Door Lock Actuator Problems
 

Hi All, I am wondering if I am the only Legacy owner to have issued with door lock actuators. Problems started with the Front Passenger lock not opening or closing at times, then stopped altogether, I took the actuator out and cleaned the motor brushes on the commutator, and all was good for about 16 months, now it has started doing it again and so has the right rear passengers door. I would normally just get a new linear actuator but the 04 BP model has weird rotary ones that pull a cable.
Any ideas? Anyone know of replacement ones for sale (don't say Subaru, will be cheaper to buy another car). So just let me know I'm not the only one with these problems...:spin:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...ors-42243.html

You may want to look at the sticky's at the top of this forum.

is it fixable ?
 

I have the same problem with the rear door door lock actuators on Legacy 2006, the rear left door is not working at all, and the rear right door actuator sometimes lcoks the door.

I have noticed that the rear right door actuator sometimes move only half of the way, so pressing the central locking system twice does the locking.

It appear that the actuators are working on both doors cause i'm hearing the sound of them moving and sometimes it's sound like they are missing couple of notch's on the weel.

A friend of mine told me to check for the resistance on the cable pushing the locker, it might be the issue.

No fix as yet
 

HI I had been told to check the cables too. There was nothing wrong with the cables at all. The problem (in my case) lays with the small electric motor in the actuator. I took one apart (remember this is not a serviceable component) and cleaned the built up of grease and graphite from the commutator and brushes. So the first issue is how/why the heck is there grease on this part of the motor? No grease or oil should ever be near the graphite brushes. Once this was done and reinstalled, it worked fine. I am really surprised we are the only two owners of this model to have problems.

I'm afraid i have the same problem, it appear that the motor is too week to pull the cable. I took off the door cover and checked the cables and also noticed grease on the actuator unit. The unit seemed to be sealed tight, did you clean it from the outside or were you able to open it ?

must be a common problem..suprised no recall yet, since recalls are becoming common...my left rear door only locks once and a blue moon

Recalls are only for safety issues. I'd hardly call this as such.

Yeah I cracked it open, it's the only way to get to the motor bush contacts. There needs to be grease pretty much on all moving parts just not on or close to the graphite bushes.

I doubt they would do a recall, it is just disappointing that these units are failing after just a few years. I had, had a 89 camry up until two years ago, and everything still worked on that.

Hi I hope that you get it sorted, however I didn't see an actuator on that site for a BP/Bl model???

Here is an online store that sale an OEM actuator:
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...layCatalogid=0

It's pricey, and i don't want to be on the same situation again. So i was wondering if a standard actuator can be inserted in the door and can make the same job, cheeper and more reliable.

Apparently Subaru is pretty proud of that part.

Thanks to Chrisay's suggestion I opened mine up today and repaired successfully. The motor is in a sealed plastic case which can be fairly easiy split open by running a craft knife along the seam.

It's a poor design on Subaru's behalf. Motor sits at the bottom of the case where molten grease collects (and there is a LOT of it). Hopefully with all the excess cleaned out now I am good for another 6 years.

I wrote up a DIY:

http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10479

Thats a very good write up, good on you for giving it a go. I do need to have another go at my one and do it properly this time.

Thanks Chrisay. Was your repair unsuccessful or did you do a rush job and just need to clean it up a bit? :)

I was mindful that when I superglued the casing back together that there was no going back it would be hard to open it up again. Accordingly I spent a lot of time cleaning and checking everything beforehand.