95 Ciera PDL Oddity

[Guest imported_starfire]

My 95 Ciera has power locks. When you put the car in gear they automatically lock and when you put the car in park they automatically unlock. That is normal. However, if you try to open the front passenger door with the car running and in gear (ie letting someone off at the curb) the doors relock before you can get the door open. Unlock the door manually and try to open it again and they lock again. This will come in handy if I ever need to kidnap someone, but for now it is really irritating. Any ideas on what is causing this? It only happens on the front passenger door.

Thanks,

Alan

[rocketraider]

Alan, I know this will be an aggravation, but you may have to put the car in N or P to eliminate this. All the door lock module is seeing is that the car is running and in gear. That tells it the car is moving and the doors are supposed to be locked. So the little man in the box keeps locking your doors <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />.

Seriously, after my mother fell when the car she was balancing herself against moved out from under her, I'm a firm believer that a vehicle needs to be out of gear with parking brake applied before passengers get in or out. I'm just glad I wasn't driving the car when it happened. One, it would be hard to live with, and two, I know I'd never hear the end of it (and it happened 12 years ago).

[Guest imported_starfire]

Glenn,

So you think it is a built in safety thing? I'll see if it happens when I'm in park or neutral. Thanks for idea.

Alan

[86 2dr.ltd]

Our 97 LSS does the same thing but passengers can get out by unlocking their doors. In our manual it says the doors can be programed to operate many ways. We feel ours is the way the original owner programed them we have not messed with them. Yours may be set up for child safty which means they can not get out no matter how hard they try. Combine this with a passenger rejection seat and you'll have yourself a "Bond" car I dont know if the Cierra also has this programable option. If you have your owner manual look it up and see what it says. Otherwise put it in park or add the rocket fired projectile passenger seat.

[decembro]

I believe this to be normal if the car is in gear. You might check with the dealer. They should be able to reprogram the body computer (bcm) to disable the auto lock feature altogether if you want...