ower Door Lock Motor Replacement
 

Has anyone here replaced their Power Door Lock Actuator in their 3rd gen Camaro? What was involved? BOTH mine (original, never changed) are dying and not fully locking/unlocking anymore.

I don't see this being TOO difficult and could likely do it myself and save the $$ labor from a mechanic.

I'd check the pushbuttons first. They tend to go out fairly quickly.

And secondly, your lock motors may just need a full cleaning and lubrication. You'll want to use white lithium grease after you pull the assemblies apart and clean them up (a lot of junk builds up after a while and they start to stick).

How can I test them?

I'd just look at the surface and feel how they "push". If the surface is worn from use and you can barely push, chances are they aren't working. (It's more of an on/off thing with the buttons though -- either they work or they barely work). Basically, if you find yourself having to push the button several times before the motor clicks, it's the button. If you push the button and the motor clicks immediately, but doesn't drive the locks all the way, you need to lubricate the locks.

I'm not understanding what you mean by "surface". The surface of what? The Knobs themselves that you push/pull to lock/unlock the doors locks from the inside? Those are 2 brand new knobs.

The power door lock buttons are what I was referring to, sorry. They're the ones labelled "Lock" and "Unlock".

When you say surface, do you mean the surface of the switch? Like if it's GLOSSY and SMOOTH plastic still? or rough?

Switches all feel new, (icons are worn off but likely due to cleaning got on them at once point or another, or greasy fingers as some point).

My alarm LOCKS and UNLOCKS the doors, also when I turn ON and OFF the car the doors automatically LOCK/UNLOCK for me. I don't think it's the switches simply because of this. The locks when going through the automatic LOCK/UNLOCK via alarm doesn't lock all the way (the red still shows a bit on the inner lock knobs). If I manually push the switches is MAY move and eventually click to LOCK, or sometimes it just doesn't click unless and manually push the knob myself. This occurs for BOTH driver and passenger but more for the passenger now.

I remember when I had removed the panel to look at the window motor before and tried the door locks that the acuator arm (on both passenger and driver doors) had a slight bend to them. Rather than going straight up, then had a slight bend to the OUTER end of the door. I also recall the arm not going all the way UP at times. And if I held the acuator arm so the arm would not move to the back so much, the locks worked.

Like I said above, the main culprit is probably years of accumulated dust gumming up the grease in the mechanism. The pushbuttons sometimes fail, but you'll know if they aren't working and since you have a separate alarm, we can forget about the buttons for now.

Do a search on "power door locks" and you should turn up a few posts regarding cleaning up the lock actuators. I remember reading a thread about it, but I can't remember where exactly it was.

i wrote up a thread on power door lock restoration... search it and it gives pics and instructions... will most likely clear up your problem.

Looks like I may have FIXED my power door locks.

I took off my interior door trim, disconnected the actuator and tried powering them. They went ALL the way UP and DOWN without any problem. So I looked at the lock mechanism itself and it was fairly gummed with grease. I sprayed Silicone Lubricant and moved the parts to free the gummed mechanism. Didn't seem to work.

I then decided to remove the latch itself and so I disconnected all the parts, unscrewed and removed the mechanism. Sprayed Carb cleaner all over it in a icecream pail and used a old toothbrush and brass wire brush to clean it. Came out SPARKLING CLEAN. Re-greased it and re-installed.. Would you believe it DID NOT FIX IT... Arg

So now I know it's NOT the latch. So I look back to the actuator and notice that it goes straight up but because of the force of the latch, the arm on the actuator bends over enough to no longer be straight and so when it's bent over, there is no move force behind it to move the latch.

So I took my chances and gently bent the actuator piston arm (unnoticably) so it went more straight at the top of the reach. And NOW the locks all seem to work flawlessly!