Had a few door lock actuators that sounded a bit sluggish, and a door switch that wasn't working, so off to tinkering I went. I've seen a few posts showing the actuator motors could be replaced, but nothing much showing how to get the actuators apart, or what motors to use and such, so I thought I'd post a few pics of the process and information that I used.

I used these motors from China, they seem to be working good so far. You'll want the smaller gear ones for the door locks, and the larger diameter gears for the super locks if you were for some reason going to replace those.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/19609053568...mis&media=COPY

There's lots of info on getting the actuators out of the doors online, so I'll not be covering that here.

Once you have your actuator out of the doors, the first step is to remove the outer black cover that just snaps on. This part is simple and easy to figure out.

Next is to remove the center pin push lock nut using a chisel or other thin tool that's able to pry it off or break it without damaging the plastic housing to much. Then pry the back side apart just enough to clear the lil white standy uppy bits, and gently pry the actuator assembly from the latch assembly. Try do do this as straight "out" as possible to make it easy, prying a lil on each side back and forth till it seperates.








Take the time to get familiar with how everything interfaces and operates before seperating the actuator and latch assemblies, to make it easier on yourself during reassembly. For instance, notice the lil yellow grease filled "U" shaped notch in the gold arm in the middle of the next pic, and how that notch interfaces with the black plastic pin of the lock cam, you'll need to realign these when reassembling, so it helps to notice how it looks now. I took the pic with them slightly separated to illustrate


Next remove the 3 to 4 lil silver torx head screws from around the perimeter



Now comes the tricky part, separating the two case halves...
I used a small pair of bent tip pliers to gently pry the white tabs just far enough away to slip a smooth tipped zip tie in. If you pry any more than the thickness of a zip tie, they will break off. No matter how gentle I was, at least one or two broke on each of my actuators, so don't stress or feel bad if they break on you too, they are darn brittle. Not a huge deal if a few do break, as the screws hold the assembly together anyway, but I did try to save as many as possible.




There's two of these lil clips kinda next to each other that might frustrate ya, so dont forget to pop them loose. If the case halves don't seem to want to come apart easily at this point, turn the lock cams to their other positions and it'll separate easily. No need to fight it, when things are aligned, it comes apart without to much effort



Next is just popping out the old motor and replacing it. There's no wiring or soldering to worry about, they just snap in. The motor with the brass gear facing to the right in the next pic is the Lock motor, the one pointing up is the Super Lock motor. And the lil black box with the green tip in the upper left area of the white casing is the Door open/shut switch, FYI


I used dialectic grease on the contacts, and added new light grease to the gears and moving parts.

Now all that's left is to put it all back together. The case halves tend to go together easily as long as you have those silver vertical posts lined up in the lock cams properly. After the actuator halves are back together, then the actuator assembly just snaps back onto the latch assembly the same way you took it off. Pay attention that everything is lined up, like that lil "U" notch, and smack it all back together.

You'll need new locking push nuts for that main gold center pin, I got some at ACE hardware. Here's a Pic to show the sales guy to help ya find them


And here's some wiring and connector info for those who might need it:

OE color code / Connector pin # / Operates / actual wire color
KR / 4 / door lock / pink-red
KS / 8 / superlock / pink-grey
KP / 7 / lock motors common (neg) / pink-purple
B / 5 / door sensor (N/C switch) / black
PW / 6 / door sensor / purple-green or white

Activation: Reverse Polarity to lock/unlock
Connector Pin #
7+4 Door Locks
7+8 Superlocks

Door wire loom connector number in RAVE - C0441

Door lock actuator operation all doors:
Norm Polarity = Lock
Rev Polarity = Unlock

Hope I didn't forget anything...good luck, and Happy modding 👍

 

Wow, thanks for that very detailed write up.

 

Excellent write up and detail. Thank you for taking the time! Mine are all working fine but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time! 😐

 

Incredible write up, you’re about to save me a bunch of cash and hassle getting an entire new assembly!