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Okay... so my 92 touring wagon has remote keyless. This doesnt allow me to manually lock the driver's side door. The remote is dead I think, it's been slowly getting more and more retarded. Finally, it died all the way this weekend. I now have to unlock my car from the passenger side, crawl through, open the driver's door, and get in. It's getting really old, and was wondering if just a new remote will fix this, also, if they're available to buy from the dealers.

I already went to radio shack to get a new battery, and then the guy soldered the antenna thing to the little metal thing inside, it didnt do anything...

My '93 had some sort of security system installed from the dealer. When we bought it, the salesman said not to use it at all because it never really worked correctly from the get go. I keep the fob around and the batteries as well, because whenever I reset the ECU, it goes off with a subtle blinking parking lights Some day I'll get around to ripping the damn thing out, but it seems like a whole lot of work for very little.

-Brian

You mean having the keyless entry system installed prevents you from unlocking the door with the key!? That seems absurd.

When we changed the battery cable on my friend's 96 Outback with keyless entry, the parking lights kept flashing until we reset the keyless entry control unit by pressing a button on the unit itself while pressing the button on the remote or something. Maybe there's something like that you can do.

Regret selling that unit to Vikash now?

no, the keyless entry system itself is more or less normal, although when i go to unlock the drivers side door from the outside the key is really hard to turn, and just sort of bounces back and does nothing. I believe the problem is in the remote. I dont regret selling that system to vikash, because if I were going to put an alarm into my car, I'd use a higher quality one with cooler features.

I like just having the stock keyless, if this is unfixable, then I dont want the system, the remote is just too cool with the stock one.

Laurel,

Could be that broken part in the door handle latch inside.

I bought a car that self-locked. The spring was off the latch, causing it to automatically lock everytime the car was unlocked.

I HAD to fix it, by disassembling the door latch, easy enough, but in the meantime - I just turned the key and opened the door, holding the key at the unlocked position, then after the door was open, I released the key and the door locked.

Hope this helps

Yea, Matt knows all about the broken lock thing. I think he's replaced and rekeyed the car twice since ownership?

The things break like it's their job apparently.

the door does not unlock, all i meet is resistance when i go to unlock it, so it does not unlock then bounce back. Then when it DOES come unlocked(manually pushing hard from the inside) it doesnt re-lock itself.

It is not the lock, it is the handle for the inside in the door...

the inside handle's not having problems though, it's the outside that i'm really having trouble with. I dont mind if i cant unlock it, if replacing the remote will fix it.

bleh, he's trying to say it's not the remote or any part of the keyless entry system thats causing it to not unlock, it's something mechanical inside the door.

aha! thank you.

and that sucks! I'm afraid to touch that sort of thing... perhaps i'll deal with it until i have the $ to have subaru fix it.

Sounds like the lock solenoid. Mine went on the pass side. Try a JY - they're like $200 from a dealer. Its just a small plastic box about the size of a cigarette packet located inside the door towards the bottom near the latch. Its a pretty easy job to replace, just the part is expensive new.

Steve

Laurel, we can have Tim test it when we take your car up to Mag, too. I'm sure he wouldn't mind diagnosing this for you. . . hell, he knows ALL ABOUT power window and sunroof motors.

My driver’s door was getting like that, and I finally couldn't take climbing through the passenger side. So I ripped the door apart to see what is up, expecting to find the lock cylinder was bad. But what I found was the cylinder was fine, it was the kinda rinkydink linkages and the lock mechanism on the interior panel that were showing their age. If you have keyless the solenoid further complicates things. Get into the door and give everything some WD-40 therapy. After I lubed everything the locks now work better than they did when I bought the car.

My driver’s door was getting like that, and I finally couldn't take climbing through the passenger side. So I ripped the door apart to see what is up, expecting to find the lock cylinder was bad. But what I found was the cylinder was fine, it was the kinda rinkydink linkages and the lock mechanism on the interior panel that were showing their age. If you have keyless the solenoid further complicates things. Get into the door and give everything some WD-40 therapy. After I lubed everything the locks now work better than they did when I bought the car.

What he said. WD-40 has worked on more than just my old Legacy's locks. Look at it this way, if the car had working keyless entry until now, who's gonna bother using the key?

Rish