R34 GTT Central Locking Pains

[DraftySquash]

So... the fob I had for my Skyline always had this issue where the "Unlock" button worked with no issues but the "Lock" button did nothing (and I always had to lock with the key)

I thought I'd try resetting and pairing the key to the car today to see if that fixes the issue. I did the standard steps to program a key but realised my central locking was doing its own thing from time to time.

1st time:
The driver-side doors would not lock or unlock when using the fob. No issues with the key.

I figured it was the right time to change the battery in the fob so decided to go get one. When I went to the shop all doors locked and unlocked with the fob (while it had the old battery 🙃)

 

2nd time:
When I locked the car, it would lock itself and immediately unlock. If I unlocked it, it would unlock and immediately lock.

 

3rd time: 
After a bit of cursing and praying, that weird bug stopped. But then the rear passenger door started being a pain. It wouldn't really follow what the fob was asking it to do. Sometimes even using the key would not do what I wanted. So I'd lock the car with the key and all doors would lock, but the rear passenger lock didn't do anything at all. And then after a few moments, it would work again.

 

Is there a fuse that I should be looking at? or, is this one of those things where the door card needs to come off and some unit needs to be replaced? It just seems to happen from time to time and if I give her some space and come back later, there are no issues  🤦‍♂️
Also, should I try to program the fob again to the car just to see if that solves it?

[DraftySquash]

Ok, can confirm. 
if you use it like a normal human being in the real world, it works fine. 
it only starts crossing wires if I keep using the fob over and over again in a very short period. So if I just chill the f**k out, it works 😂😂
 

[soviet_merlin]

The one door lock not working intermittently sounds odd.

But for the other issues I'd suggest to clean the contacts and everything on the little board inside the fob. I had the same issue with unlock working but not lock, and that solved it.

It brings such a quality of life change to be able to lock and unlock the car like a normal person  

[GTSBoy]

After cleaning the contacts in the remote, if it has rubber carbon pads on the buttons, give them a little wipe with a 2B pencil to add some fresh carbon back. Just a little wipe. Not too much.

[silviaz]

Not sure if this helps but I had a similar issue where one of the doors wouldn't lock unless I pressed the lock key twice. Turns out the door actuators were f**ked. In the Nissan service book it says to lube it every now and again, I guess put a bit a bit of wd-40. I replaced mine and haven't had a problem since.

[DraftySquash]

Thanks everyone!

I'll take the remote apart to clean the contacts and see how it goes.

[DraftySquash]

Wow boyyy that is nasty!!!

 

I never dropped this key in anything but it’s got some condensation 

[DraftySquash]

Fob is all cleaned up and it’s working well!!

The amount of Vegemite looking sh*t that was in there is mind blowing 

[Kinkstaah]

My fob has never worked, I once attempted to follow the procedure to re-key it, (I have other fobs for the car alarm thing in there).

I actually have three of them.

Do aftermarket alarms take over the pairing mechanism for central locking? Or do they piggyback off it? I suppose it depends on the system, right?

I have four sets of keys/keyfobs. One definitely works, one I think works, one definitely doesn't work, and I have the OEM one that has never worked :p.

Is this fixable/workable/whatever? I mean I know it's beyond "just clean it" but how *do* they get synced up?

[GTSBoy]

25 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Do aftermarket alarms take over the pairing mechanism for central locking?

Can't see that being a thing.

[soviet_merlin]

51 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Do aftermarket alarms take over the pairing mechanism for central locking? Or do they piggyback off it? I suppose it depends on the system, right?

Is this fixable/workable/whatever? I mean I know it's beyond "just clean it" but how *do* they get synced up?

Does your door chime work when you have the key in the lock and open the door? I've had that disabled because it's f**king annoying and it is one thing that messes with the pairing. Because now the car doesn't detect key in ignition anymore and the slide-key-in-and-out sequence does not trigger the pairing mode anymore.

The service manual has a section on the various bits involved in doing the syncing. I presume it'll be similar between Stagea and R34.

[soviet_merlin]

What makes it worse is that Nissan made keys in the same style, for example R34 and Stagea, but they work at different frequencies or something like that. So they look the same but the remotes are not interchangeable. I learned that from some guy selling aftermarket blank keys.

[Kinkstaah]

Yeah - My key still does the chime thing. I followed the procedure but it didn't activate on the (identical) third set of keyfob that I had.

I vaguely remember the alarm saying you can only pair two keys with it. Now that I've dug it up, it appears that you very much can pair keyfobs to the alarm system. (which are the fobs I use to unlock the car).

I have successfully diverted the thread and can probably not use the OEM keyfob ever again unless I use the aftermarket alarm and attempt to pair the OEM keyfob to it. Which might just work, or not :D. I definitely used the nissan method and not the aftermarket alarm method.