A few months ago, my right front door lock actuator decided to stop working, Not a big deal, as I have been the only person in the house since the wife and kids have been staying with her parents 100 miles away since October (long story)

So today, I decided to get to the diagnosis and repair. I opened the door, engaged the latch to simulate the door being closed, pressed my ear to the panel, and locked and unlocked the vehicle with the fob. I could head a "click" during unlock, but the lock button didn't move. Nothing was heard while locking.

I pulled the panel, the window frame and glass, and removed the actuator for closer inspection. With it removed from the door, I reconnected the harness and tried both fob buttons to see what was happening. To my surprise, it worked in both directions! (although it sounded a little rough locking) So, I unplugged it, and lubricated every moving part with silicone. Plugged it back in, and back to square one. When unlocking, the plastic cam at the bottom with the white slider attached twitches but does nothing more (sorry no pictures as the wife has both cameras). Locking, the actuator does nothing, and makes no sound.

I was prepared to disassemble it and replace the motor, which I figured would be the cause, but now I am not so sure. Seeing as there about 6 wires that plug into it, and even after querying the RAVE, I don't know which to test for voltage to rule out some other issue. All other lock actuators work perfectly (the tail door sometimes needs to presses of the fob to unlock, but that's a project for another day).

Ideas anyone?

 

See attached. I believe that you may have the same connector port or starboard, in case the production line decides to mount the steering gear on the wrong side. This could account for extra wires. The lock motor assembly uses a common, and a lead for lock and another for superlock. Voltage is applied across motor lead and common to operate in one direction. Voltage is reversed and applied to operate in other direction. A series of relays behind the fuse block accomplish this under control of the BCU.

 

I have a similar issue with my passenger door (LHS being in Australia) - but I'll check back on this one later as I'm dealing with cooling system stuff just now..

 

Thanks Savannah for the links. The wiring diagram I looked at yesterday while in the heat of the repair, but I didn't even think to pull up the connector view. Having seen the connector view, it is now obvious to probe terminals #4 and #7.

Had I started this project sooner, I might have gotten to that picture in the RAVE, but I was in a hurry to at least get it back together, repaired or not, before the rain hit, as I was doing this in my driveway.

Thanks again!

 

Update: Pulled the door panel back off, and verified power at terminals 4 and 7 (alternating from +12V to -12V when lock/unlock button pressed. As this is the only drivable vehicle here currently, I cannot take the time to attempt to repair the actuator (and possibly having to tie that door shut while actuator is being repaired), so I have ordered a replacement from Marty Powell (Iamthedrillbit).

 

Update: used actuator received from Marty Powell (Iamthedrillbit on Ebay) the other day. Spent a little over an hour today replacing the actuator, and all is back to normal.

Now to disassemble the defective actuator, and find a replacement motor for it, to aid in future repairs. That's the next project after I remove the cylinder heads from the junk block in the garage to get reworked for eventual head gasket replacement. My goal is to be able to do head gaskets in one weekend, with spare heads already planed and ready to go.