I went out to start my Ford Explorer last night, turned the key and nothing happened. The battery is new, and everything was working fine a few hours before that. I noticed after that that the power locks were turning on and off very rapidly, not enough power to actually lock and unlock the door, but there was a fast clicking sound coming from them. Any idea why they started to do this, or what I might do to fix it? Thanks!
The problem might from a defective body control module. This module controls such things as the power door locks, the interior lights, the delay shutoff of the headlights among other things. When these modules go bad things like the door locks will function erratically, the interior lights won’t come on or go off, or the headlights remain on long after the vehicle has been shut off.
Tester
Thanks for your reply. Now I guess the next step is to get it to the garage. Do you know if it would be possible to give the car a jump to get it started (most times I don’t even get a click when I turn the key) or am I stuck with getting a tow to the mechanic?
That might be a symptom of a severely discharged battery rather than the cause.
Hmmm…the battery is actually fairly new. So something else might be the cause of it being severly discharged?
You should be able to jump start the car with no problem. Preferably charge it up with a charger and disconnected from the car.
The lock problem may be due to a faulty lock switch. Dirty contacts. You may be able to correct the problem by moving the switches.