smiggy

Hi, only just got my 04 Ap2 S2K and am still blown away with it. But, there's always a but, I've got a problem with the boot lid. When closing the lid it triggers the central locking, doors and boot lid, and the risk of locking the keys in the car is very real. I played with the lid for a while and these are the findings:

If you manually trip the lock with the lid open nothing happens.
If the boot isn't fully opened nothing happens when it is shut.
If the lid is fully opened the car locks when it is shut.
If the lid is fully opened and then shut very slowly the locking is triggered just before/as the lock mechanism engages the static locking loop on the body but before the locking is complete.

From these findings I think the problem is in the harness around the hinge where the harness bending is quite sharp - broken wire making contact triggering the central locking? Has anybody else had this problem? Has anyone any ideas about the cause and/or any other tests I could make to help isolate the cause of the problem? Having just paid the earth for a hydraulic hose for my Accord's power steering I'm wary of going to a dealer to let them figure it out.

oth

I've had a look through the US Electrical Troubleshooting manual, which may be different than UK, and it's non-obvious
how the wiring into the trunk (sorry, boot) could trigger the OEM keyless - though a short that puts +12v onto a ground
can have unpredictable effects.
I'm curious about your statement that manually locking with the trunk lid open has no effect - I believe in a US car you
can lock it with the fob even if the lid is open. Does your car have an alarm? They generally work by bypassing the
OEM keyless module with their own, and simply sending lock/unlock commands through a wire to the car's keyless controller.
The alarm may well tap into the trunk open indicator light circuit, and is either misbehaving, possibly due to a broken
wire as you surmised, or perhaps it's a feature - "locks automatically when doors and trunk are closed!"
Usually broken wires don't behave so predictably - when you're seeing if the lid position matters, check if it's actually
the position, or just whether the the dash indicator light comes on or not.

Chuck S

Aftermarket security system on the car? (Typical with UK cars it seems.)

-- Chuck

smiggy

Thanks for your research and thoughts.

I tripped the lock into the locked condition by holding the lid open and pushing a screwdriver into the lock as if the lid had been shut onto the hoop on the bodywork. The idea was to eliminate the movement of the lid when the lock was triggered to try to isolate the movement of the lid from the action of the lock tripping into the closed position. Thinking about it I should now do the same again making sure the lid is fully open to see what happens and then closing the lid down to the hoop, to see what happens.

Another test, from what you have said, is to leave a door open and see if the boot lid shutting triggers the locking action.

There isn't a third party alarm on the car.

smiggy

Thanks for the thought Chuck, no alarm to confuse things.

smiggy

Well, things have moved on. Today I tried shutting the boot lid with the driver's door open and nothing happened. TBH I didn't expect it to as the locks shouldn't work if a door is open. BUT the locks didn't trigger when I then opened and shut the boot with all the doors shut. I did wonder if I had accidentally put everything back into sequence but then after 25 seconds the car locked itself. I repeated this and each time the 25 sec delay occurred. Each time I opened the boot I did it with the fob so I tried it with the key and, low and behold, nothing. Everything was normal. this was repeated several times so now my suspicions were on the receiver/lock control unit. Then the damned thing locked after a delay after using the key to open the boot.

My thoughts then turned to the boot light as the one player in the act not examined. I took the light out and 'jiggled' the connection and the bulb and everything worked properly. So I did the job properly and disconnected the light unit and took the bulb out, cleaned the contacts and sprayed with WD40, a penetrating oil. Result? Back to stage 1, the boot locked when the lid was shut.

So, where am I now? I have a car with an intermittent electrical fault that means that I can only open the boot if I have the keys in my hand, or a door is left open, to be sure of not having the keys locked in the car when the boot is shut. I'm off down the pub to have a 'think' about it - tomorrow I've got a one and a half hour drive ahead of me, should I take the diesel Accord and get there economically and quickly or the S2K and get there with the biggest grin on my face but risk getting stuck there with the keys locked inside the car? Simple. Have a great laugh and make sure that the keys are in my pocket and stay there when I get out of the car.

lovegroova

Not typical at all.

Pre MY04 cars had an additional system fitted by Honda UK (supplied by a 3rd party, admittedly) in order to meet the Thatcham Grade 1 specifications.

On MY04 onwards cars, the Factory fitted system met the specifications.

smiggy, maybe try posting on the UK section? If no-one has an idea, you may be able to find someone to take a look at it.

lovegroova

Some additional stuff which may help:

The boot works independently of the central locking. i.e. the unlock button on the fob only unlocks the doors.

If the boot is shut, it's locked. you can unlock using the button on the fob, or the button in the centre console, or using the key (the alarm will go off if you use the key without unlocking the doors first).

If you unlock the car but do not insert the keys into the ignition, then the car will lock itself again after a minute or so.

But it certainly appears there is a short or something somewhere. An auto electrician (not dealer) is probably your best bet.

Chuck S

Thanks for the explanation of the UK auxiliary alarm system. I've always been curious about it. I have a low opinion of vehicle alarms any as we all hear them and no one does anything but complain about the horn noise!

Played with my 2006 USDM trunk (boot) and can't duplicate the issue. There's obviously a sensor back there as there's a light on the dash to warn if it's open.

Curious.

-- Chuck

Chuck S

PS: The alarm is not set off by opening my trunk with the key in the last post. US & UK wiring must have significant differences here in terms of the alarm and locking.