rams, but that's how it works for most vehicles these days. If it were not getting a good electrical signal (like bad battery connection) that could do it. Or maybe the module is failing?? The dealer probably has some knowledge on this. But as I mentioned above, if your battery is getting low or the cable connections (or ground's) are weak, clean them. They could be part of the problem.

3) Broken wires at the door jamb. After so many open/close cycles the wiring between the body and the door can crack (the plastic jacket), and fray/break. Just a few weeks ago I was trying to sort out some issues with my Jetta door wiring. Of the 20 wires in my driver's door harness that go to the body, ALL of them had crackedd plastic, and 2 were broken and frayed. I knew there was a problem bc sometimes the door switch lights would stay on, and/or the trunk unlock wouldn't work. There were other funky things happening when wires were touching.

Those are the things which come to mind. You 'could' try unhooking the battery cables overnight, and remove the module and see if that makes any difference. Doesn't cost anything but a little time.

On my door switch module, I had two electrolytic capacitors which measured low ESR and needed replacing. Replacing them solved the problems I was having a long time ago, but i've been limping along since last spring on a weak battery. I'll be replacing it soon bc it won't carry me through the winter.
 
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Socalramfan

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Only (2) things stick out in my mind that can actually control ‘all’ the door locks.

1. Your key fob,
2. Drivers side Master door switch.

Id be looking at those two sources and track it from there :waytogo:

My personal thought……. It’s at the Master switch connection. Unplug it, reset it and adddtess it from there. Worse case…. You’ll have to buy a new switch.
 

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Open & Inspect your FOB
clean all dirt on & around the Green Circuit Board
check the inside of the side of the FOB that have the buttons on the outside, you will see electronic contacts, they may have fallen off

There are more YouTube videos about cleaning FOBs than you could watch in a half day
 
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Danweis1

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Only (2) things stick out in my mind that can actually control ‘all’ the door locks.

1. Your key fob,
2. Drivers side Master door switch.

Id be looking at those two sources and track it from there :waytogo:

My personal thought……. It’s at the Master switch connection. Unplug it, reset it and adddtess it from there. Worse case…. You’ll have to buy a new switch.
You sir, are a genius. It appears it was indeed the key fob. Using my spare key fob, I took a 10 mile trip today and not a single ‘unlock’ occurrence happened. I realize a short trip may not absolutely prove anything, but. I would have never in a million years thought the key fob could have been involved. Thank you so much!
 
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Danweis1

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Open & Inspect your FOB
clean all dirt on & around the Green Circuit Board
check the inside of the side of the FOB that have the buttons on the outside, you will see electronic contacts, they may have fallen off

There are more YouTube videos about cleaning FOBs than you could watch in a half day
Thank you also. It turns out it was indeed the key fob. See my response above. Thanks!
 

Socalramfan

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You sir, are a genius. It appears it was indeed the key fob. Using my spare key fob, I took a 10 mile trip today and not a single ‘unlock’ occurrence happened. I realize a short trip may not absolutely prove anything, but. I would have never in a million years thought the key fob could have been involved. Thank you so much!

Awsome….. hopefully it’s solved :waytogo:
 

EdGs

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My fob did almost the same thing, except not while in motion. I had went to the grocery store and as I was walking away, my truck started beeping repeatedly as if being locked really fast.

The little contact button in the fob had broken and moved just enough to create the havoc. It was so sensitive, you could run your finger over the fob and it would beep.

Ordered a replacement in amazon, cleaned the circuit board, swapped the rubber, and all is good.

Probably happens from dropping keys more than anything else.
 
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Danweis1

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Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. Things were stable for a few days. Then.

What I’ve done:
New key fob.
Unplugged the drivers door master switch and plugged it back in.
Checked and cleaned the battery terminals and had the battery checked (good)

Yesterday I went over a rather large mound of sand on a dirt road. All the doors unlocked.
Later, went slowly through an 8-12 inch pot hole. All the doors unlocked.
Went through a car wash. All the locks quit working. It would not lock or unlock with the remote. About an hour later, everything worked fine (maybe something got wet).

Today, after the truck had been sitting unlocked for an hour, after a drive, I opened the front passenger door and all the doors and tailgate locked.

So, anybody have further ideas about what might be going wrong? Maybe replace the drivers door master switch?

Thanks much.
 

Socalramfan

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Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. Things were stable for a few days. Then.

What I’ve done:
New key fob.
Unplugged the drivers door master switch and plugged it back in.
Checked and cleaned the battery terminals and had the battery checked (good)

Yesterday I went over a rather large mound of sand on a dirt road. All the doors unlocked.
Later, went slowly through an 8-12 inch pot hole. All the doors unlocked.
Went through a car wash. All the locks quit working. It would not lock or unlock with the remote. About an hour later, everything worked fine (maybe something got wet).

Today, after the truck had been sitting unlocked for an hour, after a drive, I opened the front passenger door and all the doors and tailgate locked.

So, anybody have further ideas about what might be going wrong? Maybe replace the drivers door master switch?

Thanks much.

Sorry to hear.

Thats where I would be looking at it’s the common thread.

Had a time when if I slammed the drivers door too hard, that none of the window switches would work on drivers side. Popped out the switch module, reseated the plugs…. problem fixed itself. Granted, it’s a quick fix and a new module was needed. :waytogo:
 
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Danweis1

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So, just thinking. The Passenger door lock ALSO locks and unlocks all the doors, so why couldn’t it be the culprit? Just went out and opened the passenger front door and, bam, all the doors locked. That’s twice in one day. Pulled the window/lock panel out and look what I found (see photo). There is a wire connected to the gray wire in the factory wire bundle. I have no idea what this may be but I’m betting it’s causing the problem. A few weeks ago I did find a satellite vehicle recovery system under the hood. Upon contacting the manufacturer, I found it was inactive because no one had paid the subscription costs, and I just removed the parts under the hood per their advice. Could this maybe be part of that system? I also have an unidentified module under the dash near the ODB2 port (2nd photo). Could be part of the satellite anti-theft system? Or maybe something else?
Thanks
 

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Jeepwalker

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Can you pull the door jamb boot back and have a look at the driver's door wires? I haven't done it on a Ram, ...but I've done it on other vehicles. Usually a guy can just work the boot loose from the body pillar, then pull back and have a look. And if you can, work it loose on the door side too in case there are bare wires closer to the door-side. Then work the boot back in place when yer done. Usually it's a simple job. If you have broken/fray'd wires at the jamb no electronic replacement will fix that. I would do that first before buying a window/lock module.

But otherwise, if you had the right scanner with bi-directional control, you could manually trigger windows and locks. Depending on what happened there, and esp if it was in the 'no-go' or 'freak-out' mode it might help diagnose the problem, or lead you to determine a few things. But you may not have such a scanner. IDK if Alfa-OBD has that capability or not. That's one method a dealer tech would probably attempt. But of course, if ya take it to the dealer it might or might not be acting up when they go to look at it ...that's kind of how things often go.
 
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Jeepwalker

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Also, is it possible you can you leave the door module plugged in, but half removed from the door panel? Then, start the truck and put the truck in gear (or drive around) ....and slap the module a few times, see if the door locks act up in any way which may lead you to think there's a bad connection in the module itself. If it does, you've likely found the problem.
 

Jeepwalker

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Also, what is the status of your battery? IDK what it is with door/window/lock modules, but they seem to act up more when a vehicle's battery begins to get low (weak). And by 'weak' that doesn't mean really weak, just kind of weak. These modules seem esp sensitive to voltage. Or maybe it's the grounds which cause door modules to freak out, possibly because it's loacated in the door and requires longer grounding leads (unlike a body-mounted module). You'd be surprised how many ground wires are placed around your vehicle, under the carpet, dash etc.

You see this on other vehicles/cars too. I surmise a lot of door/lock modules have been replaced due to weak batteries or poor grounding. Current goes from neg -> pos.

There are a number of ways to check a battery. Watch a few youtube comprehensive videos (not billy-bob's how-to). What's it's static voltage after sitting for an hour or two (unhooked)? If ya do a load test ...how long does it take to recover?

I only bring this up, bc on the H3 forums, guys used to replace expensive door modules a lot only to find out it wasn't the root problem ..came back in a while (turned out to be a battery, bad batt terminals, weak body grounds, or broken wire). When I removed the carpet from my H3, for instance, out of the 4 or 5 grounds screwed to the floor peppered around under the carpet, two of them were rusted pretty bad (from sunroof leaks). Rams which have had water leak through the back window could also have rusted grounds. Sooooo....I'm just saying, it could be the module, but a flaky module could also be a symptom of another [root] problem.
 
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Danweis1

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Thanks Jeepwalker. If you look back at post #13, I think I found the cause. Just don’t know how it’s impacting things.

I had the battery checked at Autozone and O’reilly with their battery checkers and the battery tests good. Not saying their equipment is 100% correct but it’s better than I have. Battery is only 2 years old.

The suspect wire attached to the wiring in the passenger side window/door lock module is the most likely suspect now. I just have to trace it back to its origin point to see just what it is. See the 2 photos I posted.
 

GTyankee

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That device screwed into your dash, is Dodge's after market sensitivity Alarm.
You can adjust the sensitivity to either more or less
That is a dealer installed device, but they have a sub contractor install them.
It is the KARR Alarm
They are at every vehicle dealership, no matter which brand

1660870955886.png

This is what they put in my 2009 Ram
1660871145346.png

1660871348911.png
 
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Danweis1

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