DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Detailed descriptions of how to do things to your Liberty.

Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby piercey » Sat Jul 19, 2014 12:08 am

My central locking is working 100% fine whilst using the remote, however i cant open or lock the car using the key. i can feel it kind of grab but not enough to lock the door.
Does anyone know a possible fix?

Also the door handle doesnt sit flush against the door panel so maybe that has an impact on it not working?
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby renan_don18 » Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:37 pm

Is there anything i need to be careful with to not set off alarms or airbags or anything? I dont mind unplugging the battery but is it necessary?
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby renan_don18 » Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:58 pm

also, how do i undo the bit that connects to the external door handle?
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby renan_don18 » Thu Aug 07, 2014 5:37 pm

nevermind aye i got managed to do it but works well once then takes a few mins for it to work properly again. probably less with the mechanism now and probably need to find some electrical fault maybe.


Anyway thanks for the write up!
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby SirSurfer » Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:41 pm

Hey thanks big time for this one.

Tricky, but do-able. Took some patience getting the motor assembly out of the door after disconnecting it but finally managed it. You have to unplug all the connectors, open a little door on the top of the plastic case to remove one of the actuator rods and unclip the little plastic hold-down on the other rod at the top of the rod near the top of the door to release it from the door.

Replaced the motor with this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291016732787 ... 1439.l2649
eBay item number: 291016732787

Had to grind a flat spot on the shaft to replicate the original but it fits perfectly. Only odd thing was that when I installed and went to test it, it was running 180 degrees out of phase -- i.e. Locking the remote unlocked the lock and vice versa. Removed the pins from the connector that attaches to the motor assembly inside the door and with a bit of fiddling managed to pull the wires out and reverse the polarity of the feed to the motor and now it all works like new again.

Thanks again for the great DIY! Very much appreciated. Dealer wanted to charge like $450-500 for the repair.
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby HODMAN » Wed Nov 19, 2014 12:50 pm

Had to visit the passenger side front actuator again after cleaning it up 12 months ago.
I found the brushes in the motor had worn out completely (probably didnt seal up the unit properly).

Good news :D
Found this motor to be a perfect replacement http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281332004208?ssPageName=STRK:null:IT.

It has been working great now for about 2 weeks.
(and I resealed the unit properly this time, I reckon)
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby patrickbateman » Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:42 pm

About to attempt this, like others my lock motors seem to be hitting their use by date. Question about this tutorial - step 10 involves removing grease from the motor casing, but nowhere is any new grease added. Surely that stuff is in there for a reason? Are people adding some back in?
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby GTbee » Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:13 pm

Very good question. I had to fix my rear drivers side passenger door. There wasn't much in the way of that white grease. I didn't completely clean it off as I must require some lubrication. There was some black grease within the motor which I did clean out. It's been working fine for nearly 2 months now.

If it goes again HODMAN has kindly provided a link to a new motor. :D
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby phly » Sun Jan 11, 2015 3:48 pm

My rear left door hasnt been working for a while now. I saw this thread resurface recently and saw hodmans post about a replacement motor which fits perfectly so thought i'd give it a go with a replacement motor too. I went with the replacement motors as ive read alot about the motors going bad after a few months or so after cleaning.

Im happy to report that the motor is a perfect fit and that the polarity is also correct. Just take out the old motor from the actuator enclosure and drop in the new one. No need to fiddle with brushes or armatures etc.

Delivery on the motors was quick from the seller hodman posted. Only took about a week.

In regards to the white grease, I left it all in there as it looks like its there to lube the gear and spiral.

Ive tested the central locking a dozen time or so and it works like new. Will report back if there are any issues in the future.

Thanks to all in this thread for the hints and tips. Made the job real easy.
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby patrickbateman » Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:59 pm

Good info about the motors - just grabbed a few of them, will drop them in as soon as they arrive. I like the DIY spirit in this thread, but for about $10-12 a motor delivered that seems like the lazy option!
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby BillyCorgi » Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:37 pm

I just repaired my rear left door Central Locking Actuator just now.
Thank you for the photographs of the insides of the actuator.
These were a big help.

I did not use glue to reassemble the housing.
If you look closely at the original photographs by teK, the third picture in the sequence shows a small dimple and mating round recess in the area just next to the motor housing.
I carefully drilled through there and used a M5 screw with nut to hold the two halves of the clamshell together. Then used some nail varnish to lock the threads on the nut & screw.

Similar to some others, I could not prise the metal tabs on the motor housing to pull the motor apart. I just flooded the motor with WD40 until all the black crap inside the motor was washed out.
Anyway, it is working fine again now!
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby patrickbateman » Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:40 pm

BillyCorgi wrote:I just repaired my rear left door Central Locking Actuator just now.
Thank you for the photographs of the insides of the actuator.
These were a big help.

I did not use glue to reassemble the housing.
If you look closely at the original photographs by teK, the third picture in the sequence shows a small dimple and mating round recess in the area just next to the motor housing.
I carefully drilled through there and used a M5 screw with nut to hold the two halves of the clamshell together. Then used some nail varnish to lock the threads on the nut & screw.

So you just used that one bolt/nut in that spot and it seems to be holding together well enough? Might try this method, seems to be the most elegant solution - zip ties seems like they might age and eventually break.
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby BillyCorgi » Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:33 pm

Yes, just carefully drilled through the pre-moulded feature in the casing and used an M5 screw & nut thread locked with nail varnish.
The moulded lip in the plastic keeps everything in-line when clamped together.
Get your Short Shift Adaptor viewtopic.php?f=68&t=30525
Get your Gear Shift Rejuvenation Kit viewtopic.php?f=68&t=31240
Get your Centre Differential Rebuild viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31089
Want a custom built Brake Cylinder Stopper? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31321
Need to hire a Guard Rolling Machine? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31899
Get your BillyCorgi's "Not-4-Wimps" Chilli Sauce
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby patrickbateman » Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:03 am

Well, I did this on two doors yesterday - driver's door, and rear passenger side door.

The driver's door was a total nightmare!

As excellent as the instructions in the first post are, they omit some fairly critical details about how and where to detach the rods linking the actuator assembly to the external door handle/lock. This was very hard - I could barely get my hands up there, and visibility is pretty much nil. And getting it back on again was even harder.

In case it helps someone in future, there are two metal rods going to the assembly. They each clip into a plastic hole on the inside of the exterior handle/lock assembly. The heavier rod slightly back (on the car) compared to the lighter one. Each rod works via a right angle at the end of the rod which inserts into a hole, and then a plastic clip swings over the vertical part of the rod and clips in place to hold it there. So to get each one off, you have to swing the plastic clip around so that it's no longer clipped over the vertical part of the rod, then pull the rod out (towards the centre of the car) and carefully bring it down. To get it back in (much harder) you have to do the reverse.

This isn't an issue for doors without an external key lock.

The other issue with the driver's door, and I assume the front passenger door, is that in my car at least there is a diagonal strut inside the door which makes it virtually impossible to get the lock assembly out of the door cavity. In the end I had to unbolt the lower end of this strut and then (with considerable effort) push it in and away from the lock assembly. Even having done that it was extremely hard to get the assembly out of the door.

As others have experienced, the screws holding the lock into the door were ridiculously tight on my car, too. I nearly stripped one of them, and all of them required serious abuse to get them to move. You need a bigger than usual phillips head - bigger than a #2, ideally.

In the end getting the damn lock out of the driver's door and then getting it back in again took me the best part of two hours! :shock:

In contrast, cracking open the assembly, swapping out the motors etc was a piece of cake. Mine had no crud inside the white casing, but there was evidence of soot/black crap inside the motors. The motors I ordered from ebay were a perfect fit and worked first time. My guess is that the Subaru motors are just cheap and crappy and burn out naturally over time.

I used the bolt through the centre of the actuator assembly to re-seal it, as suggested above - worked pefectly (so far).

The rear passenger side door took me a total of about 20 minutes. No need to disconnect from an external keylock,and a fairly simple cable pull system to the door handle instead. No god damned diagonal strut getting in the way either!

When I'd finished I could get the doors to unlock, but they wouldn't lock. I'd thought I'd done something really bad, but after a few minutes of panic I realised that the car simply doesn't lock if one of the doors in open! :lol:

In the end, a frustrating morning thanks to the driver's door being such a bastard to work with, but very happy to repair two annoying locks for a total price of $24 rather than $500ish via Subaru! Now have four door locks that clunk satisfyingly open and closed with the remote.
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Re: DIY: Repair central locking actuator

Postby BillyCorgi » Sun Feb 01, 2015 12:27 pm

Good Work
And thanks for the waring about the key lock mechanism for the |Driver's Door!
Cheers!
Get your Short Shift Adaptor viewtopic.php?f=68&t=30525
Get your Gear Shift Rejuvenation Kit viewtopic.php?f=68&t=31240
Get your Centre Differential Rebuild viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31089
Want a custom built Brake Cylinder Stopper? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31321
Need to hire a Guard Rolling Machine? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31899
Get your BillyCorgi's "Not-4-Wimps" Chilli Sauce
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