1999 Grand am power lock issues! Please Help

[d_rank]

I just bought this car and after about a twenty minute drive home the power locks started to make a noise. The power locks were unlocking all the doors in very consistent six second interval. However it only does this while the car is running. Could this be a switch going out, relay, fuse, or possibly loose connection. Any help would be much appreciated becasue this noise gets pretty annoying after about five minutes.

[d_rank]

I just read a nasty little article about grand am's and now i'm kickin myself in the but for ever letting my girlfriend get another one because I recognize alot of problems with these cars... but anyways I think there is a good chance that it is a bad wire harness in the dash. People are having similar issues but it seems to be the turn signals, lights, dash, and wipers. So I guess the power locks could be part of this too. I don't know but I'm glad this is her car and not mine but I'm anticipating the repairs to be rolling in very shortly. Oh and if it is the wire harness I'll be shelling out $400

[crazy Jim]

actually the Grand Am is not a bad car. Its an inexpensive car and you have to be careful with it. What I like about the car is there are millions of them out there and the issues with them are well documented. Parts are cheap and easy to come by (wrecking yards are full of them). Most of the time the problems are relatively inexpensive to correct, especially if you do it yourself.

[d_rank]

Originally Posted by crazy Jim

actually the Grand Am is not a bad car. Its an inexpensive car and you have to be careful with it. What I like about the car is there are millions of them out there and the issues with them are well documented. Parts are cheap and easy to come by (wrecking yards are full of them). Most of the time the problems are relatively inexpensive to correct, especially if you do it yourself.

I never said it was a "bad" car. I was just simply stating that there is quite a bit of bugs in these; but in the same hand every production car ever made has bugs. My previous GA I had was pretty good to me but I was also lucky enough to catch all of the things when I still had my warranty. (i.e. 2 new engines(new to the car), starter, water pump, both front wheel bearings with two new rotors) This all took place in 14000 miles. After all of that was done it was pretty decent. When I got the car it had 74000 on it. In my OP that is an awfull lot of things to go wrong for that many miles. There is alot of people having these exact same issues. Pontiac oculd have done better but I still like them!

[xeroinfinity]

Not seen or heard of this one. I would look at the fuses and the door lock/unlock relays.
If it has been raining it could have a leak that gets the fuse boxes on the ends of the dash wet...

I doubt its a wire harness in the dash,if any thing it would be in the wires to the door(s) or a bad switch(or wet/shorted)

[d_rank]

I got a chance to try and track down the problem today and I found something a little interesting. In the driver side fuse box there are 3 places for power dr lock relay's, two simply say pwr lock relay and the other is labeled driver side pwr lock relay. The driver side pwr lock relay wasn't even there, it was empty. Is there suppose to be a relay there or should it not have one. BTW it is a 4 door SE.

[xeroinfinity]

yes both relays need to be there, about $15-20 each at your local auto parts store.

[crazy Jim]

Originally Posted by d_rank

I just read a nasty little article about grand am's and now i'm kickin myself in the but for ever letting my girlfriend get another one because I recognize alot of problems with these cars...

Originally Posted by d_rank

I never said it was a "bad" car.

Intersting situation with the door locks, please keep us updated on it.