I have noticed lately that when activating the power door locks that one or both will only pull the lock lever part way over, not all the way. It is enough to lock the door but i am concerned one of these days it will not actually lock. If you hit it a second or thrid time it does come over basically all the way.

Is this a common problem? Would it be the actuator itself developing a little play maybe? Can those actuators be tighten up or adjusted or even the rod to prevent this?

thanks.

 

More than likely your actuators are on their way out. I ran into this same problem when I installed keyless entry on my car last December and had to replace the driver side actuator.

 

They probably need cleaned - mine did the same thing. So I removed the door panels, got to the actuators and hosed them with PB Blaster - man were they dirty. Then I cleaned them off with a rag as best as I could, and sprayed in some white lithium spray grease. The result was amazing! They worked like new again, and no problems in 2 years.

I dedicated a day to this, as I had other problems to fix as well - like cleaning the window tracks, realigning the windows for a tight fit, replacing the window motors, etc. But to do the lock actuators might take an hour or 2 - the worst part is getting the door panel off without busting it.

 

Considering the cost of new actuators I agree with camaronewbie on the cleaning, in my case though it didn't help and had to replace.

 

I removed the door panels on my Z and simply cleaned them. If you lube them with grease they will probably attract grime and get sluggish again. I used an aerosol graphite called Dryslide that has a liquid to carry the graphite but drys to a graphite coating. Works great.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. But what do you mean by lubed them?..........or should i say where? If memory serves, there is a rubber boot covering the rod coming out of it to keep dirt out. Are you saying peel that off and lube in there?

 

I would concentrate on cleaning the latch with WD-40 or PB Blaster, then lube it with a spray white lithium grease. Those levers usually get gummed up and lazy. Even if the actuator is getting weak, freeing up the levers it has to move will make it work better.

Be sure not to use anything silicone based around the electrical actuator.

 

oh, so you are referring to the lubing the locks themselves (the ones that grab the strikers) rather than the actuators?

 

Yep. The latches in these vehicles are open (and old) and lot of extra drag is created. Lots of moving parts the actuator has to work against. Did an '04 Envoy a couple weeks ago that gummed up enough in 4 years it wouldn't latch.

Not much you can do to the actuator solinoid except clean off the outside. One moving component.

 

And while you're in the door:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...servation.html

JamesC

 

Yup, taken care of all that already read that a few years back....that's how i wound up with the cool sealing strips at the bottom!