2000 CRV EX Door Lock Keyless Remote Problem

[gfrobe]

My Honda remote fob (with alarm) will no longer lock or unlock the doors of my CRV. Here what's happening

- red light on fob works
- remote will unlock back hatch
- using driver door inside lock button locks and unlocks all doors
- manually locking the door with master key and then manually unlocking door with master key sets the alarm off.
- when trying to lock or unlock the doors with remote, I'm not hearing the click. This morning I walked around the car clicking the fob and heard a slight click from passenger door but that's intermittent.

Any suggestions? When I had the car in with Honda a few months ago they told me to change driver door actuator but wouldn't the other doors still work if the driver door actuator was bad?

Thanks

SEE EDITED QUESTION BELOW

[Lumpman]

When was the last time you looked at the driver's side door wiring harness? They are known to fail (badly) over time. The wires get brittle and break at the crimp. That harness connects to the alarm/lock control unit in the driver's door. It has 24 wires in it, so depending on which ones may be broken, you'll see a loss of certain services. Test other functions (mirrors, etc.), to see if it's more pervasive than just the locks. Might wiggle the harness in the door jamb and see if anything changes. When I picked up my well traveled CRV a few months ago with 179K mi, I had 6 broken wires in there once I took it apart. I would attach the schematic, but it exceeds the file size and the current computer I'm at can't shrink the file.

[Wildcat Rudy]

If it's a factory alarm, the control box is behind the kick panel--you have to remove the dead pedal to get at it. If it is the keyless entry only, the receiver is in the driver's door.

My remote is not all that hot either, even after I extended the antenna. Sometimes, I can be a dozen cars away in a lot and open it. Other times, even from the same angle, I have to be standing right next to the driver's door to get it to fire (and sometimes after a push or two on the button).

Lousy design IMHO.

And yes, check that harness going to the driver's door. Something shorted in the unlocking circuit could throw the whole shebang off.

[gfrobe]

Sorry all, I thought I had edited my original post but I guess it didn't stick. A few changes to the symptoms.

- when I press the lock button on the remote, it is arming the dealer installed security system but not locking any doors.

- if I manually lock the doors, the unlock button on the remote will unlock the doors and unarm the alarm.

- I am hearing the clicking all around the car when I hit the lock button.

Essentially, the remote is doing everything it should except for physically locking the doors.

So, looking at the replies above, would this suggest a receiver problem in the driver door, a problem with control box behind kick panel or perhaps a wiring problem? Mechanic is advising I change main control unit in the driver door. Is that the receiver?

Thanks.

[Wildcat Rudy]

How are your actual physical locks? When the mechanism on my driver's door lock was sticking, it would try to lock the doors but, not fully engaging, it would immediately unlock them again since the lock could not fully engage. I could lock it with the key, but I could feel that it was struggling inside the door--the key lock felt stiff. Taking the door panel off and lubricating all the moving parts cleared it up for me. Also had to do this for the passenger side front door, but the symptom there was only that this door would not lock--it did not affect all locks like the driver's door did.

The fact that you can send commands through the remote tells me that the control unit is probably OK. I would think the control unit either works, or it doesn't. But I've never had it fail on me, so I'm not 100% sure if certain features selectively fail on it.

Just to clarify: a "dealer installed" alarm could either be the Honda factory alarm (like mine) or it could be aftermarket (non-Honda). Do you know which one you have? The mechanic must not know the CR-V to know that if it's a genuine Honda alarm, the control unit is behind the kick panel, not inside the door. (I installed it myself, so I know exactly where it is.) That makes me suspect the control unit diagnosis as well. And as we know, throwing new parts at a problem does not solve anything...

[gfrobe]

Thanks for that. The locks do not stick at all when I am manually locking or unlocking from inside car. They also unlock fine with the remote.

The alarm is the Honda alarm that was installed by the dealer when I bought the car new.

[Wildcat Rudy]

You've ruled out quite a bit. You might check that wiring harness going to the driver's door--no problem with mine, but quite a few others here have had problems with fraying of the wires.

Actually, come to think of it, my driver's door speaker used to cut in and out. Perhaps I should inspect mine after all...

Anyway, far as I know, the "receiver" would be the radio unit that receives the signal from the remote, and the antenna for this is actually on the alarm unit itself. (In fact, I extended that antenna to improve the reception, and it has helped. If you remove the kick panel, you'll see a small black wire with a black rubber tip on the end--that's your antenna.) I know that the remote keyless entry was built into the first generation CR-V, so I don't know if the factory alarm bypasses that and uses its own, or if it ties into the existing keyless entry system somehow. Wish I could help more on this (and maybe only Honda's engineers are the ones who know how it works ).

That alarm was very easy to install--it did require some disassembly of the dashboard, but all of the connectors were wrapped with a blue electrical tape, so they were easy to find. It was just a matter of plugging into harnesses and attaching the control unit, then programming the remotes.

[chiph]

It appears that the harness that goes through the rubber boot connecting the door is part of the interior harness, and not available as a separate part.

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...5=WIRE+HARNESS

$327 online. Ouch.

Chip H.