Chrysler Repair: Chrysler Town & Country lock problem, side kick panel, chrysler town

Question
I have a 98 chrysler town & country and the locks keep locking everytime i open or close any door, also whenever I start the car.  
Also- if you unlock it then open rear door before front door, the alarm goes off.
I took it to dealer who charged me $85 to tell me he didn't know what it was!  I am very frustrated and am afraid I will lock my kids in the car!  \Any help?  
I have never used the alarm before and have been told by Chrysler it is not facotry installed.  The dealer seemed to think it was electrical, not with the alarm.

Answer
Hi Kristi,
Sorry to be slow in replying. I got the question but the home site of Allexperts was down for most of the day so I couldn't respond. On your door lock snafu, it would be good to know if it is or is not a factory installed system. If you bought the car new you would know if it came with the system or if you or someone in the family had a non-Chrysler system installed. If you bought the car used and you don't know the original or subsequent owners then we have to do some sleuthing. Unfortunately because as I said in my bio that I don't have personal knowledge of vans I will have to assume the manuals and diagrams that I have for the cars also applies to your van (not an unreasonable assumption, but a caveat nonetheless).
If it is a factory system, then I would suspect that the problem either involves a sensor on one of the doors that is alarmed, or alternatively there is a short circuit in the wiring associated with the alarm system which is causing a false alarm to occur. The latter might occur at a location called the body computer which in the cars is located above the passenger side kick panel (which is the vertical interior panel just to the right of the passengers right shin/thigh). Look  on that panel, maybe above what is easily viewed, using a flashlight, to see if you find a module with two plugs on the top of it and also this module may well be the location for the dinging of bells that alert you to a door being open or a seat belt not being fastened. So listen to that dinging and try to locate the source which will be the body computer. If you can find the body computer, try to unclip it from its mount so that you can get to the two 25-pin plugs on the top of it. Remove those plugs and look carefully at the pins and the sockets to see if they are dirty, corroded, or wet (has any water leaked into the van in this area recently?) If you see anything that looks funny, clean it, and they spray it with a contact cleaner spray can (available at an electronics store). Then reassemble and see if that solved the problem.
An alternative is to defeat the whole system and do without it. A non-permanent solution is to always use the push buttons or levers to lock the doors, never use the key as that is what arms the system. A permanent fix, if it is the factory system is to remove the theft module plug-in but there is one trick that you must observe: the system is controlled by a theft alarm module which is usually mounted behind the glove box in the cars, so I assume it is also in the vans. Removing the 21-pin "natural" colored plug of the module will turn the system off, but you must only remove the plug when the motor is running at idle, otherwise you wwill cause the engine controller to think that you are a thief and it will shut down your ability to start and run the engine! To get to the module you will probably have to remove the glove box (at least that is so on the cars). So see about all the above possibilities and uncertainties and get back to me.
Roland
Please excuse some typos, this proofing system is imperfect!