Radar Detector hard wire, power door locks Options

[dan85204]

i'm in need of some help guys...

first off, my power door locks unlock right after i push the lock down. it does this for about 2 or three times, then finally the lock stays down...seems like it responds to the humidity or whether it is raining. i think that i might have got some water in my doors or something when i was washing it. is it a fuse that needs to be replaced? or should i go to toyota and have them figure it out?


the second issue i have is with my radar detector. i decided to hardwire it into my cigarette lighter. what i did was join one wire to the 12 v going into the cigarette lighter (the plug that has 2 prongs on it) and the second wire to the other plug ( i think it was a green wire). it seemed to work at first and everything was alright, but then i turned my headlights on, and it shut right off. so i turned my headlights off, and it turned right back on. i know i should probably make a proper ground for it on the body. but does anybody know why this is happening?


alot of you guys seem to know what the hell you're talking about so if you could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

[AudioFreak]

My door locks did the same thing. I had a leak in the drivers side kickpanel area and the connectors got soaked. Some corrosion formed in between a few of the leads and caused a short. In your case it could also be in the door. It's not hard to check the connectors, a spray of wd40 will help keep the water out. I'd give it a shot first, taking it to the stealership could get expensive if they start throwing parts at it.

As for the radar it sounds like you connected the ground of the radar detector to the lighter illumination wire. When the lights are off the circuit provides enough resistance to look like a ground. When you turn the lights on you get voltage on both wires... not good. You need to check each wire with a multimeter.

[dan85204]

My door locks did the same thing. I had a leak in the drivers side kickpanel area and the connectors got soaked. Some corrosion formed in between a few of the leads and caused a short. In your case it could also be in the door. It's not hard to check the connectors, a spray of wd40 will help keep the water out. I'd give it a shot first, taking it to the stealership could get expensive if they start throwing parts at it.

As for the radar it sounds like you connected the ground of the radar detector to the lighter illumination wire. When the lights are off the circuit provides enough resistance to look like a ground. When you turn the lights on you get voltage on both wires... not good. You need to check each wire with a multimeter.

thanks for the advice...can you give me a little more info on how to check those leads and wd40 them? i'm not exactly sure of how to do that because i've never taken my door apart.


and for the radar detector, ya that makes perfect sense...just another reason you shouldn't cut corners. i will make a proper ground to the body as soon as i get around to working on that again...sucks not being able to have a radar detector at night...


i'd really appreciate it if you could give me a little more info on those locks, it's kinda annoying...

[AudioFreak]

sorry it took so long been busy at work.

i'll try to get some pics up when the wife gets home with the car. the door isn't too hard to pull apart.

pop off the triangle piece at the front of the window.. it just presses in.

along the back edge of the door the pop pins come out i think there are 4 of them. just press in the dot in the center and pull out the whloe thing by the bigger base.

there are a few screws along the bottom and the front on the inside behind a few caps.

finally the cover by the door release and a few screws behind that and one in the armrest.

then carefully lift the whole panel up. it's hooked along the top of the door.

just look around if it dosen't want to come off some of the screws are a little to see.

once inside just pull off the connectors on the switches and the actuator and check for water. if you see some blow it out and give it a squirt of wd.

to reassemble just hook the top edge and start putting the screws back in.

i'll get you a pic of the kick panel there are a lot of wires... i'll point out the door lock ones.

[dan85204]

you spray WD40 right into the connector plugs? would that screw up the connection? anyway, thanks for the help man. that will be my next project after my gauges.

[vsideboy]

nah, wd40 doesn't conduct electricity so it won't short out the connections. It would just draw out any moisture that might be in them.

[dan85204]

what about the manual window handle? how do i get that off?

[mzztoyota]

Aw, man I hate manual window handles now! lol...those were a b**** when I was switching the door panels on my last car...

press down on the area around where the handle meets the panel, and see what there is inside. I think there should be a metal piece (really like a wire) thats shaped like a U that clips the handle onto a round peice of metal in the door. You have to remove this and then you can just pull the handle off. Needlenose pliers did the trick for me.

If it's different for Celi's someone let me know...my Celi has auto windows, I just remember this from my last car...