Door not opening

[Jambon]

Hi all, I am new to 997 ownership and am having an issues with my car I do with some feedback on.

I have a 3.8s 911 where ch has recently had issues with the passenger door. When I unlock the car most of the times the passenger door won't open, pulling on the handle does not open either from the inside or the outside.

If I start the car then the handles start to work. Seems odd that the behaviour is different when started. Anyone else had this and how did they fix it? Is it the actuator or the battery or both?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[infrasilver]

I had this many years ago when there was a fault with my passenger door but I can't remember exactly what the cure was but I am here to say get it fixed ASAP because when mine eventually failed I couldn't open the passenger door at all and I had to remove the seat and door card without being able to open the door to get to the mechanism and that was a real PITA.

 

[Jambon]

Thanks for the reply. Was it the door actuator that failed? Or something else? Did you do your t yourself?

 

[infrasilver]

I think it was a micro switch in the actuator and I just renewed the whole thing but I can't be 100% sure as it was around 10 years ago. I did do it myself and it is much easier to do with the door open.

 

[Jambon]

I hanks for the reply. So if I do a diy one of the steps is to disconnect the battery. Will this cause any issues with errors or keys needing reprogramming. I assume not but wanted to check.

 

[infrasilver]

You will need to remove the battery to kill the door mechanism as it can unexpectedly move the window whilst your hand is in there. Just make sure the key is in the ignition, position 1 when you remove and refit the battery. And don't shut the bonnet down with it disconnected, an easy mistake to make.

 

[deMort]

It's a bit strange the locking works fine when the car is started but not with normal unlock or ignition on ..

Unlike the 996 this model has a door control unit for each door .. these can be coded for various states of unlock , drivers door only etc ..

Be worth having the coding for the passengers door CU checked along with any fault codes .

As the door does unlock then i'm dubious about the lock being faulty .. it may well be but im struggling to think of why if it works fine when the car is started .

At a push .. a low voltage to the CU which is higher when running is making the difference .. but to be honest .. it " feels " more like a coding issue .

I would start with a tester on the car first and check the above .

 

[cdmci]

My 996 is coded to automatically lock the doors when the engine is started and (perhaps) you drive a few feet. This is not something I want or need but there is clearly some code somewhere to enable this sort of behaviour.

If I could find it I would disable this feature.

Is it possible that your symptoms are an evil twin of this sort of coding?

 

[deMort]

I looked at the coding for these the other day .. in the alarm coding ( PAS ) there is an option to only unlock the drivers door .. you code this on or off ..

They are normally set to off .

Logically even if set to on you should still be able to open the door from the inside but perhaps not :dont know:

Something to check anyways .

My 996 is coded to automatically lock the doors when the engine is started and (perhaps) you drive a few feet. This is not something I want or need but there is clearly some code somewhere to enable this sort of behaviour.

If I could find it I would disable this feature.

From memory that's going to be version coding in the alarm control unit .. version 4 and 2 are normal for this country and i think you want version 4 ..

There are 4 options anyways from 1-4 but i dont off hand know which does which .. 1 of them is no lock at all .