Ambers no longer flash when locking car

[n00bMeiSter]

I don't know if every trim level does this, but I know mine does.

When I lock my car, the ambers are supposed to flash, and the same when I unlock it. However tonight they have not flashed once. I've noticed over the past year or so this would happen on occasion, but I'd just unlock and relock and it would work fine again, so I thought nothing of it really.

I know this isn't really a major deal, but since they are no longer working, I'm hoping to investigate before it becomes a larger problem like my hazards failing to work (if that's even possible).

I know for a fact that my turn signals work just fine (obviously) and my hazards were working fine because I used them while dropping someone off at the side of the road.

Anyone know what might be causing this? It's late and cold, and I'm too tired to go out and dig around in my fuse box or PJB to see if there's anything amiss there.

[mazdabetty]

Most likely, a door is accidentally ajar. Probably your trunk. Happened to me once even though I was pretty sure I closed the trunk tight.

Try opening and closing it again hard and see what happens.

[n00bMeiSter]

Most likely, a door is accidentally ajar. Probably your trunk. Happened to me once even though I was pretty sure I closed the trunk tight.

Try opening and closing it again hard and see what happens.

I tried every thing, hood trunk, fuel door, all the other doors. Still nothing

[TheMAN]

first of all
fold your back seats down
look inside your trunk from inside the car... if the trunk lid is closed and you see the trunk light on, the car thinks its ajar
it's a common problem with early 3s... the trunk lid light switch can get sticky or if crap gets in it and keeps it from moving... you should also make sure that little flap by the striker moves freely and is clean inside

[peterm15]

Does the door lock when it doesn't flash?
It sometimes happens to me. All doors are closed hit the lock button and no lights or horn. But it locks.

What I noticed Is that the buzzer inside the car is going off like my lights are on. And the key on the dash flashes. I just turn the key and release the parking brake. Let the car roll and it fixes the problem.

Btw for how rarely it happens it's not worth me getting it checked as I wouldn't be able to replicate.

[adubya]

it could be a sensor issue, I was having a similar problem and it turns out the senor was slightly misaligned in the driver side door.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Is the car actually locking? If yes then you are probably going to have to look at the PJB.

[Gizzmo_jr]

My rear drivers side door used to cause this exact issue last year. I lubricated the white rollers where the black plastic door prop (iunno technical term) and it solved it. I noticed that after I got the car real nice and hot inside the issue when away, aka something was freezing in the "open" state fooling the car thinking the door was left open. Manually locking the doors still worked.

I pinpointed the door via trial and error, and the fact it mostly happened on week days (when I put my brief case in the back seat)

[-cj-]

TheMAN's solution will lead you to the right path I think.

While sitting in your car, with everything off, is the "door ajar" indicator on? That's another indication that your car thinks a door is open.

In my case, with my hatch, I had decided to turn the light off using the switch. For whatever reason, this threw off the entire system, even though the trunk was closed. Once I turned the light switch back on (On hatches, it's a manual switch...although the light turns off on it's own when the hatch is closed. Not sure why this is even there), the door ajar went away and the car started arming like normal.

If your door ajar light isn't lit, then maybe check your "ALARM" fuse.

[n00bMeiSter]

I'll have a look with the seats down, thanks TheMAN.

Yes, the doors do lock, but my other concern (read: paranoia) is that the doors will unlock themselves randomly. I say this because I had a similar problem with my van (actually, still do). Where if I use the remote to lock the doors, they lock and then a few seconds later unlock again. But if I use the button on the inside of the door they lock properly (gotta love pontiacs....).

The door ajar light indicator does not come on at all. There's no beeping, or buzzing or dinging. The horn still honks when I press the lock button twice.
Would the alarm fuse be in the PJB or fuse box?

[n00bMeiSter]

I just went out and put down the back seats as per TheMAN's suggestion and no dice. The trunk light is not on. I popped the trunk and closed it a bunch of times and every time it closed properly. The flap by the striker is not stuck either.

[Gizzmo_jr]

Ah, my suggestion isn't it then. My door indicator light would stay on.
Does the door indicator light turn on when you actually open a door?

[Dave_The_BMXER]

I had some PJB issues back in the day and basically PJB was sending my horn the signal to be on all the time. So I (well McGuyver) temporarily removed that pin so when I locked my doors the horn wouldn't trigger and if my alarm went off it wouldn't trigger.

There is a chance that your PJB isn't sending the signal to flash your indicators on lock.

The only reason I say all this is becuase I recently fixed it though I have had a new PJB for awhile.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showt...-Function-List

Check that out maybe?

[n00bMeiSter]

Gizmo: yes it does.

Dave: I'll have a read through that and maybe have a look at my PJB when it's not raining out. Thanks.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

PJBs suck.

[n00bMeiSter]

PJBs suck.

[Darkice]

That happeneds to me to but only during colder temps.

[n00bMeiSter]

It's been two full days now. I haven't checked my PJB yet because the weather was junk yesterday, and it's snowing out today

I also haven't checked whether my ambers flash when I hit the panic button. I'll check that in a little bit.

[n00bMeiSter]

So I just went out to check if the ambers flash when you press the panic button, and they do.

[RTEnthusiast]

Whatever happened to this?

Time to trade the rustbucket in...

[n00bMeiSter]

Been too crappy to check my PJB until recently. Unfortunately I've been crazy busy this weekend. I'm going to check my PJB tomorrow if it's nice out.

[n00bMeiSter]

Went out and had a look at my PJB today, checked anything that seemed like it had to do with my indicators/hazards/turn signals, and there were no blown fuses there. I'll check the relays tomorrow. Tried to get a feel for the wires, to see if there were any that might have come loose, and it didn't feel like it, but because of the awkward position required to get at it, it was difficult to tell.

[theo575]

ive been having a similar problem, not as full blown as yours with the doors unlocking themselves, but I was thinking it might be the remote battery starting to die?

[xxbobbyfinxx]

2008 Mazdaspeed3 here. Reviving this 12 year old thread as I just had this issue happen to me and I found mine to be caused by the hood latch sensor being unplugged. There's a small sensor near the hood latch which has a cable that goes behind the fiberglass front core support. Mine was unplugged (due to a shop) and my ambers would not flash because of this. Plugging the sensor back in and closing the hood fixed this issues and now my ambers flash as normal when locking and unlocking the car!