Power door closes then opens back up... annoying

[dorlow]

Ok, we've had this problem ever since we bought it. We have a 2006 Pontiac Montana SV6 with the passenger sliding door powered. About 1/3 the time when we close the power door, it gets almost all the way closed and then it starts dinging and opens back up. Gets annoying when we just want to leave somewhere and we mess around with the door for 2 minutes trying to get it to close. We bought the car from a GM dealer and we have a warranty on it but they can't figure it out. In my opinion, if they can't fix the door, they should replace it with a new one. If that doesn't fix it, then they should cut off that side of the car and put a new side on it. One of the two has to be bad. But I doubt that's going to fly with the dealer. They keep telling us they're "adjusting" the door to fix it but their "adjustments" never fix it. I'm pretty disgusted in the dealer and figuring if I ever want it fixed, I'll have to figure it out myself. Any ideas how to fix it? Where are the adjustments? Is this a known issue?

There's also sometimes I swear the door doesn't unlock so when we try to get it to open, it won't. Not sure if this is my imagination or if it's really not unlocking.

Also the door rattles. You'd think the rattle would be related. The dealer says the rattle and the door not closing are two separate issue... but the rattle could be because the door is loose and the looseness is causing it to not follow the tracks right and then binds... I don't know. We brought it in for the rattle once and they said they fixed it but they made it worse. Can't believe they didn't drive it before giving it back to see if their fix worked.... but what can you do. As you can tell, I'm very disgusted with the dealer but I've come to the conclusion if I want it fixed, I have to fix it.

[spike88]

Within this mini-van forum and many others, I've read a high number of problems with electric "power" sliding doors on both Uplander and Montana vans. Some say that wiping each door's electrical contact pins with dielectric grease helps. Some say if wiring under the rug getting "too wet", it might be the source of the problem. And for some vans, the door being "out of adjustment" and binding too much is the problem. And for many others, they cannot find the root cause of the problem. I remember reading one post where the power door was activated and some kid got their fingers in the door. Instead of disgaging and releasing, their van's power door crushed 2 fingers - with no effort at all. Yes. This one still touches my heart today. And on some vans, there sliding door auto-opens when van is moving - like its "over binding" safety switch activates. Very scary when kids are in the middle seats and one is driving down the fast highway. With these high number of incidents in mind, I purposely bought my new 2009 Monana van "without" power sliding doors. Less power items the better. IMO.

As a suggestion, is there a way to disengage your van's power sliding doors? Is there an off/on switch or perhaps a fuse that can be pulled? I know. Not the solution you want (especially since you have your heart set on power doors). But to me, manual sliding doors isn't that hard to use. And being pure mechanical (instead of mechanical & electrical), one might have much less frustrations with it. Especially with kids are around the van's side doors.

.

[dorlow]

There is a way to disengage it... but it's my wife's car. She loves the feature. I disable it and she re-enables it and then gets all ticked off when it's not working. But we just bought the stupid car a few months ago... I paid a lot for that van. I would like for it to work.

[MtnBikerMi]

I have the same problem with my Van, and every time it is the same issue causing the door to reverse. The lower weatherstrip on the body comes dislodged (from the kids climbing in) and binds against the lower front arm. Will not cause to reverse every time, but this is issue I find.

Simple fix if this is it, and would not be the first time I have seen a dealer overlook something this simple.

[roadrunner2]

dorlow,

There is very little change in the way these power sliders work regardless of year.

I used to have a 2000 Olds Silhouette and as a result have a Haynes repair manual which says

among other checks, " If the door reverses direction while opening or closing, check the actuator motor tension cable adjustment".

[dorlow]

The actuator motor is the thing I think the dealer has been playing with. They keep on saying they don't want to make it too loose or something like that. But the problem has gotten significantly worse in the last week or so. The door is pretty much unusable. Even with the door disengaged and closing by hand, the back end of the door doesn't go in. You have to slam the door shut while pushing on the back of it to get it to close and it usually takes a few times. We have an appointment next week for the dealer to look at it again. We'll see what happens.

[roadrunner2]

The power sliding door control module has self-diagnostic capabilities.

A trouble code may be stored in the control module memory.

Make certain the power sliding door CHILD PROOF lock is in the OFF position. You know the one on the front edge of the door?

Perhaps the power sliding door override switch is faulty.

If they don't fix it this time around, take it to a reputable independent shop.

Maybe they're giving your van to the same tech and perhaps he simply doesn't know what to do?

Or, they're waiting for the warranty to run out.
Does it cover all these costs to date?

[dorlow]

I'd rather not take it to another shop. We have a $100 deductible per visit but seeing it's the same problem, we don't have to pay the $100 again until this is fixed. I don't understand why they're having so many problems. I've bought two cars from them. About 3 years back, I bought the first car. Before I bought it, I went to another dealer. They had this big sign that said they were the number 2 dealer in the area for customer satisfaction. I looked at who was number one... Sparta Chevy (which happened to be the dealer in the small city I lived in.) So I walked out of their dealer and went to Sparta Chevy and bought my car. We bought the van from the same shop. They were supposedly number one a few years back. Don't know if that has changes since.

Seeing the warranty we bought on the car was a non-GM warranty, I don't know if I can take it to another dealer. When I bought my other car new, I bought the extended 5 year 100,000 mile warranty. I've since taken it to many different dealers. But I think the warranty on the van is different and it's only covered by the one dealer.

Originally Posted by roadrunner2

The power sliding door control module has self-diagnostic capabilities.

A trouble code may be stored in the control module memory.

Make certain the power sliding door CHILD PROOF lock is in the OFF position. You know the one on the front edge of the door?

Perhaps the power sliding door override switch is faulty.

If they don't fix it this time around, take it to a reputable independent shop.

Maybe they're giving your van to the same tech and perhaps he simply doesn't know what to do?

Or, they're waiting for the warranty to run out.
Does it cover all these costs to date?

[scooter72908]

I agree with MntBikeMI, I would also clean the contacts on the door and on the vertical beam using a dollar bill which will help clean the contacts.

[JabbaTHutt]

Well I would say that if the contacts are making contact with the post and then it closes then yes make sure they are clean.

I think the problem is the cost to actually fix it is more than the cost of the warranty. They most likely need to replace the whole unit and I believe reading on here the parts are like $1,000.

Take the tail light off on that side and mark it so you know but they most likely won't notice it and then take a picture of it and then demand they replace the unit, once they have and you get it back home check it to see if your mark is still there.

[rkvons]

Originally Posted by dorlow

Ok, we've had this problem ever since we bought it. We have a 2006 Pontiac Montana SV6 with the passenger sliding door powered. About 1/3 the time when we close the power door, it gets almost all the way closed and then it starts dinging and opens back up. Gets annoying when we just want to leave somewhere and we mess around with the door for 2 minutes trying to get it to close. We bought the car from a GM dealer and we have a warranty on it but they can't figure it out. In my opinion, if they can't fix the door, they should replace it with a new one. If that doesn't fix it, then they should cut off that side of the car and put a new side on it. One of the two has to be bad. But I doubt that's going to fly with the dealer. They keep telling us they're "adjusting" the door to fix it but their "adjustments" never fix it. I'm pretty disgusted in the dealer and figuring if I ever want it fixed, I'll have to figure it out myself. Any ideas how to fix it? Where are the adjustments? Is this a known issue?

There's also sometimes I swear the door doesn't unlock so when we try to get it to open, it won't. Not sure if this is my imagination or if it's really not unlocking.

Also the door rattles. You'd think the rattle would be related. The dealer says the rattle and the door not closing are two separate issue... but the rattle could be because the door is loose and the looseness is causing it to not follow the tracks right and then binds... I don't know. We brought it in for the rattle once and they said they fixed it but they made it worse. Can't believe they didn't drive it before giving it back to see if their fix worked.... but what can you do. As you can tell, I'm very disgusted with the dealer but I've come to the conclusion if I want it fixed, I have to fix it.

It sounds like you definitely have an adjustment issue. But I have a 1998 montana and there is a procedure in the owner's manual where you remove the radio fuse for a minute and replace it and then open and close the door a couple of times that nobody has mentioned. I believe the computer "learns" how to open and close the door, and this knowledge is stored somewhere. When you remove the fuse, you wipe it out and it has to learn again. Anybody else know what I'm talking about?

[dorlow]

Well, we just got the van back from the dealer. I've never been so disgusted with a company. (I will never consider buying a car from them ever again.) But they said they found the problem with it. But it was going to cost them $800 to fix it. But seeing we just bought the car from them 3 months ago, they would cover 50% of the cost and it would be only $400.... This car is a money pit. Everytime we take the car to the dealer, it's a $100 deductible. We've had the car for less than 3 months and had to take it in 5 times now... So we're at around $500 in repairs in 2.5 months on a car with less than 40,000 miles. (BTW, their name is Sparta Chevy.. don't buy a car from them.)

But there's two problems according to them... One the back latch is, for some reason, in the wrong spot and needs to be moved. I believe that is the problem too. For some reason, the back latch, when it messes up, you can see the back of the door not go in.

The second problem is the power locks actuator isn't unlocking the door sometimes which causes the door not to unlock and the door won't open. It's the door lock actuator that they won't cover and is $800 to fix. The back latch would cost me $100 to fix. But still this is getting insaine to fix this car. This door is the worst thing GM must have ever made.

But, does anyone know where to buy this door lock actuator that costs less than $800? Also, has anyone ever fixed the back latch or adjusted it? Why would it be off?

[dorlow]

Also, does anyone know how to calibrate the door? That may be all that's wrong with the back of the door.

I just got a subscription to All Data and part of them manual says this...

IMPORTANT: By installing the 15A fuse, the low current logic power will be restored to both the LH and RH PSDMs and the
PSDs will be operational. However, both PSDMs will have to learn the full open and full closed positions of the PSD. Refer
to Actuator Control Module - Power Sliding Door (PSD) Programming and Setup.

I don't see anywhere on the website that it says how to program the door.

[dorlow]

I looked in the owner's manual for the car and found this to recalibrate the door...

Resetting the Power Sliding Door
The power sliding door may operate incorrectly or not at
all because of the following conditions:
• A low voltage or dead battery
• A disconnected battery
• If the instrument panel PSD/fuse 21, LHPSD/
fuse 24 or RHPSD/fuse 25 are removed or blown.
See Fuses and Circuit Breakers on page 5-98 for more
information.
If any of these conditions occur, the power sliding door
may need to be reset. If your vehicle has the dual
power sliding doors, both doors will have to be reset.
To reset a door, do the following:
1. Check to be sure the power sliding door is unlocked
and securely closed.
2. Turn the ignition to LOCK.
3. If the power sliding door overhead console switch is
in the override (deactivation) position, return to the
activation position.
4. Open the sliding door using the remote keyless
entry transmitter, overhead console switch, or
passenger switch. Allow the door to travel
fully open.
If the door does not travel to the fully open position,
press the overhead console switch to the override
(deactivation) position and slide the door fully open and
closed. Check for foreign objects in the tracks. Repeat
the procedure starting with Step 1. If the door resists
travel to the fully open position, see your dealer
for service.

So, basically it's saying to put the car key in the lock position and open the door with the button on the ceiling of the car. If there's something blocking it, remove it and try again. How in the world is that calibrating anything? That's just opening and closing the door. We do that 5 times a day as it is. So everytime I open and close my door, I'm calibrating it? Geesh, I must be a genius. I'm so smart I've been calibrating it 5 times a day and didn't even know it. I'm sure I'm overlooking something or reading something wrong.

[scherp]

I have a 2001 montana and the outside door handle stop working. We could open the the door with the electronic buttons but not the outside door handle. If you are comfortable taking the inside door panels off it could be easy to fix some of these problems.

The problem with mine was the rod that connected the door handle mechanism to the the back latch was slight bent and won't release the back latch with the outside door handle.

I went to the junk yard and pulled out a used opening actuator for $5 and bent the rod correctly and have not had a problem since. It did cost $10 in new christmas trees to replace the door panels back on.

If not comfortable taking the inside of the door apart go to the junk yard first and rip a few apart first.

I think things can get bent inside the door when kids yank on the outside door handle. it is the only thing I can think of that caused my problem. It is really quite simple once you get inside the door.