Post by
amc49 »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/amc49-u275146.html
Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:27 pm
Just some general ideas as I have no exact info there.
The latches tend to lock up from corrosion if the car is up north. Common to more than one brand now. I rebuild the ones on my Fords that do it, haven't had to tear into a Nissan one yet but it's likely coming. The latches are made to destroy to get inside them commonly and you have to figure out a way to get them back together and reliably. On the Fords It involves drilling and tapping for small screws to hold the outside case together as you had to grind off rivets to get inside it. The major issue is lack of or dried up grease, and there are sometimes tiny limit switches inside that can complicate things when the weathershield on them is flawed to leak water in. The Ford ones even have a small transmission inside them if you can believe that (believe it!).
I've fixed issues like that and the cost per latch maybe $5 each but of course you have to work out the methodology of how to make the repair consistent over more than one and easiest way, and then do the work itself. That compares with the at the time price of $150 for the Ford ones and likely higher now. Every one I fixed has stayed fixed, I haven't had to do them again but I can now take them apart if needed to do it again. Much of the issue is that they don't put nearly as much grease in there as they could, it shortens the life doing it to make you buy more parts and to lower their part cost. Commonly a latch may have up to like 50 parts inside it now to do all the things they have to do. Like with anything, the more parts you have the more fails you get.
So now you have some idea of why they are high, there is a certain amount of labor going on to rebuild them, close to the same amount as making them, not hard but people tend to want to stay away from things like that and doing so you must pay to do it.
Similar to window regulators, I fix those on Fords for maybe $10 and they are better than the OEM at $130 each, but it takes personal involvement to go there. I'll likely go there on Nissan as well before it's all over.
Your biggest issue may not be part cost so much as getting that rear door back open with zero damage........