Interior lights, door lock problems

dennis2313 · February 10, 2014

Hello, there.... I just found this forum out of nesesity, I have a problem that is beyond my current knowledge and hope someone here can help.

I have a 2003 Trailblazer XLT and noticed today the following symptons:

1. The fob would not operate the door locks, as if one of the doors was not fully closed. The fob does not even activate the panic horn. The 2nd fob doesn't work either.
2. The interior lights stay on as if a door is open. I can turn the lights off with the button below the headlight switch. The interior lights still turn on and off with the dash light dimmer switch.
3. I open each door one at a time and each door will cause the dash display to report that each corresponding door is ajar.
4. Opening the rear hatch (glass or main hatch) does not cause the dash display to report the rear gate ajar.
5. The door lock switch on the driver door operates all the locks except for the rear hatch lock.
6. Currently, the lock actuator in the rear hatch does not actuate when the hatch is lowered. When I first started troubleshooting this problem the actuator would operate as I lowered the hatch but now does not.
7. RAP is not working.

That about sums up what I could determine was not acting right. Could be more but I havn't seen it yet. It has all the properties of a door switch open.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Is opening the rear hatch supposed to stop the RAP?
What triggers the lock actuator as the hatch is lowered?

dennis2313 · February 11, 2014

I found the problem and steps towards the solution on another forum.

It turns out that two of the wires that pass through the boot between the rear hatch and the body were broken. The wires were very unflexable and rather hard, I guess from age and weather.

I cut out a few inches of the hardened wires and replaced them with new. Everything works as good as new now.

I hope this helps others as they have this problem.