Finally - the Car Can Be Locked!

A very important milestone today: I mounted the first of the central locking motors into the driver's door, and now I can at least lock one of the 4 doors from the outside, by remote control. It was not a very easy job: first I had to get a set of new tools, because the door panel screws had this strange hexagonal head. Then once the panel was (partially) removed (I was not able to remove the panel completely, it appeared to be stuck at one screw), the difficulty arose where to place the motor.

It should be placed so that the vertical motion would be in parallel to the door closing knob. And it should not block the sliding door window. Finally I spotted a suitable place, very close to the top. Affixed the metal holding bar, then attached the motor to it. Then bent the brass rod so that it would align properly with the door knob, and then attached the rod to the closing mechanism. A short test with the electrics - and it worked! Next was to manage the cables - a set of 5 cables needs to go from the motor to the central processing unit. I first wanted to use the protected duct between the car and the door, but I was not able to reach it: removed one of the panels in the driver foot area, but still did not get access to this duct. It appeared that there would be a special set of plugs needed. So instead of using this, I left the cables just dangling by themselves. Attached them with tape inside the door, so that they would not move about. For a temporary solution, I used the +12V from the cigarette lighter to power the box. It got dark towards the evening, and I had no time anymore to fiddle with finding the proper +12V lead for connecting it properly to the car fuse box. In any case, it needs power also when the ignition is off.

The next tasks will be: properly attaching the control box, hiding the cables, and installing the 2nd motor at the passenger door.

And now, since the car is finally properly locked all the time, I can actually make this blog public - no danger of anyone abusing the knowledge of my up to now always partially locked car.