2003 Accord EX-Nav Door Lock Gremlin

[hype the g-sell google]

Howdy,
My 2003 Honda Accord EX-Nav door power locks have a problem. Siting inside the car with key in the ignition or out (car on or off), the driver door unlock button on the side hand rest unlocks all four doors (as it should), then immediately locks them again (gremlin). It re-locks so fast that no one can get out. This only happens occasionally as in about once a month, but that one episode persists until I am able to defeat it. The rest of the time, the locks work as intended.

Multiple attempts to unlock using the door unlock button all fail. Pulling up on the lock stem does not help. Unlocking from the key fob does the same as the door unlock button (it relocks). Using the passenger unlock button has the same result. Using the lock lever next to the inside door opening lever (for either the driver or passenger door) has the same result. Rolling down the driver window and pulling on the door handle does nothing. The gremlin seems to be insistent on keeping the car locked and most attempts to unlock are immediately negated.

I have learned to take the key out of the ignition (if it is there), roll down the driver window, awkwardly reach and place the key in the driver door key hole and unlock the door with the key. This has worked all but once (that time I had to crawl out the window and come back hours later to unlock it - which I could because I was home.) After the doors have been opened with the key, then they start working again as intended. This can be dangerous, especially if someone else drives the car and does not know the "trick." The first few times, I felt like Dave in the 2001 Space Odyssey movie and it was not good for my blood pressure! =)

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to replace/fix? How do I know which door lock mechanism needs to be replaced since all four act in unison?
Thanks for any help.

[Jeff Papineau]

 

 

 

I would just start replacing parts first probably, like replace the driver door switch, and check all the connections; it's easy to do, fast job if you watch a video.

Sounds a lot like a bad switch except you may have proven it's not a switch already? I think your explailnation of the probably only makes things more mysteriuos; so just start working on it, and try to see if you find the problem. Obviously the driver door switch gets used a lot, so one idea is to replace it with the passenger switch but might as well just get a new switch, and try to see if that fixes it? 

Use some electrical contact cleaner on all connections too. Sometimes some impedance will create gremlins, fer sure..

Another idea is check the disable switch as well (kids safety switch) and that can interact with the rest of the system. Clean it up too.

Finally, check the computer and make sure it's not trying to tell you about a problem it knows of; you may need to drive the car around, leave it running, THEN check the computer for errors when the problem happens again.