Change radio station and door locks cycle

[biggman100]

Ok guys and gals, here is an odd one for you. I have a 1999 Legacy L wagon, EJ22, automatic, that i put an alpine aftermarket head unit in. The other day i replaced the battery, and the door locks wouldn't work, except once in awhile, but tonight i was driving it, and everytime i changed the radio stations, the door locks would cycle, as in it would lock and unlock on me while i was driving. I thought maybe it was a coincidence, so i parked it with it running, and just kept changing radio stations, and it did it everytime. Any ideas on what to look for? I was changing the stations by pushing the buttons on the head unit itself, not by using the remote for it.

[WoodsWagon]

The radio must be un-intentionally transmitting on the frequency the security module in the car uses to talk to the key fob for the remote locking.

 

If you re-program the security system to the key fob by using the instructions on the yellow sticker by the battery, it should work normally again.

[biggman100]

The problem is i dont have the remote for the keyless entry system. I did try disabling it by cycling the key 3 times, but since it is only a keyless entry system, and not a security system, it didnt work. And as usual, the local Subaru stealership was no help. They want me to bring it in and pay up to 2 hours diagnostic time, just to tell me what the problem is.

[Fairtax4me]

This really makes no sense because the radio head unit shouldn't be transmitting anything. It's just a receiver, and at that the frequencies it uses shouldn't even be the same as what the remote entry system uses.

There is a lot more going on with the new HD radio stuff now though.

 

I suppose the thing to do would be to find the antenna/receiver module for the alarm system and unplug it.

[biggman100]

The head unit isnt even a newer one. Its about 4 or 5 years old. I dont know if it would make any difference, but the head unit is actually a JVC, not an Alpine, but when we first got the car, it had an Alpine that was supposedly a few months old, and it stopped working not long after we got the car, so i just stuck a cheap JVC i had from another subaru in it. I enclosed a pic of it, so you can see what it looks like. As you can see from the pic, no usb, no dvd, no navigation, just a basic am/fm cd player.

[biggman100]

:I suppose the thing to do would be to find the antenna/receiver module for the alarm system and unplug it.

 

 

I tried that, and all i could find was the control box for the keyless entry system, and it didnt have an antenna on it that i could find anywhere.

[jp98]

I have found that when ever you have a wierd or strange thing happening with anything electrical in a vehicle is to check your grounds. A bad ground or one that is grounded through something else will cause all kinds of freeky problems with things that you would never suspect.

[nipper]

Did you use an adapter harness or wired it in yourself?

[biggman100]

Did you use an adapter harness or wired it in yourself?

 

I used an adapter, that i got through crutchfield when i bought the head unit for the other car.

[nipper]

unplug the radio and report back

[Cougar]

From the way you describe the trouble it sounds like the problem might be due to the radio generating a RF signal and radiating it out to the keyless entry system. The signal may be being carried by the radio antenna or the radio may have a faulty ground. To see if the radio antenna is involved you could simply disconnect it from the radio and see if that helps. To eliminate a possible bad ground you could try adding a temporary ground jumper to the radio chassis and see if that makes a difference. You also stated the locks were not working for a bit so there may be a grounding problem with them.