I have a 2002 extended cab and the door lock actuator on the passenger door died. Went to Ford and picked up a replacement. Looked simple enough to install, wrong.

I pulled the interior door panel off and saw the actuator is attached to the door latching mechanism. Unfortunately, there is limited room in which to work and I can't see how or where the actuator is attached. I removed the torx bolts that hold the latching mechanism in place, but it can't be removed because of the window guide is in the way. I removed the guide, but still no luck.

Is there something I'm missing or not doing? Any advice is greatly appreciated.



Thanks in advance....


Paul

 

Couldn't this have been covered under the warranty?

 

Sure, unfortunately I have 38800 miles on my truck.

It's never ceases to amaze me how things go bad just after the warranty runs out.

I guess I have to break down and buy a Chilton manual.

 

First looking at the new look actuator find the retaining clip,its about 1 inch long and3/8 inch wide.Its right in the middle of the actuator.You must depress this clip then push actuator away from door latch .I do these with latch still hook to door .Using a hooked radiator hose tool to depress clip.A small mirror helps to see clip.The clip should depressed towards actuator. Let us know results.

 

I just replaced both of my actuators yesterday. The trick is to do as you already did and remove the three bolts on the latch, undo the bolt holding the window guide. With these undone now all three of the metal rods that are attached to the latch and actuator have to come off, it takes a bit of patience but they will come off. Don't worry about the electrical connection or the cable from the inside door handle. Next just spin the whole mechanism around the window guide, tight fit but it will come around. Then you will have full access to the back side and it should be cake from there. Took me an hour for first one, but only 15 minutes for the second. Good luck.

 

Good...

Finally, took me and my brother in law about 90 minutes to remove, replace and reassemble the actuator/door lock mechanism. Ford did not make this process easy.

One trick we found that made it a little easier is we took off the door handle. Two bolts hold it and are easily accesable from the inside. With that removed, we were able to get to the door handle rod and the electrical connections. The actuator than was easy to unclip.