Power Lock Fix

[thundervalley]

I went to the dealer to see about a replacement power door lock actuator and was shocked to find out that its not offered without the window regulator assembly. Holy smokes was that unit expensive. It seemed a little crazy to me so I decided to tear it apart and see if I could fix it first. What I found was the same as a lot of other lock actuators out there and the repair was just the same. I'd love to take full credit for this but it was something I learned years ago on some forum for ford trucks.

If your actuators are starting to croak then below is the fix that should work for you. There is an archaic component inside the actuating motor that degrades after a certain amount of time and no longer passes enough voltage to fully pop the locks. The purpose is to strip the actuator down to the motor, take the end bell off and replace that part with either a piece of copper or to wrap it in aluminum foil and place it back in the motor button everything back up and reinstall the actuator in the door.

I'm assuming anyone reading this is somewhat mechanically inclined so I will spare the details of pulling the actuator from the door. I used a #1 phillips bit and 1/4" open end wrench to get it off the regulator without removing the regulator from the door. After that I split the casing with a basic pocket knife to get to the point of the image below. Note the mark with sharpie to make sure its put back together in the right position. Reverse it and the locks will be working opposite of each other.

Bend back the tabs of the motor to get the end bell off...

Here is the part that's not doing its job anymore. Pull it out and either wrap it with aluminum foil or replace it with a piece of copper of some sort.

 

I wedged a small piece of 12 gauge solid copper into this one.

Reinstall everything in the reverse order. You will use four 1/2" long #6 screws to re-secure the actuator housing together. These will screw into the same positions that the original was melted together at from the factory.

This unit was off of an 09 CXU613 but is very likely similar to the model you have. Even if the actuators look different, most likely the motor inside is the same or very close to the same. This fix should apply equally.

 

Hope this helps someone else out. It saved me several hundred bucks!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2016 by thundervalley
Typo and added another pic

[Keffer inc]

Mine is dead, thanks for sharing