Vectra Central Locking Problem / Reply

anyone help?
My W reg Vectra seems to be developong a fault on the central locking. On a few occasions I have returned to the car and found the locks in the open position. I thought that it was me not locking the car untill tonight when I got into the car the locks went down on their own. It seems like they are starting to deveope a will of their own. Has anyone had a simlar problem with locking system operating on its own or could point me in the right direction:lockd :lockd

Ours did this when the drivers door lock developed a fault with one of the microswitches. Doubtless a new unit would have cured the problem, and cost loads of money. I removed the lock, stripped it and took out the plate carrying the switches. I couldn't find a replacement switch locally, so I removed it (to use as a sample), and refitted the lock so we could use the car. I tested it, thinking at worst I can unplug the wires from the drivers lock and lock all the doors by hand, and found that it worked perfectly from the remote, but won't deadlock with the key. (About 1 second after pressing for deadlock I thought that it might be a BAD IDEA: but luckily it worked) So I have quietly forgotten about the whole thing.

For anyone interested, the switch board is made by Cherry and is the NK01 http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/automotive/schloss1.htm The faulty switch is the black object above the socket facing you in the picture. It is a real Vauxhall of a job removing and fitting the lock assembly, I had to take the handle out to disconnect the operating rod, no way would it wiggle out like that nice Mr Haynes said.

Thanks for your info facade. I had an idea the problem would be behind the drivers door panel but didn't want to go in blind. I was hoping for this to be a common problem with lots of response. Am I right in thinking that the only thing missing after the removal of the microswitch was the dead locking with the key or does it affect the key control to the electric windows as well. Looks like its door panel off and I know I will never get it back on the same.

The switch I took out is how it knows that the key has moved, so the windows don't go up now as you say, not that we used that feature more than once anyway. It was the worst kind of fault possible, lock the car, get a few feet away and it unlocks, lock it and it unlocks, couldn't park it anywhere. You need to drill out a rivet to get the lock apart. I suggest that you get a drivers door lock from a scrappy and swap it over, probably £50+ at Vauxhall. I suspect that if you just unplug the lock unit that the central locking will stop working, and you can lock everything by hand, or easier still, there must be a fuse you can take out when it is unlocked (or the petrol cap will be stuck closed). The door panel goes back if you are careful removing it, there are a few screws and a load of plastic pegs on the panel that pop out.

Thanks for the further info. I'm going to check out Vaux prices and those of the scrappy. Did you try Cherry for a new switch or if they had distriburers here

I didn't try, looked very corporate to me. I doubt if they would sell one board. Something else occurred to me. If the courtesy light switch is faulty, the car thinks the door is not shut properly, and unlocks itself again, worth checking before you change the lock.

I've had no problems since I started this thread so I'm not sure whats going on. Plan now is to have a root round to see if there is anything obvious and squrt copiously with WD40. Thanks Facade for all your help and if you think of anything else it could be let me know

Cheers