Hey guys.. I did something on my CoPart purchased LR3 this weekend in a way that I hadn't seen done before. There is very little info that I could find and only 1 video that showed how to do it.
That video look hard as hell to execute so figured a different (much easier way) to to accomplish the fix. So I wanted to share a little knowledge of what worked for me.

The issue... Passenger front and rear doors won't lock with the Key FOB. If you used the FOB to lock doors... you could open the Passenger doors and the alarm would go off. I heard this is a common
issue with LR3 and LR4 door actuators. There is a little white piece of plastic lever arm that wears down and the metal arm isn't able to activate the lock. Here is a picture of the piece that wears down.



Another crap design from our LR factory friends. The correct fix is to replace the entire actuator. LR dealers wants $850 per door. Chinese Actuators are $100.
DIY is doable... but a pain. You have to remove the Door card (Door panel)... remove electric window motor and track.. and remove window.. and wrestle actuator out.
I hear its about a 4 to 5 hrs job per door.

But there is also a hack that seems to work. I'm sure I am just buying time till the actuator actually fails... but I heard from someone that used this hack and it has worked for 2 hears of daily use.

The key is in the little metal level on top.


So how to get to it so you can band it. I have seen guys try and go through the lock opening with 2 thin screwdrivers. That is a pain. So I took another route.
I pulled the door card. It was super easy. The card has 2 long screws at the bottom... 4 short screws behind the door handle and 1 short screw behind the latch handle.

Once the card is off... I took a 1.5" metal hole saw and cut a "spy window" in the door. This will be behind the door card so no one will ever see it. I made sure to measure
where to drill so that the entire hole was behind the card but would give me access to the Metal arm. Here is what it looks like. with the card removed and the hole cut.


Now we have full access to the mechanism. From here simply take a good pair if needle Nose Pliers and insert on top and bottom
of the metal tab... then grip and bend about 20 degrees to counterclockwise. Here is what the bent tab looks like. Notice the difference in the bent picture
and the 1st picture I posted. You can see the piece of Flat metal is now bent downwards and has a but of a hook on it.


Clean up the door and cover the hole with a piece of good Black Duct Tape. Replace the door cards and 7 screws.

Total cost for me... ZERO.. versus $1700 at the dealer... or $200 and a full day of aggravation for me.... 2 doors fixed in 2 hours total and work 100% fine with the Key FOB.

I hope this can help others out.

 

Another part that fails is the small electric motor which is just a common motor used in lots of small battery operated toys.

 

This is a nice fix and on the horizon for me when my 07 returns home for the summer. I’ll have to decide then whether or not I want to cut a hole in the door or do it the hard way. Normally I choose the hard way!

Thanks for posting this fix!

 

This is ducking fantastic!

 

So I’ve fought with these very thing after finding some vague videos on Yourube…

I’m able to push the arm down in the shape of the hook shown in your picture, and it works the first time - but when I hit the lock and unlock buttons and check it again, the metal piece is raised back up and the white arm is stuck up too.

you can take your finger and flip the plastic lever up and down and it will stay in its normal operating ark… heck if you push that metal lever all the way down the door will stay locked… until you hit the unlock button and then it’s reset back up and it doesn’t lock anymore.

would this constitute an actual actuator failure?
I’ve hit it with some PB Blaster Silicon w/ Teflon, running it through a dozen cycles… but the same results. I’m likely going to order a new actuator being china made but would love to know if there is another option. I can get to it without cutting a hole, you just have to disconnect the actuator motor and take the three screws down and it will move down far enough for a pair of needle nose to reach.

anyway.
thoughts?

 

Sorry for the double post... looking at this with fresh eyes.. I didn't actually bend the contour of the metal at all but was just pushing it downward... I am going to try and bend it downward and see if that fixes it. Do we know the longevity of this fix?

 

I ended up buying a new actuator.

The actual failure is where the white plastic piece breaks. You can bend the metal tab to compensate where the electric solenoid will actuate the lock, but manually operating the lock doesn’t work well.

After bending back forth many times, I bit the bullet. The new OEM actuator works great, manually or electronically. Here is a side-by-side. If you zoom in, you can see the white plastic tab.