vamsi

I am having a weird locking problem with my 99 ML320. Whenever I turn off the car, take the key and get out of the Drivers side door, the car auto locks itself in a few minutes. And after that, every few minutes, all my parking lights flash, as if the car is trying to lock itself again. This keeps repeating every few minutes.
If I get in and out of the car through the other doors, this problem does not happen. A mercedes technician had a theory that the drivers side door sensors or something in the door is not detecting that I've open the front door. So, when i unlock the car, since it assumes that the doors have not been opened, it locks itself. And it does not figure out that it has locked itself and keeps trying to do the same thing over and over again.
Anybody have any idea of how to solve this issue and what it might take to do it myself, both cost and effort wise?

art_arev

One of your door actuators is acting up.One way to identify which actuator is at fault is to leave one door ajar, then press the remote (or console switch) to lock the car. Repeat this process five times (one for each of the four doors and one for the rear hatch) leaving a different door ajar each time. You should experience machine gun effect for four of the scenarios only, and on the fifth scenario where there is no effect the door which is ajar has the faulty actuator.
After locating it change/fix it

vamsi

Thank you Art.
I've tried the trick you mentioned. None of my doors exhibit the machine gun effect. The only difference I see is that when I lock the door with the driver side door open, the lock stick on that door does not depress. It stays in the unlocked position.
All the other doors i've tried this on locked.
Since I know that the problem I have manifests only when I open my driver side door, should I assume that its the driver side door that is the problem and it is in fact the actuator which is the problem?

Thanks,
Vamsi

art_arev

I found this in the manual. Try deactivating the central locking & see if it will help....

DrX

This is a feature - to prevent you from locking your keys in the car. Otherwise you could open the driver's door, press the central lock button to lock the driver's door, get out and shut it. Thanks to this design, it is almost impossible to lock yourself out.

There are 2 separate sensors in each door that your car uses to tell if (1) the door is closed and (2) that the closed door is locked or unlocked. In your case, the second one is faulty in your driver's door.

You can test that the "door closed" sensors are working by turning on your interior lights and opening each door in turn using the outside handle. It's the sensor in the driver's door that tells the AAM that you've entered the car and stops the auto-locking feature. The rotary tumbler microswitch is part of the lock actuator assembly - if it's faulty you have to replace the whole thing.