Sliding door wont lock

[Lee J]

Cant believe it! remote central locking locks all the doors except the sliding side door? only way i can lock it is from the inside using the dead lock knob. any clues, im having one of them weeks with this van!!

oh forgot to mention, it's a 2000 Y (new shape)

[Luke]

the sliding door central locking works on some spring contacts towards the rear of the door! i'd guess it will be dirt on them blocking the contact!!
good place to check either way!!!

[FredTransit]

You're not having much luck are you? Just goes to show that although you might spend a lot of money buying a van new (Balfour Beatty), abusing it for even only a few years does even the poor resilient transit no favours. Hope you get over the teething troubles soon.

[john leeman]

As mentioned clean door contacts on right hand side of door lower with fine emery paper to mak good contact. make shure that nothing has being trapped in the door at any time making contacts slightly out of alignment, good luck

[stevew]

Hi Lee,
Does it unlock from the remote? As I recall the new transit has a seperate button for unlocking the rear doors.
In my ex-police van the central locking on the rear doors had been deliberately disabled by the company that did the conversion. I just removed the door panel and plugged it back in.
Steve

[Lee J]

The rear doors have a button of their own, The side door wont lock or unlock using any of the buttons. The only way is to lock it from the inside using the knob on the door. But this prevents it from been opened from outside. im depressed

[Luke]

The rear doors have a button of their own, The side door wont lock or unlock using any of the buttons. The only way is to lock it from the inside using the knob on the door. But this prevents it from been opened from outside. im depressed

Have you checked the contacts - i'd be suprised if it wasn't that!!!

[stevew]

The side door wont lock or unlock using any of the buttons

Ah well that's interesting! I used to drive a MK6 transit but my current ride is a '97 MK5 so I can't compare it directly. In the MK5 the central locking works all the doors together. The option to open just the rear doors is much better in my opinion. I have modified my own van to allow me to open the back doors independently but lock everything with one button.
How many contacts do you have on the door? I'd be suprised if all the contacts stopped working, they seem suprisingly reliable . I'd check the connection inside the door. Of course cleaning the contacts is much easier so try that first! If you have an electrical test meter you can measure across the contacts to check if everything is as it should be. Without a diagram to hand I can't say what you should measure but you should see a change when you operate the lock/unlock.
No need to be depressed this is just a tiny problem that probably won't even cost you anything
Steve

[Lee J]

ok boys, Im going to try to explain what the contacts look like so here goes....

there is a black plastic piece on the door pillar (inbetween the passenger door and the sliding door) this has 3 silver cirles in it. There is nothing on the door edfe where the two meet. There is 3 prongs which can be pressed in on the inside rear of the sliding door and there is nothing on the van body where these 3 pins rest when the door is shut.

I'll try the cleaning method this week end and I'll whip the door panel off too and check the connection.

thanks

[stevew]

Well there's your problem then!
The three prongs have got to line up with the silver circles when the door is closed. That is how the locking motor is powered. Is looks like you might have a replacement door and Fords decided to move the contacts on later models.
You might be able to move either the prongs or the contacts. I'd try to move the prongs on the door since you'll probably have more wire to work with. The three prongs have to connect to the right contacts. One is earth one is 'lock' one is 'unlock'. So either measure them with a meter or hope Ford didn't rearrange them!
Steve

[Lee J]

right, I might even get my ar$e down to a scrappers and try to find a new slide door with the contacts in the right place & maybe even a window in. The van is Diamond white so it shouldn't be too difficult.