Hi-

I have a '98 LS400 which I recently smashed up the front drivers side (mostly fender) in an accident. I took my car to the body shop, and I know this is their problem but I am hoping to get an idea of what is going wrong since the delay in them fixing is costing me extra days for having a rental car.

According to them (repiars are done) but the buttons on the key no longer lock/unlock the door. When they then go to unlock the door with the key, it rolls down all the windows. They called and asked me if I had an extra key, which I said I would bring them tomorrow morning. That is the only time I can schedule around work.

Do they need my extra key to fix this problem? I'm half worried I will bring them the other key and it will just do the same thing.

Thanks!
-Rasta

 

Tell them to press but to not hold done the unlock button on the remote when unlocking your car!

 

Sorry maybe I should have been more clear. According to them, the buttons on the key no longer work as far as locking/unlocking the car. But when they put the key into the lock cylinder all the windows go down. I didn't ask them if the key still starts the car. I did ask them if they are holding the key in the unlock position and he said no, that they just turn it to unlock and all windows go down.

 

The buttons on the key uses the battery. Change the battery in the remote. Holding in unlock position on the door will roll down the windows. Holding in lock position will roll up the windows. The chip in the key doesnt use power from the remote. So if nothing has changed the chip is still programmed to work with the car, so it will start.

 

So you're saying that simply unlocking the door with the key (in cylinder) will make all windows go down regardless if you hold it in unlocked position or not? I really have to just go see it tomorrow. I actually gave them my spare key I never use but I suppose it is possible the battery is almost dead in it. Just seems counter-intuitive to roll down all windows by just unlocking the door (and not holding it in unlock position) but to be honest, I always use the keyless since I have had the car so maybe that is a "feature" lol

 

its supposed to be held in the position to roll the windows down or up. There possibly maybe be a short in wiring if they replaced your door or something on the mechanism needs to be adjusted is my guess.

 

Thanks for this. I went there this morning with my other key and it was the same deal. The keyless buttons don't work. When you insert the key into the cylinder and turn the key the alarm goes on. When you turn the key again to stop the alarm then all the windows and sunroof open. The key does start the vehicle though. He said they did disconnect the battery and also remove the door so I suggested they might have shorted something and to take apart the door. Apparently they already changed the battery in the key and also called some kind of tech out to see if it was a programming issue.

Hoping they can figure it out today so I can get my LS back asap, sick of paying daily to drive around a chevy cruze lol.

 

Just to finish this thread and to have this as reference to others experiencing this problem in the future, they called and said it is all fixed. Apparently they misaligned the lock cylinder when they put it back in and this was causing the problem (via some kind of short maybe)? Not sure if you have to remove the cylinder to take the door off, I can only imagine they took the door off so that they could better install the fender as there was no damage to the driver's door.

Thanks again everyone... /thread

 

is this the lock cylinder on the door, or on the ignition switch? glad it's fixed for you.

 

I am pretty sure he was talking about the one on the door. They seem to have done a pretty good job putting my LS back together but I still have to go back so they can take care of a few sloppy things I noticed.

Also my car stalled out this AM but that has happened before, I think it is related to throwing code for 'bank 1' too rich although no CEL light has been on since I got the car back. Unfortunately I am way too broke to take care of this issue now so hopefully it'll be good for a while. Love having this car back even if it did cost 89 bux to fill the tank this morning lol.