Found this on interweb.... So those of you technically minded and like a challange read on
Firstly let me tell you the issue... My drivers side passenger door lock was frozen locked. You couldn't pull the tab up to unlock the door. So I pulled the door trim off from inside the car, opened the door, and pulled the lock actuator which was holding the lock down.
So the drivers side passenger door lock actuator died.
Well these things arn't cheap, and apparently they break on a regular basis, so I decided to take the old one out, but before buying a new one I'd rip it open and see what makes it tick...
Not sure if you guys are aware of this, but the internals of that thing are VERY simple!
After prying it open I found it's pretty much a series of gears attached to a small DC 12v motor, then the main cog drive pushes or pulls a grooved tab which moved the lock either up or down. It pretty much much looked like the rear end of an electric RC car, not very complicated!!! Clearly the gears are set at a slow high torque ratio as to activate the lock based on a high RPM 12v motor.
I simply cut the two wires to the motor and removed it, which once pulled wouldn't turn freely, it was seized, so there is my broken part... I went down to radio shack and bought a 12v DC 10,000 rpm motor... Pulled the gear off the head of the broken motor, pressed it onto the new motor... Soldered the wires up to the new motor , dropped it in, put the cover back on the actuator.. Put the unit back into the door, and like magic it's new again...
So what would have cost me 45+shipping on ebay, or $250 at the dealer plus a 2 week wait... I fixed in a matter of 15 min for the total cost of $2.95 and I'm pretty sure the motor I replaced it with will last a real real long time.
So anyone needing a new door actuator, don't bother... Just pull your old one apart... Assuming all that's broken is the motor, which I'm sure is the case 99.9999% of the time, you can do this the same day for the cost of an ice cream cone...
I tracked down the exact motor they use in the actuator, so here is the link, you could always just buy one of these, but what they had at radio shack was almost on par with these specs and looks like a more quality piece to begin with...
