locks in 91 300TE
 

Hello,

When I lock doors from the inside, you cannot unlock right away. Must wait about one minute before this is possible.
Is this normal?
Thanks,
Luis

No. Does it also do that when you lock the car from the outside? If it's the same whether locking from inside or outside with key, then you may have a leak in a vacuum line. But, what do I know with the exception that mine doesn't do that.

Do you hear the sound of your vacum pump running? If you got something that makes noises underneath your rear seat during the time it's impossible to unlock it means your pump isn't cutting out.

This could be caused by a vacum leak.

Have it always done this to you? Any recent changes in behavour?

cnetral locking 124
 

Thanks for your input.

I do hear the noise from the pump. I can unlock the doors only when that noise stops (about a minute). I was not in the habit of locking the doors from inside (until my wife began riding with me recently), so I don't know if this happened gradually or not.

Luis

the lock systm on the 124 uses preasure and vacum to operate
the locks. your pump supplys both.you have to give a certian amount
of time for the sytem to neutralize before switch ing modes. in one case
i have seen a drivers door latch assy bent when the owner locked
the doors from the inside and then quickly pulled the inner door
handle

I see your point. But, if I lock the doors from the inside, ride for a while, and then stop, turn the engine off, and try to get out of the car, I still have to wait about one minute until I can unlock the door. Seems a little too long to me. The owner's manual of course does not say anything about how long it should take.

This is not right. The pump should stop when all the plugs are up/down. If it doesn't, then you'll got a leak somewhere. How long can you hear the noise of the pump before the doors are unlocked?

I have also heard about broken membrans and that could maybe cause something similar.

You could trace the leak done by systematicly follow the vacum hose and pull one at a time and plug the hose, then try to lock the door. . You'll know where your leak is when the pump cuts out immidatly when the three remaining doors are lock.

I can describe it more specific if you want to.

The average time for the pump to open/lock system should only take about 2-3 seconds. Not more...

This makes sense (2 - 3 seconds, instead of about 1 minute). I would like to find the source of the leak, and repair it if I can. I'd like to take you up on the offer to give me details. Thanks.

your pump should shut off on its own after about a minute
if all of your door locks are working at the same speed
i would suspect a internal problem in your pump

your pump should shut off on its own after about a minute
if all of your door locks are working at the same speed
i would suspect a internal problem in your pump
possible bad shut off contact inside

Ok...this is a description on how to troubleshoot door locks. I do NOT know if the system is the same in your car...but you should probably figure that out after reading this.


Ok, first. At the vacum pump under your rear seat you'll find the first rubber connector/split with one hose in and two out. One goes to the trunk and the other one is all the doors.

Under your floor carpet on passenger side/front you'll find the next rubber split with one in, three out. One is passenger front door, one rear door and the third one goes over to the other side of the car. It's not nessesary to know which one goes where at this point.

Driver side, under drivers carpet. Another rubber split with one in, two out. One for the front, one for the rear.

You can check the system by simply starting from the pump, at the first rubber piece. Take off the rubber, plug the hole by holding your thumb over it. Try to lock, unlock the system and see if the pumps cuts out after working up pressure or buidling vacum. If the pump is ok, it should stop as soon as there is enough pressure/vacum. this shouldn't take more than a second or two.

Then by going down the line, put on the rubber piece again and remove one hose at a time you can see which is trunk/doors. Every time you pull off the hose connected with the leak your system should work as normal. 2-3 seconds and pump cut out.

After that go to the passenger front door. At the rubber piece with one in/three out start with removing one of the hoses on the side with three out. Take one at a time and you'll find out which goes where. If your system starts working normally you'll find the leak down the hose that is removed.

When you gone thru poassenger side, move to driver side. Remove one hose at a time...


This will only work if there is one leak in the system. If you suspect you have got several just do one door at a time. This is the way I did when I found one of my hoses had slipped off. It was the driver side rear door so I had to go all the way...but I shouldn't take you that long. 5-10 minutes if you got someone helping you with locking/unlocking drivers door every time you got a hose off.

One thing that you'll have to be careful with is the vacum pump. Don't overheat it or anything...They are not cheap!I realize your pump will ahve a lot to do before you find the leak

By now you'll probably got the idea about closing out the leak. When you do find the hose that got the leak...follow the hose and make sure that it's ok. If you can't find a leak on the hose or connectors (the rubber in connectors can dry and crack) you'll probably got a faulty membran. These shouldn't be that expensive to replace.

It's over a year since I did go thru my car so the positions for the rubber connectors can be different but you'll find them by following the yellow hoses.

I do not know if this is the way a trained mech would do but...in lack of knowledge I did this and my system works fine.

If you got any questions...keep posting.

Thanks very much. I will give it a try this weekend. Will let you know how it goes.

Luis

Further to this problem, I have traced the source of a soft hissing sound (after locking the door from the inside) to a container located inside the rear panel (next to gas tank intake). This container has a tube with a red knob sticking up. If I wiggle the red knob right after locking the doors, the hissing gets much softer.

Any clues here?
Thanks,
Luis

Did you try to plug the hose at this end? Any difference?

As you probably already know this is the locking mechanism for fuel lid. If it leaks, you found one leak...that's for sure.

that's the fule filler flap lock mechanism
 

mine had a rupture in the membrane which only had the system functioning upon locking (a tear right on the fold in the membrane that only leaked when extended ...) :mad:

Looks like u have a nasty leak at that actuator ....

Try plugging the yellow line to it and re-check the system's operation - should work fine if it's the actualtor that's faulty

good luck
L