Can anyone tell me if the door lock actuators are actually meant to hold the lock in the up/down position? My rear door handle has been having some trouble since I bought the car. Basically the thing won't open unless I put the key in and turn it to the "unlock" position, then pull the handle. I stripped the paneling off to get a look (included removing the PO's aftermarket sub box and subs, which were installed by a complete neanderthal), and it seems like the only issue with the whole thing is the fact that the lock actuator doesn't hold the lock in the open position, which allows x to slip off y in the mechanism and voila, the thing won't open unless I'm pulling up on the lock tab as it sags down without some help. Took my lock actuator out and split it apart, everything seems to be fine with it, I hooked the leads up with it open and it works just fine, except that there doesn't seem to be any provision for holding the ram up when it's unlocked. Can anyone advise?

 

Check this out. It may answer your question...

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...r-latch-87279/

 

Ah yeah, someone mentions something about a tiny broken spring. Really hoping it's not that as that latch has about a hundred moving parts...

 

i just bought a rear door whole latch part and that diagram really helps,my door also doesn't open unless you go inside and push/pull lock to open,so after all is it the spring that prevents door from opening,how hard to change that?also couldn't tell where the spring was located

 

After looking at this for a while, I believe it is the spring. The nature of my initial question was whether or not the lock actuator held the lock open and closed, but if I'm understanding correctly, it only holds it closed. When it releases, this little spring is what helps the lock move to the open position. And the good news is, Amazon has packs of five for the low low price of $15 f@#king dollars, just in case you go over a really big bump and all your lock springs snap simultaneously

 

check ebay they're less than 2.00 bucks,but i didn't see the spring in the pics

 

Make sure you have patience and some very good, and long needle nose pliers.

The springs are doable, but require a steady hand, some colourful words and a beverage for afterwards.

 

Good lord what a dreadful install. I ended up getting the springs from Amazon. Removing the latch wasn't too bad, though I did remove a lot more than I felt I needed to just to maneuver the latch out of the door. Everything was dandy until I realized that the tangs on the new springs were slightly too large, which made them just physically impossible to install (see below, black spring is stock, silver spring is new). After much cursing and throwing of tools, I cracked a beer and figured a nice buzz may give me the creativity I needed to make it work. I snipped down one tang on the spring and then bent it back over to re-create the return which holds the spring in the hole. I then used a teeny tiny 4mm combo wrench to compress the spring into place, along with a few love taps from a hammer. All in all, a nasty install sandwiched between an easy removal and refit.

I did run into a problem once everything was done, however. My tailgate now requires you to lift up slightly on the handle as you close it, otherwise it'll only latch halfway. I was careful the whole time I had the tailgate open not to put any real pressure on the door, upwards or downwards, as I've heard these doors can become misaligned at the drop of a hat. My suspicion is that it's due to a small misalignment of the latch (what with it having been removed and refitted), not the door. Any crowd wisdom on getting the latch realigned perfectly? I'm planning on fitting a tailgate fold down table, which in use will definitely put way more downward pressure on the open door than I exerted during the latch maintenance, so if it's the door being misaligned and not the latch after this light maintenance, I'm obviously concerned about what the table could cause.

 

I just went through this whole ordeal. Lock doesn’t stay up, took everything apart, replaced the spring, and the lock is still loose. Is yours fixed? I’m about to go get an actuator.

 

Oh geeze, I got some X8R brand Range Rover/Discovery springs off of ebay. I’m nervous about them being too big now!