Door lock actuator needing replacement? You better be committed

[Sounnder]

Well if any of you 2nd gen owners have a bad door lock actuator that you plan on replacing, prepare yourselves. I just managed to finish my driver door. The actuator is a pretty much in an impossible location to access. I went into this thinking it wouldnt be a big deal. Ive replaced actuators in different vehicles in the past. WRONG!

A little information, you will be needing a few additional parts when you order the actuator. Every single connecter that holds the door panel to the door disintegrated when I removed the door panel. (Yes i was using the proper removal tool) You will need 13 of them and they are somewhat difficult to find at the moment, so get them in advance.

After drilling out the large rivet that holds the actuator in place the difficult part is separating the hook that connects the actuator to the lock mechanism. It is a C shaped hook held in place with a plastic grommet. I ended up destroying this grommet in the process of separating everything. It was replaced with a zip tie in the end.

I removed a window track during the instal. Things shifted and i thought I had mis-aligned the window when I put it back together. There was some additional panic when I tried to test the window and it didnt move. I eventually figured out there is a module required for the window motor to operate mounted to the door panel that had to be dis-connected when removing the door panel. I connected it and everything worked fine.

I didnt take any pictures because i thought it would be easy. Next time I will for a writeup.

Now I get to heal all the skin I scraped off reaching into bowels of the door during this repair.

Good luck!

 

[zoomlater]

you have earned one of these

https://shosource.com/products/ols/products/give-blood-black-t-shirt

 

[Sounnder]

LOL

Ordered!

 

[Irish Pride]

Yep, I pretty much do so my own maintenance and repairs but the one time I needed an actuator replaced I decided to cash in some favors at work and got one of the techs to do it for me. This is a guy that specializes in latch, actuator, regulator, etc... repairs and he still struggled with it. There was no way my big sausage hands were getting in there.

-Chad

 

[Majestic]

Ha! Now do one on a Gen 4. I pride myself on doing most of my own stuff, but after about 6 hours trying to get the key cylinder connected, I said ****-it and let the dealer screw me out of $300.

 

[Sounnder]

I totally understand. I was just about there myself. Ended up spending the entire day on that one thing.

Now I get to start on the REAL work. 120K service and Rod Bearings, here I come!

 

[BaySHO Performance]

Plenty of door panel push pins N802900S still in dealer inventories. A similar product is available from the likes of Autozone but they are not quite the right size and are made of brittle plastic that snaps when one tries to install them.

 

[kwforddude]

small hands is what you need. when i did mine, i replaced the large rivet with a stainless steel bolt and nut. I used contact cement to glue the nut onto the inside of the bracket. that holds it. then hold position the actuator and the bolt screws on through the corner of the door. its worked great for years and it was a jy actuator.

 

[Sounnder]

I found a metal rivet very close to the size of the original hanging on the fastener display at O-riley's auto parts. Its working really well so far. It actually was a size that my standard rivet gun was able to use.

 

[NoSlo]

Working inside the door is an annoyance because it is so gross and dirty at the bottom. Shop-vac the bottom with a crevice tool, then spray it out and scrub with a skinny toilet brush, and vac again and wipe with towels jammed into the corners with a stick.

The door rivets are aluminum. Rivets are also used for the glass, handle, and window motor. Don't replace them with steel, like the ones that come with the $20 Harbor Freight heavy duty riveter, unless you want the next time drilling them out to be a pain-in-the-behind.

Diagram:


The panel retainer pins can be had at NAPA. I would replace only the worst of them with new ones, and just use the new ones where you know you can reach under with a pry tool. Better the retainers break than the door panel plastic.