saturn vue door locks

a guy gave me a 2005 saturn vue 3.5 v6 awd that he let sit in front of his house for about 2 years dead battery had to break into cause the keys don't work either door or hatch. My question is are these locks repairable it seems that the keys aren't going all the way into the locks I think he may have tried to open the door by sticking something in the lock.

 

All locks on a vehicle are usually replaceable. You can try to have a locksmith recode a new cylinder to match the keys for the rest of the vehicle. He needs to get the key code from GM in order to do this. Probably $100 plus $50 for a new blank cylinder

 

Interesting, as a new to Vue owner 2005, keys don’t work on mine either. Remote only locks the front right, left rear and tailgate. Other two stay unlocked, but the alarm is activated.

I have a replacement fob, that needs programming. Is that only accomplished by paying a locksmith? I mean, I have an old one working,can I program from that, myself?

 

I should throw in here somewhere that sometimes it is the RKE or remote keyless entry controller that either goes bad or needs to be reprogrammed. I say that in your case because that is a strange combination of locks to not work from the fob The RKE receivers are usually pretty high up on the vehicle, so it is also not outside the realm of possibilities that there may be wiring between the RKE and some of the door locks that gets damaged by water intrusion, corrosion etc.

If a power lock locks with the lock unlock control on that door, that says that the lock and the lock actuator are good. Most rear seats without a power lock button are wired to the front seat on the same side. If those don't work, check for child lock setting on the inside face of the door when you open it. There is a little knob thing that sticks out which can be in two positions

If one of the front doors does not lock with its own button, then the actuator comes into play as possibly bad. If the seat behind it in the passenger compartment on the same side does operate with the switch on that door, then that further incriminates the front door actuator has actually being bad.

I apologize for rambling on a subject that is not necessarily straightforward. There are two or three ways that manufacturers wire the power lock system on a vehicle. I don't happen to know which one is used in the vue but that can be discerned from wiring diagrams which you really need to figure out what you're looking at first before you try to decide what works as advertised and what does not.

If everything works properly from all of the door switches on the vehicle, the basic parts like lock actuators and the base wiring through the system is likely intact.

It does not function correctly with a buttons in the car, that must be addressed before spending money to get your fob programmed, because that type of issue has nothing to do with remote keyless entry system. It's a base functionality issue and is either due to a bad actuator, broken wiring etc.

Once you get along of the interior switches working properly, then take on the RKE issues. Remember that the commands to lock the doors or unlock the doors with the RKE are derived from the RKE signaling via SEPARATE WIRING to the body control module to actuate the door locks. The body control module always controls the actual stuff in the vehicle. The RKE module translates which button you push into which command to request of the BCM, body control module. If the RKE module output is not correct then the BCM never gets the request to lock the back left and front right doors for example.

There's an outside chance it could be the body control module, but if the doors all work from within the vehicle, it is a very very slim chance.

The actuators can usually be replaced from the inside by removing the door panels if they are the problem. Most of the switches you do not even need to do that. You slide the switch pod forward or backwards to lift it out.

Also consider that if you have a bad actuator in one of the rear doors for example, the BCM can tell it to lock and unlock until it's blue in the face, but if the actuator is bad, that action will never occur until you replace the actuator. Whether the command comes from the body control module from the interior switch or from the body control module as requested by the RKE, it doesn't matter.... It's a signal send to the actuator in that door that doesn't work and therefore the lock will never change state.

Hopefully my babbling is somewhat understandable. Try https://charm.li for diagnosis and wiring diagrams for your vehicle.