Help! i think it's electrical!

I have a 1998 Honda Accord sedan. It just rained yesterday and today my automatic door locks won’t function through both side of the door switches or through my keyless remote entry. The driver side controls for the automatic windows only function for the left side of the vehicle, however, the controls work on the individual doors. What’s going on here? Any suggestions on where to start?

I’d start by checking the fuse for the locks.

Since the controls work on each of the individual doors for their respective windows, that means you have power to the individual door switches and the motors and regulator assemblies work. That’s the good news.

The lack of ability to operate the passenger side windows using the control panel on the door combined with the ability to operate the driver side windows with that panel means that you have power to the panel but are unable to get it to the passenger side windows. That suggests to me either a bad control panel or chafed wiring in the harness, probably where it goes through one of the openings from the chassis to the door, where the harness is repeatedly flexed. That’s the bad news. Trouble shooting that will likely require opening the harness up and doing wire splices.

The failure of the remote to operate the locks could be as simple as a dead battery in the FOB. If this is the original battery, that would be the first thing I’d try.

I’ve checked the fuses and even replaced them just to make sure but I get the same results.

The battery for the alarm key chain is new and when I press the lock/unlock it sets the alarm or disables it and so it is fine.

I believe you are right about the harness. I left my door open and tried to operate the control panels and it allowed me to roll down the passenger window down an inch before it stopped working.

Does this harness affect the power locks mechanism as well?

This is really ridiculous but I resolved the issue found on another site.

The problem is with the windshield wiper’s intermittent speed control. All I had to do was move the speed control up and down then every thing worked normally again.

Thanks for your response.

For the sake of our readers can you elaborate on the fix? Is this situation as per design?

Wow. I NEVER would have gotten this one right. Thanks for th epost.

Are you planning on changing out the speed control switch?

I don’t see how the circuits could possibly be tied or related to each other. There may be a faulty chassis ground somewhere.

If the OP does not return and explain the only place we can place his "fix’ is in the unconfirmed file.

For our readers please do not think that there are such answers for your electrical problems, I fear we will be besiged with “what sequence of switch movement” type fixes are there for my…problem

Well, the solution is very simple.

  1. Put keys in ignition position 2 (Power on)
  2. Twist the wiper’s intermittent speed controls up and down.
  3. BAM!!! Control panels functional again.

As far as any other details on why this happens, I haven’t the slightest idea. Apparently this is a common issue for this model accord.

As a long term “fix” for this issue, I’m not sure if this is a definitive resolve. There may be a relay issue or ground issue but I’m not an expert.

I only know that this fixed the problem for now.