S13 Door Lock Actuator Reassembly (LONG)

[phuphyter]

To: Anyone who has taken apart and reassembled their S13 power door lock actuators. orAnyone who thinks they have a mechanical problem with their power door locks.

Anyone else: Its quite a read, and can get boring if it doesn't apply to you.

My power door locks weren't working so I decided to try to fix them. They gave no "resistance" when the doors were locked or unlocked, as if the car had no power door locks at all. It was as if they were disconnected from the actuator and the gears inside were not moving at all. I was half right. They were connected to the actuator, but the gears inside were not moving. A mechanical problem I thought.

So I took the actuator out and unscrewed the cover. It turns out that there is a metal clip (for lack of better terms) inside that is sandwiched between two gears. This clip allows the two gears to move in unison. Take it apart and you'll understand what I'm trying to describe. Anyway this metal clip had somehow managed to get misaligned. I have no idea how, since it was tightly sandwiched between two gears, but it did... on both actuators coincidentally.

That problem was easily remedied. I could explain it, but that's not my main problem. So now the locks are "fully connected" to the actuators: door is locked/unlocked, pushes/pulls rod connected to actuator, rod turns gears inside the actuator. I can now actually hear and feel the mechanical parts move whenever I lock or unlock my doors.

Do I have my power door locks back now? Nope. The orientation of one of the gears inside the actuator has to be at one of two positions (pointing up or down) when you put it back together. Basically in the door's lock or unlock position.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is not an electrical problem because now if I lock the passenger side door, it will unlock the driver's side. That's it. If I unlock the passenger door, the driver's door does nothing. Any locking/unlocking of the driver's side will not affect the passenger side at all. I'm guessing it has to do with the reassembly of the actuator, specifically the orientation of that one gear.

If there's anyone familiar with s13 power door locks and their internal workings, any help would save me a lot of trial and error... and time

[s13sr20chris]

sorry bro i have no insight. much props for doing all that on your own though.

[phuphyter]

Thanks for the props, but really its not that complicated. I tried to fix both sides again today. I tried every possible combination of gear positions, sadly nothing worked.

Hehe now I'm sure it's an electrical problem. It has to be because as the doors are locked or unlocked, the gear inside goes through its range of motion, completes a circuit inside the actuator and the little motor inside spins. This only happens on the driver's side. The passenger side does nothing... but then why does it cause the driver's side to unlock? I'm soo confused!!!

My search for " door lock " threads leads me to think that its the tcu. I'm not sure what tcu stands for, but there is a thread that shows it:

http://nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=71432

I don't feel like messing with it right now, but I'll keep you posted on how things go, and maybe along the way someone might be able to help me find a solution to this irritating problem.

Quick question, do you think if I have an alarm with a lock/unlock feature installed, that will solve the problem? Please say yes because I just bought one. (for security reasons , of course, not because of this stupid convenience problem)

[s13sr20chris]

if you have one installed that comes with actuators and all then yeah.

[phuphyter]

What if it just uses the stock actuators? The alarm system (Avital 2200) has the keyless entry feature but I'm not 100% sure if it comes with actuators. Won't it just be spliced into the existing ones and everything would be okay (supposing the actuators are not the problem)?

[s13sr20chris]

yeah, if it is in fact an electrical issue.

[phuphyter]

okay. thanks for the help.