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First off, many thanks to RayF and Frank V. for their copious notes and tips. I wrote up my process and it makes reference to things the previous posters said - anything that is contradictory is merely being presented as my experience not right over the other posters (nor saying they are wrong). Of course, you're driving a SAAB, so you should expect by now that even though everyone else has had your symptoms, your root cause might be just a little bit different.
I have a 1997 9000 that has perfectly working central locks (at least when the remote has been recently soldered ;) up until a month and a half ago.
It was then that I got to work, hit the remote button, and got the horn beep but no locked doors. I checked that the lock levers were all moving freely and that I hadn't blown the door lock fuse (which used to happen when I was in colder weather - it was warm).
I got back in my car, pressed the 'lock' button on the center control and the doors locked - I got out, pressed the remote and again the alarm set, but no locked doors. For the moment I just manually locked all the doors and went to work. That evening the remote and the interior 'lock' control were both working - until I got home and the situation repeated itself.
I lived with this happening about 2-3 times/week and finally had some time to research and figure out what to do. I found this thread - and the first thing I did was lube up one of my rear doors as they felt slightly stiffer than the front. When I was all done and the car had a lovely aroma of fresh lubricant I found that the lock lever was only a little less stiff so I decided to skip the other rear door for the time being.
The link URL contains a flickr set of the photos I took while I did this, I'm also including it here, just-in-case: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16008566<at>N08/sets/72157622661841017/ replace <at> with the at-sign.
The remainder of this message is my notes as I went through the process:
First step - remove the door lock/interior lights fuse (I believe it's num. 16 / 15A).
I'll assume you're able to find the Kiekert box in front of the driver's knees and above the black felt. For my '97 9K it was labeled K6 / SAAB / 4102851 / 40505359 / Kiekert. Getting into it was a bit tricky - I used a knife under the clip and then wedged a screwdriver in until the clip was free of the tab - a mock-up of this process is in the photos.
Inside were two Siemens relays (V23083- / C1002-A303 / Gn6EC) and a number of other components on a resin-dipped circuitboard (ID Kiekert 5359_04). The solder joints for the relays looked pristine - until I pushed on one a bit and found that the joint was cold. I went round the remaining posts of the relay and found that several were cold joints, while most were just fine.
Assuming some basic soldering skill and a steady hand to remove the resin, reflowing the solder should take care of my intermittent non-lock issues. I've read above about those who have removed the relays, opened them and found oxide issues inside - as I'm not too interested in wasting more of my day off, I chose to just resolder the posts.
After removing the resin I used a desoldering braid to wick away as much of the old solder as possible and then flow fresh eutectic (read: lead) solder in as I don't want another cold joint. I used a 600F soldering temperature, .022dia solder and no clean flux paste.
Re: the desoldering - I had a heck of a time getting the contact (not coil) ends of the relay to desolder and had to bump the temp up to 650F to even get the solder to kind-of flow into the braid and I ended up with some half clean posts - definitely not ideal. The coil posts were a snap and cleaned right up.
The finished project ended up with some really ugly new joints that have a bit too much solder in them, but if they only last for the /next/ 12 years, I'll be happy. When putting the circuit board back in, notice that it rests atop the guides, not under then - and there is only one way for it all to go back together - if it's wrong the board will twist and the plastic face won't go back on easily.
posted by 76.88.12...
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