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Cadillac '96 2dr LTD
My fuel door and trunk lid are requiring about 20 attempts to open with both the remote and interior buttons. This began all of a sudden. Anybody know a fix?
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My thoughts on this: 1st: how long has it been since you changed your battery in your remote? I find that mine last about a year to two years before having to replace. 2nd: if you do not drive the car much you may have got the lube on the actuators hardened from lack of movement. Re-lubing or greasing them may do wonders. 3rd: how is the charge on the car battery? you may want to put a charger on it to bring it all the way up and see how things are before spending any real time on the problem.
When you use the car switch to open fuel or trunk do you get a click at the unit your trying to open, or is there just no sound except every once in a while. Same question with the remote.
Let us know and we can see if something else comes to mind.
good luck
Comments:
Car battery is only a month old. Remote battery is 6 months old. This would not explain the interior button not working. I don't remember ever hearing a sound with either except the sound made when it releases. The car door seems to work fine with the remote. Do you know if these things are electronic or vacuum operated?
by mayer
Questions on the batteries is to establish their health. The releases on the GM's are usually electrical or mechanical. I think yours are both electrical since the engine vacuum would bleed off over a period of time making that type not useful if left for a day or so. I would take a look at the actuator at both the trunk and gas door themselves given the batteries sound like they should be fine. Maybe just manually moving them a few times could help them be more reliable.
by Ken
Looks like the main problem was that I had not been driving it enough.
by mayer
I would look into replacing the relay that moves the electrical signal to the actuators. It may be located in the electrical 'block' under the dash near the brake pedal by all the fuses where all the older GM cars had it, or some probing around the internet leads me to believe there are three fuse boxes located under the hood.
Remember, the switches and remote operate on small amounts of amperage, and they only actuate another switch or relay to get the real power over to the locks. Sounds to me like yours is sticking.
I was able to find a GM door lock relay diagram and there appears to be two relays controlling the actuator. One open, one close.
Here is one of the parts for about 5 bucks
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I have a 1999 DeElegance and the problem of the trunk and fuel door opening was tide to the alternator going bad which also drained the battery replace both (they recommend you replace the battery if the alternator goes bad) and never had the problem again. Piece of advice if you replace the alternator and not the battery in about 6months to a year you will be replacing both anyway had to learn the had way hope this helps
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