Alfa Pages

[jmmoss]

Hi there,
My 1987 Alfa 33 has had an ongoing problem with the central locking. Half the time the central locking fails to work all day, and I have to manually open all the doors and press down the lock. Other days it works perfectly. Sometimes the doors all lock, then a second later unlock by themselves again. I noticed that getting a new battery recently helped, but then a week later the locks were back to there old tricks again! What could be wrong? The new battery is holding its charge well enought to start the car with no problems, so I'm not sure it is a charging problem. I know nothing about how the system works or where to start looking, so advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Alfa 33 4c 1.5 Gold Cloverleaf 1987
with Air Conditioning

[Guest]

Most likely cause is that the electrical wiring is chafed and broken/almost broken at the point where it enters the door - a very common problem. The wiring may look okay from the outside but the copper conductors are broken internally, only making occasional contact which is why the door locking sometimes works.

The unlocking after a second is caused by a short to earth - the insulation has been worn away on one of the doors and the copper conductor is sorting on the metal door shell.

Your problem could be on more than one door. You can do a limited inspection of the wiring going into each door, but for full attention you'll have to remove the door trim.

Fixing the problem is easy once you have located the bad bit of wiring.

Another thing to check is the relay - sometimes the connectors get a bit corroded up and the doors won't lock (but doesn't explain the automatic unlocking issue). Just remove the relay and clean up the connectors (and other relays while you are at it, but don't mix them up - do them one at a time!). A small spray of WD40 will help preserve good electrical contact and drive away that horrible moisture.

Good Luck.

Cheers,

Rob (Perth)

[bobbber]

Something I've noticed when the locking unlocks itself, is due to the fit of the door. i.e. a door isn't closed properly when the locking pops up.

Unfortunatly it uses 'Alfa Intelligence' to decide if the door is fully closed or not!!!!
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Fiat Bravo 165 Sport

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies guys - I have managed to fix it by stripping off the trim and spraying WD40 over all the moving parts - problem solved! I guess it was gummed up somewhere.

Thanks again!

[burgo90]

hi ppl i also have a problem with my cental lockin only one side works at a time in other words wen i lock the drivers door the drivers side rear locks aswell but both passenger sides dont and the same happens wen i do the passenger side its got me confused any way
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[Chris Notsis]

Burgo,

Check out what Rob describes, but the problem is probably in the central locking control relay or the wiring to it. More likely the control unit itself though. I would start with this first. They cannot be repaired or cleaned once they start to play up.
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Chris Notsis

[burgo90]

oh yay looks like im gonna be havin fun then
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