Clifford Alarm. My doors wont unlock

I wonder if the constant 12 volts or some other constant 12 volt wire is going off after a while. I know I got caught years ago in a Camaro and assumed what tested out at the time to be a constant 12 volts was actually tied into the vehicles computer to where after a certain time frame that wire was no longer a constant 12 volt but went dead. The system would lock and unlock fine but if it sat a while the door locks ceased to work with the remote. On this car the door had to be opened and it "woke up" the battery wire in the door. I've also seen things like this in Fords and could very well be in other makes. The reason some systems are like this is if the car is parked a while someone cannot push the unlock button on the door panel and have the doors unlock. They will only work after the door has been opened then they come back to life.

Try this, arm the system overnight again but leave the window down. Get back to it the next day and reach in and try and operate the door locks with the factory door lock switch. If it doesn't work I kinda think the clifford systems door lock relays may be tied into the wrong constant 12 volt line.

Jim 

First I don't know all the particulars of your car but let's say the power wire for the door locks is tied into a constant 12 volts (or actually a timed constant 12 volt) circuit that the body computer turns off after a while. Let's say something else is in this line between this connection at the body computer and the door lock relays like a capacitor. When the body computer has this line powered up the capacitor gets charged and the other items connected to this line work as they should. Now after a while the line becomes disconnected from the battery but the capacitor is in a charged state. Now if a relay is triggered and the line to the battery is disconnected the capacitor is trying to power the circuit but if it is not large enough the relay may click but not have enough power to do anything else.    

I have installed Clifford systems in the past and the siren (chirps and making it sound off in a theft attempt) were on a seperate 5A fuse and the parking lights were on a different 20A fuse. It's possible the door locks are tied into the 20A fuse or on a different line and the reason it was designed that way was if there was a problem with the parking lights or door lock circuits they could blow their fuses but the 5A fuse would allow the main part of the system to work for more security. The convenience aspects could fail but at least the system would still make noise and disable the ignition.

If I were to troubleshoot it I would try hooking up an LED to the door lock relays input power for the Clifford system and see if the line stays powered up when the door locks decide not to work. An LED could stay powered up overnight or a few days and not drain the battery down light a regular test light or light bulb.

Jim

I just did a quick lookup and it looks like your vehicle requires a door lock adaptor (Peripheral Electronics part # PGMDLBP). I also tried looking up your vehicle on this site's wiring diagram but there was no info.

So, for the door locks to work there has to be an adaptor, not the old school relay systems. I wonder if the adaptor is defective or a wiring problem ?.

Did you do the install or another company ?.

Jim