Power door locks - how they work

[cakeeater2]

how long has everyone got the "doorlock on a budget" to work? i did mine about a year and a half ago and about a week ago both of my locks just stopped. still not sure if it is a relay or the actuators, there is clicking in the dash when i hit either lock or unlock so i am bettin on the actuators have just gave up on me. year and a half isn't bad for a free fix though. found some nib actuators on ebay for 30$ for the pair.

Register today or sign-in to remove these ads!

[tat00844]

i just recently repaired the passenger side door lock and replaced the drivers side door actuators. I followed rogerd's instructions and they are excellent in fact i think the repaired side works better now. the only thing i did different was pull out the thermistor, which for those going to attempt this is a silver plate inside the motor that easily pulls out and replaced it with some solder this works great great thread i was nervous at first and the only hard part was i was trying to put the key lock rod on the wrong way other than that easy thanks roger

[hard worker]

Can a bad actuator in one door cause the other one to not work properly? Because both of my door locks started acting up at the same time.

[tat00844]

i think it was just a matter of timing my passenger side was bad for 3 years before my drivers side went bad weird cause i used the driver side more

[wluttrell]

Yeah, any pictures of this ?? Thanks Guys!

[98Expedition10]

Don't forget that you may be able to clean out the solenoid before you need to change the coils. The door lock solenoids are not polarized, but work in a push-pull manner depending on the polarity of the applied voltage. After all of this time (8-10) years for some of you there could be an accumulation of rust, scale, mud, e.t.c in the solenoid plungers (coil); which will eventually bind on the plunger stopping operation.
I have a 11 year old unit that I recently performed maintenance on all my Lock Motors (solenoids) However by getting access to them I was able to spray Electrical Contact Cleaner onto the plungers which restored them completely. In some cases this did not require removal or replacement of the Lock Motors. Perhaps you can try this before a replacement is required. Caveat: one clean do not spray "3-In-One",Carburetor Cleaner, e.t.c. oil into a solenoid under any condition.