Brand new owner (on paper) of a 2011 base model with 192K miles that is in fact my daughter's first car. Been chasing a bit of locking oddities since we got it home last night.

First noticed the driver's door central locking switch being completely unresponsive at all times. When I got it home last night, after locking with the remote, I could hear the car repeatedly trying to 're-lock' itself maybe every 20 or 30 seconds or so. Sounded loudest by the rear hatch. Opened that and shut it harder, and that seemed to end the 're-lock' issue. I've been trying to search through all the locking related threads here, but hoping to get a bit more input / confirmation before going forward.

Today I pulled all the fuses for door locks (5 I think 15 amp, one 30 amp) and all appear good. Was wondering if the weird behavior was related to the auto-locking settings (I think it's set for lock when shifting out of park currently) so I tried to turn auto-lock off. But I got no response when going through the process. Not completely surprised, as I hadn't gotten any other response from the door panel switch. When inside the car, locking and unlocking the doors with the remote, I can hear what I believe to be the lock actuator, and 2 relays - all these sounds from drivers door or kick panel vicinity. All four doors lock and unlock as expected with the remote -- single click unlocks driver door, double click gets all 4.

I was planning on calling it a day after that (freezing rain here, and I'm working on it outside) but then noted the remote wouldn't lock the doors after closing them. Found another thread here about the door switch possibly sticking open - sure enough, there's a small ding in the interior edge of the door (looks like it got slammed on the seat belt buckle maybe?) right where the switch is. Manually operating the switch made the remote work to lock the door. If the door is shut FIRMLY it seems to fully engage the switch, but when shut gently looks like it doesn't quite close the switch all the way (the dome light stayed on when in 'door' mode).

Based on what I've seen so far, I'm inclined to think the problem most likely lies with the switch module itself at this point. Should I pull the door apart and look at wiring first? Just order the switch pack and plan to replace?

Looking forward to digging into this cool little runabout! Thanks in advance for any help!

Dan

 

Welcome to the site. Read some of the posts under "Related Topics" listed to the bottom of your post here for more info on this topic.

 

Sorry you are having issues with your new Fit, I got a base 2009 several months back and had the same or similar issue.
Here are a couple of videos that helped me, the first one is linked on a previous post, where the guy simply disables the auto lock feature on the driver side door. This did work for me, at least from the continual attempt to lock/unlock.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ctivating.html

Several weeks later my passenger door began acting up in that it wouldn't open properly unless I physically pushed against the door. To fix that I bought a Chinese made door actuator off of Amazon and swapped it out. It has been working great since and thank goodness they are only $25 or so, just do a search on Amazon for Honda Fit door actuator. The only issue I did have with this - is the one I received did not have a fitting for the physical door key lock. As I have a remote I don't really care about this, (being passenger door) and I simply left the lock in to plug the hole but it doesn't connect to anything. This video helped me a lot on removing the actuator, it's pretty good in describing where the parts are etc.
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Hope this helps!

 

Dan, this is an easier link to the first video ....


I also wanted to point out it can be a bear to remove the three phillips screws on the door latch. You'll definitely want a #3 phillips and more likely than not an impact driver from what I have read. I was lucky in that the previous owner had already removed them so they weren't horribly tight, though I did have a #3 bit, definitely makes a difference if you find you need to dig into it or replace the actuator as the guy does in the first video. I also used some duct tape to reseal the moisture barrier. I have read this is pretty important to keep water from draining into the car - it just needs to go back in a similar to position to original.

 

Thanks for those video links Vern! Much appreciated.

So it looks like it's a matter of being able to reproduce the repeated locking behavior somewhat reliably, then disabling individual door actuators to determine which one is causing the problem?

I don't think i'm able to change the auto locking mode on the car right now, as the electric central locking button on the drivers door appears to do absolutely nothing at all, ever, when I push it in either direction. Guess that could be dirty switch contacts, broken or disconnected wiring, or an otherwise bad switch? looks like the switch clusters can be had for around $25 online. i'm thinking that's going to be my first thing to change out, and keep digging from there. So far I haven't been able to re-produce the repeated locking behavior, but I haven't done anything else with the car since, either. Had 2 days of freezing drizzle here, and am just hiding inside the house!!

Dan

 

So a bump for an update and some attention, I hope!!

My next step was to try replacing the drivers door switch module with an Amazon special. Still got no response from the locks when using the replacement switch, so pretty much ruled that out as the source of the problem. Next parts-chucking adventure was the drivers door lock actuator replacement. Got that replacement part the other day, and tried swapping that out today. Well, didn't actually do the full swap - got the inner door panel off and tried plugging in the new actuator to see how it behaved first. No change - still no response from the armrest lock switch.

Then in mild frustration, I just started mashing on the armrest switch repeatedly. after a bunch of clicks, the locks cycled. A bunch of clicks in the other direction, and they cycled the other way. I was somewhat reliably able to get the armrest switch to trigger the locks if I repeatedly mashed it a bunch (20 or 30) times. But not always.

Re-checked all the fuses, and made myself a sheet to show which fuses impact operation of which door locks and how, in case that comes in handy later.

I can hear a couple relays under the dash when I use the key fob to trigger the locks (the behavior of all the locks when using the key fob appears to be normal). I haven't been able to hear them on the occasions when I am able to trigger the locks with the armrest button, but that my be because the lock actuators are loud enough that they are drowned out? Or maybe the relays are only related to the key fob activation? I have looked through the fuse panel diagrams that I could find, but haven't been able to identify which relays these are. Anyone have any guidance? Just wondering if maybe there's a relay related the door switch that might be bad, where the remote ones are good? Or maybe I have a worn wire somewhere in the door or a bad ground somewhere? I'm pretty much wild ass guessing at this point...

Any other thoughts on things to try would be awesome...

Thanks!

 

I recall people who lived in snow country having issues with the hatch lock actuator, and this interfering with the autolock feature. Maybe check it out for corrosion? Been a hot minute.
I bias toward junkyard/ebay junkyard parts v. amazon stuff personally. Rain can get into the main switch control on the driver door.

As for using duct tape to re-adhere a vapor barrier, the proper adhesive is butyl tape. It stays sticky for decades. It's also used to keep moisture out from between treated wood and metal (like in the case of a raised deck).. pretty neat stuff, really. Butyl sealant has a few neat applications. but anyways.. that's the factory thing for a vapor barrier.

 

Thanks for the pointer toward the hatch. Initially I thought that might have been the problem because shutting it gently seemed to make the auto-lock behavior recur more (but not perfectly) reliably. However, I believe that was due to the rubber stoppers being screwed in too short so there was some slop in the latch. I adjusted those and the latch seems snug. The plastic plug in the hatch that shows access to the mechanical cable was uninstalled when I got the car, and it is tweaked enough that it doesn't stay in really at all. So someone was in there for something. That said, no visible corrosion there (this car is quite clean and corrosion free for it's age and life in the snowbelt). I think next step will be to run it with one of the right side / hatch fuses pulled for a while to see if I can narrow the field of actuators. The rear passenger side door lock was making a bit of an odd noise on activation (kind of a mechanical rubbing sound) but that went away after I cycled the lock a bunch of times. that would be my next actuator to try I think If I continue to just parts chuck at it.

 

Hey Dan,

I have included some schematics for the car doors and locking system. Hopefully this will help.

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Best of Luck!

 

Another idea: you might have broken wires in the driver door hinge. Had a couple of wires with broken insulation on my old 99 Civic, and the door would lock/unlock when I opened/closed the door or with big road bumps.

Might just have a look at it to rule that out.

 

I would try running a temporary ground to the black wire at the switch and see if it makes a difference. Does the knob switch do anything (the thing that moves in by the door handle? Does the key work in the door for all doors? They should lock and unlock. If the key and the knob switch also don't work I would really suspect the wiring coming from ground 501.