Land Rover Repair: door lock problems, random behaviour, discovery series

Question
hi john:
i have a 2001 discovery series 2 which has been having strange door locking issues. the driver's side will not unlock with either the 2-button fob or the door switch on the center panel...but it will open if by inserting the key in the lock and turning it counter-clockwise all the way. it will lock with the fob and switch, just not open.

after about 2 weeks of this, the rear/back door started having problems...it will neither lock nor unlock with the fob or the switch on the panel.  i can crawl into the cargo area an open it and lock it manually.

these two door latches are expensive, so before i spend money on these parts i wanted to ask you whether you had heard of these issues, and if buying new latches is the answer.

thanks,
marina


Answer
Hi Marina,

this started out as a possible single door lock actuator problem but with the additional door having the same trouble, I would suspect the central locking control unit.  This 'master' unit controls all the door locks and is supposedly linked to the security system.  Once this starts to fail, you will see random behaviour in you door locks and the key fob.

In order to prevent wasteful purchases of new door lock actuators, have a LR specialist investigate the problem and it may save you $100's of dollars.  

As for the rear door, that may be related to your front door or it could be a separate problem.  It was the case in my '95 Disco.  I've learned to live with the problem on my Disco and is quite common problem on older Disco's.  I would have hoped that LR would have fixed this with the newer models.  

At the moment, I have my son reach back and lift the lock on the rear door.  As soon as the lock is lifted, I am able to use the latch and open the door.  I rarely use the back door so I left it as a 'hidden security step'.  My son says I'm just cheap! hmmm.

Best of luck,

JohnMc