When temperature is <60 farenheit, auto locks work and interior lights come on when door is open. Temp >60, they may work, but not always. Living in the ATL Metro, when a woman goes out at night, she'd like to be able to lock her doors and see in her backseat. That would be me.
I recently got my car back from the shop, where they spent 3 days trying to figure out what was wrong. The remotes stopped working about the time the problems started, and I replaced the batteries, but no joy. Day 1, it was 65 degrees and nothing worked. I told the shop owner what I had researched, and that I read that the fuse box on the passenger side under the dash had some relays, fuses, etc. that should be checked, and the door activator switch should be checked too. He said, we'll start with the simple stuff and work our way out.
A brutal cold snap hit the first night. Daytime highs were 45 and below. The shop cleaned up all the points in the remotes, changed the batteries again, and viola! They could lock/unlock and the lights came on. The high the day that happened was 45. The day I picked it up, the cold snap was over. The car was under the trees, and it was in the mid 50's. He pointed the remote, viola! Locks unlocked, lights came on. Giddy it was that simple, I got in my car and drove around, doing a few errands, merrily pointing the remote and listening to the locks cycle and lights coming on, and then headed home. Beautiful Spring day, temps easing up... over 60. Got in my driveway, turned the car off, no interior lights. Opened the door, no interior lights, tried to use the remote to lock the doors, nada. Took it directly back to the shop, owner came out and was just speechless. He asked me to bring it back the next week so they could look at it again.
It cost me just over $100 for repair of the remotes (pretty sure it was mostly labor, since they spent most of 2 days trying to diagnose). I spent another two hundred to get my trunk lock replaced and rekeyed to the original trunk key. I'm not keen on taking back the Bonnie for another extended stay.
The only other issue I have is my stereo has always sucked. AM is so bad with static, I rarely listen to it. FM radio stations have to basically be in a 20 mile range to work. I got a new stereo from Santa, but until these issues are fixed and I can lock my car, I'm not sticking my shiny new stereo in the car.
Thanks for reading the novel, can you guys give me specific steps on what to check and what the names of these do-flotchees are? That way, I can print it out (along with the stuff I have already printed), and hand it to the shop owner.
IT'S FIXED! Holy mother of pearl, it's fixed! They had to replace the body control module (bcm), and it works great. Now to find speakers that will fit, and hopefully all my electrical problems will be solved for awhile. 