I am the proud new owner of a 97 D1. Its has a couple of little quirks but the one that I have a question about is the keyless entry. The FOB doesnt work the keyless entry to well. It works randomly. I was told by the PO that the locking mechanismsm need to be greased. Is that the problem or is there something else I should be looking for?

 

with my keyless entry you have to be very close to the vehicle before it works. also, you may have a weak fob battery.

 

i was thinking it was the batteries as well. i just wanted to make sure there wasnt any known problems with the door locks

 

The power door lock actuators are known for going bad, but start by replacing the battery in your remote.

 

If you want to have it work when you are farther than arms distance of the truck, try placing the remote up to your chin and pressing the button..

You think I'm kidding, but it works.. it gives the remote greater range..

 

I will second this and as a professional I have told this to MANY customers, it uses your body as a transmitter.

 

I do this with our Grand Caravan and my G/F looks at me like Im on crack, but it works. I will do the batteries first since that is the cheapests. Would all the acuators go at the same time? Or when one goes none of them work?

 

If none of them work, you have another problem. Usually one will go bad, but not all at once.

 

If none of them seem to be working I would try manually pushing the inside lock switch on the drivers door (and passenger front door) up and down, if it goes up and down freely and none of the other doors lock or unlock then your problem isn't the actuators but something in the central locking. If one of the actuators are bad they usually seize up causing the manual locking not to work (the lock will feel stuck).

on a side note if it helps:
These trucks use a 1 wire locking system, the wire is yellow/pink in the drivers kick panel (behind and under the hood release) the way the 1 wire locks work in this system is the wire will contain a signal if the wire is cut (or a pulse switch is put inline and then opened) the doors will lock, if a pulse to ground is applied (or a pulse switch to ground is closed) the doors will unlock.