96 P-Locks goin crazy

I swapped out the driver side door on my 96 Taurus GL. It was a door from the same year Taurus. Everything works great but the power door locks. When pressed, the lock motors all start to pull the locks down and don't stop till I pull the fuse or turn the door lock to the left. I had to switch locks and thats when I noticed the problem. Turning the key twice opens all doors. Don't work now. Any ideas to what is wrong? Is there a switch or solenoid that could be bad on the new (junkyard) door? I'm at witts end. I had to disable the locks and windows to make sure the wife didn't just walk away and leave the motors chugging away. Any help would be appreciated.

Paul

yes, i believe there is a solonoid in there, try swapping in the electronics from the door you took off.

What a mess this is. I took out the wiring harness from the old door. Could it get any harder to pull some of those plugs? The engineers should be shot for that door set-up. I tried a different switch and tested some of the new harness. Everything seems ok. I did notice that the actuator in the door is the only one not activating during the cycle. All three other doors are clicking locked continually. If I can't make this work, I'll just disable the locks. Any idea how to do that since the windows and locks are on the same fuse?

What a mess this is. I took out the wiring harness from the old door. Could it get any harder to pull some of those plugs? The engineers should be shot for that door set-up. I tried a different switch and tested some of the new harness. Everything seems ok. I did notice that the actuator in the door is the only one not activating during the cycle. All three other doors are clicking locked continually. If I can't make this work, I'll just disable the locks. Any idea how to do that since the windows and locks are on the same fuse?

I don't know if you folks with Taurus's have the same switch in the rear trunk/back end of your vehicles for locking the car when emptying things from in the trunk as a Ford Windstar?? The Windstar(a glorified frame and body parts steal for Ford to make a van!!) has a switch. Anyways' the switch if making /coming in contact with a jug of antifreeze or anything else toggling it it will make your door actuator run speratically. Just a question is all! I have had to change two actuators myself as the neoprene gears wear out real fast and Winstars are nutorious for that as well. You may have gotten a bad motor. Disconnect on one side and test leads on opposing door to see if it runs /actuates or just sounds like gears shredding one another! Good luck

The last message states that the replacement door lock is not activated while the other doors are. The problem is related to the driver door solenoid. It should have 5 wires connected to it. There are three that control the up and down movement of the unit. The other two deliver a pulse to the control unit telling it that the solenoid has completed its travel. If the pulse is not delivered then the control unit continues to pull the solenoids until it receives that pulse which is not coming. You have an open in the power lines to the solenoid, a faulty control module or a faulty solenoid.

The three power lines controlling the solenoid movement include a ground and two 12VDC lines. One of the 12VDC lines will be on when the Lock button is pressed. The other 12VDC line will be on when the Unlock button is pressed. If you can measure these voltages at the connector to the solenoid then your solenoid must be faulty. If you cannot measure these voltages then you have a wiring issue. A wiring diagram will be necessary to trace out the circuit looking for an open circuit between the control module and the solenoid. If the wiring looks OK then I guess the control module is the likely culprit.

Thanks guys. I'll try all that stuff this weekend.
Great site by the way. I learned alot surfing around.
Thanks again

New game plan. I need to disable those door locks. I replaced the actuator and it worked. All four doors are now clicking away. I don't have the patience to replace the harness. I pulled the door lock relay under the dash thinking that would kill the power locks, but I was wrong. They still click away. What wire can I cut to kill these things once and for all?? I just need my power windows back. Do I have to pull all door panels and disconnect the switches? I couldn't find the solenoid everybody mentioned. Any help would be appreciated.

The Windstar(a glorified frame and body parts steal for Ford to make a van!!)

Sounds like someone has issues with the Windstar.

Badcuda, my apologies for the incorrect statement about 5 wires going to the driver side door motor. This was the case in my after-market system I installed in my 97 G. However, my review of the real Taurus schematic (Haynes Manual) shows that all the motors have only 2 wires and the control for the Lock and Unlock power feeds is delivered through 2 separate relays. If you have pulled the proper relay (Lock Relay) there is no way the door lock motors get power to lock. Therefore you may have pulled the Unlock Relay. Both units should look the same (they are the same electrically).

There are 3 reasons why the Lock Relay, which is assumed to be OK since it worked before the door swap, would be activated because of the door swap: Harness problem, illuminated door lock switch in armrest, door lock switch on key lockset.

Thanks TomV. I will look for the other relay. The one I pulled was under the steering column, in the fuse box. I didn't see the "lock relay" but I will check again. I was seeing red at the time. Thanks for your time and expertees. Later

Can't find that Lock relay. The Unlock relay was under the steering column. I looked in the fuse block under the hood also. It must be hiding elsewhere. Anybody know where this thing is. The schematic is very unclear as to location. Thanks.