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Door Lock Actuator Problems


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Hi.

I have the same problem, my drivers door stopped working this morning and my back doors haven't been working for a while.

One of the tuners I take my car to seem to have solved the problem by replacing the solinoid with a much cheaper BMW unit. Will confirm.

They say they are doing it on a regular basis with success.

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  • 11 months later...
Great thread with good info. Thank you to all contributors. I just successfully changed the motor on the actuator on my driver's door today. I did find it very tricky to unhook the rod that goes from the door handle to the latch and re-hook it (I did not remove the window, probably would have been easier if I did), otherwise, all went pretty smoothly.
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  • 5 months later...

I recently bought a 2004 Subaru Legacy 3.0R 6 speed manual wagon and immediately had problems with the rear door lock actuators.

 

What I would like to add here is that you can CLEAN the motor without disassembling it. The motor was not faulty, it was contaminated with oil.

 

What you do is connect the motor with two wires to preferably an adjustable DC power supply in the order of 3 to 14V DC.

 

The wire ends can be twisted and pushed into the motor where the contacts would normally go.

 

What you then do is submerge the motor in petrol and run it from the DC supply. Remove the worm drive gear first by just pulling it off.

 

The petrol quickly turns black as the motor pumps the petrol through it.

 

Okay before you FLAME ME by telling me its dangerous to do this, it isn't because its exactly what your fuel pump is doing that's in your gas tank.

 

Run it for a few minutes and change the petrol if necessary. The motor is then left to dry or use an airline on it. What you find it that the motor has regained its full torque and the door latches now snap open and closed.

 

I held both halves of the white case together with two 25mm bolts and nylock nuts, looks a little "Frankenstein" but its not like you can see it.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello everyone!

 

Can somebody who already has an experience dealing with there motors please tell if this can be used to just replace the original motor without opening it up? The shaft is 20 mm long (as I understand, that's a right length for our cars), but what about its shape, does it look the same?

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Hello everyone!

 

Can somebody who already has an experience dealing with there motors please tell if this can be used to just replace the original motor without opening it up? The shaft is 20 mm long (as I understand, that's a right length for our cars), but what about its shape, does it look the same?

 

Yes this will fit, you will just need to file the shaft to give a 'D' shape to it.

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  • 4 months later...

Hey guys, been following this great thread and following the links but having issue releasing the door handle rod from the actuator like fj60 did. Can anyone give me any hints? Push, pull or twist? Been trying for an hour on this one connection.

Thanks, Gordon

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  • 3 months later...
Great thread and write ups and saved me a bundle, thanks guys. Just a little update on the motors. You can now purchase the motors with longer 20 mm shaft on ebay to save the extra headache of pulling motor apart to swap shafts.
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Just clean the motors guys as I have outlined, your just wasting your money buying a new one. From memory the OEM electric motor is a very high quality Mabuchi Japanese motor. You also want to mop up any residue oil inside the gearbox with a cotton bud before reassembly. Chances are you will only ever have to service this part once in the lifetime of the car.
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Thanks for all the info and helped me diagnose this issue on two of my doors. However....the pics and walk-throughs are like those cooking shows where the food is magically complete. I took care of the rear door just fine but getting the latch mechanism out of the front door, around the window track was ridiculously difficult, even with removing the bolt low on the door. What am I missing? You all seemed to pop it out with no problem at all. I still had to muscle it out and around - and wound up snapping the plastic where the door handle lock engages. So now I can't unlock my car from outside. The new part is on the way but it sure would be nice to know how you all were able to remove the latch mechanism from the door so easily!
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In the 2004 Subaru Legacy 3.0R I only had problems with BOTH rear door locks but the fronts are still fine. Not sure if this is normal or even if they got replaced before I got the car. The fronts not locking is something you notice pretty quickly, the rears not so much. The dealer that sold me the car didn't notice for starters, plus they were intermittent, sometimes they locked sometimes they didn't. What I noticed is they were slow to lock and didn't make that "Snap" sound.
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  • 1 month later...
I had the same issue - left front door did not open for 2 month. After doing all that was recommended the door just opened 2 days ago, I have no idea why...I put everything apart but everything was perfectly clean. Put it together again and it seemed to work but the rod to outside handle did not move so good. I lubricated the lock mechanism, waited 5 min and now everything works excellent. Lubricated the other door locks as well just to prevent problem.
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I just did the driver's door a couple of weeks ago. Since I have a wagon, I worry now that the tailgate is using the same cheap low temp grease. It would be a problem if that stops working.
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Since I have a wagon, I worry now that the tailgate is using the same cheap low temp grease. It would be a problem if that stops working.

 

That's true. But you can always get in the trunk, and take off that little cover at the bottom of the tailgate. I believe you can open the trunk from the inside.

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May I know what glue or method you guys used to hold the covers back together? I did a lousy job by just applying a cloth tape it fails after one week of happy operation. Thanks in advance!

 

I used a couple of 25mm long stainless steel 3mm bolts. You can drill right through in two places that doesn't interfere with anything and just bolt it back together. From the look of the serious corrosion on the motor, somehow water has got in. The problem is like the rear light, if the water gets in it cannot get out. Really not sure why there was not a small drain hole in the bottom, would have also stopped the oil getting into the motor as well. The motors on mine where spotless except for the oil that got inside.

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That's true. But you can always get in the trunk, and take off that little cover at the bottom of the tailgate. I believe you can open the trunk from the inside.

 

Ah, I see the cover that you're talking about. Good to know.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello, all. I purchased a Subaru CrossTrek a few years ago and within six months one of the rear side doors began to intermittently ignore the fob lock/unlock command... then the other one... then the passenger from door... and now all three consistently operate manually only from the inside - no fob nor driver panel response. Just sharing. Subaru has told me it is probably the aftermarket stereo I had installed. If you experience the intermittent failure before total failure, pull the door panel off and run direct current to the actuator... takes less than two minutes per door.

 

I have also had the issue with the transmission locking out and have had to use a chopstick in that small release doohickey to free it. That was a fuse burning out a few times having to do with the break lights. Lastly, I've have concerns about head gasket leakage as this had been reported as a common problem at higher mileage. More on that to come...

Edited by ryanh
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