One of the door locks on my Nissan Note has started producing a sort of mechanical whirring sound when I lock it with the key-remote; the actual locking (and unlocking) still works perfectly. Presumably something about the solenoid has changed, but is it likely to be a serious fault which might escalate, or can I safely leave it to be looked at when the car next needs a general service?
Many thanks.
They are generally motors, not solenoids. With a mechanical gearbox which produces the push pull. One polarity push, reverse it, pull. Controlled by a central timer - the motors merely stall at the end of their travel until the timer cuts the feed. I'd guess a motor rather than solenoid is more efficient and smaller. Maybe even cheaper to make.
They are usually pretty cheap and nasty units with plastic gears which can strip etc. Normally just replaced if faulty.
If the maker's part is stupidly expensive as they often are, it may be possible to fit a generic one.
The system on my old Rover is notoriously unreliable as they get older. My guess being the motors loose power with age. And NOS are no better. I found a similar new generic on Ebay for 12 quid which can be persuaded to fit with minor mods - and it has over 3 times the 'pull' of the standard unit. Works a treat. ;-)
I've now discovered that this is a known fault, with a fairly easy if fiddly DIY fix:
Dave, many thanks for that. Your post overlapped with my message saying that I've found the solution: apparently, a small pin which is part of the child lock mechanism is known to come slightly adrift: pushing it back into place fixes the problem. Mind you, I haven't actually tried it yet...
Blimey, would one not have expected it to detect the stall current? Besides there are loads of gadgets, mostly mechanical which can be used to switch things off at end of travel. Sounds like its jolly crude. Brian
No real need. The locks will operate in say a second. Timer switches off at just over a second. Why make things more complex than needed?
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