power door locks not working

hey guys,

Alright my Jeep has been sitting for a while due to me loosing my lisence but thats besides the point. i have a aftermarket alarm system installed in my XJ it unlocks and locks the doors and sets the alarm... well its suposed to. for about a month now the drivers door has not unlocked when i push the button for it to unlock, i pressed lock, unlock, lock, unlock to see if there was a misscomunication between the censors but still nothing. but it will open with the key. and my consern now is that today i went to unlock my jeep and get in the passenger side but the same thing happened. whats goin on here? i pressed the buttons on the key chain thing again and still nothing. the rear hatch still locks and unlocks when i press the button and the alarm still arms itself. are the door locking mechanisms themselfs going bad?

i have an 89 XJ 2-door Limeted with all power options

On mine the charge in the battery has a great bearing on how the door locks work. As does the temperature, the colder the temp. the worse the battery works and the thicker the lub (grease) in the lock mech.
Some of it is, the available power, some of it is the grease in the lock mech. getting old and thick, some of it is just play in the rods and holes in the actuators.
I disassemblied one actuator to look at the grease inside, it was an original 88, grease looked good. The grease in the door lock mech. was way to thick and stiff though, a good cleaning and new grease helped, until it got down in the teens, then the same old chit.
Might also want to check the electrical connections and grounds, to get all of the available juice. I replaced the switch in mine, which did help a bit, for awhile. I´ve been seriously concidering installing another power wire straight from the battery, to make sure I have sufficient (all available) power.
Seems on mine, in the spring (when it warms up some) the problem mostly disappears.

hey thanks for the help ill try taking it apart ad re-geasing it and checking the power connections.

Does the door lock work when you push the button on the door or does it only fail to unlock with the key fob? The door locks aren't the greatest and tend to get sticky when they age. I have an '87 and have changed most of them with newer ones from the junkyard. Sometimes even cleaning them won't help. They just don't age well especially with a little water in the door.

Here is a fix for common lock problems on early xjs. http://southeasternxj.com/tech/tech_locks.htm

Greg

has it been cold where you are at?? MIne were messing up when it was warm, but when it was cold they froze up. Even in the summer the back doors wouldnt unlock. I sprayed some de-icer in there and some graphite powder, and that seemed to degunk them. Now they work fine no matter what the temp is outside.