Problem with power door locks

I just installed new power door lock actuators on both doors (the ones from www.partsexpress.com, like jrichker used in his write-up). The right door works perfectly . Pressing the lock / unlock buttons on both doors' armrests properly activates the right door's actuator. The left door, however, does not work at all . I installed it the same exact way I installed the one on the right door, including splicing the wires and all that. It seems like there is no power being delivered to the actuator at all . I don't have a voltage test light or anything, so I didn't test the wires. Reading through some other posts, it seems like the problem could be with the lock connectors that that are found in the driver side kick panel... specifically, the one that controls the left door. Does anybody know if this is the problem? If so, how do I fix it? If that's not the problem, could it be the wiring itself? And if so, how would I fix that? Any ideas?

HISSIN50 said:

sorry to hear that it is not going well. you really need a test light. check for continuity at each wire on the bad actuator (where you had to splice in connectors). if you are good to go there, then it sounds like you got a bad actuator. hopefully you ordered a spare for future failures.

now if you show a fault there, you can check your drivers side switch for juice out of the switch. the stangs use 5 wire reverse polarity locks, IIRC.

you are right on about the connectors in the driver kick panel. if you have not found them....mine were right near the top of the kick panel. nice fat wires on those connectors. check for continuity there. check your schematics and check the wires with a test light (it is a pulse, so a DMM might not register quick enough). you should see the light come on when the button is hit.

that is about it. im sure you will get it figured out fast. do get a cheap test light (or make one from an extra LED and some wire). and a DMM is always useful, and would help test grounds. you can do it shadetree by connecting one side of a test light to a 12 volts source and the other lead to the ground you are testing. if the test light shines, you have a ground, though how great a ground is unknown. NOTE: be careful doing this. if you were to do it on a computer circuit, you could fry the circuit. a DMM is self powered and does not draw juice like a test light (power is consumed to light the light). LED's draw less light, but all still draw.
this is not really an issue here, but since it sounds like you have not done a lot of electrical troubleshooting, it is worth mentioning.

good luck.

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Thanks for the info! I'll try and borrow a test light or DMM to do all of that. I wouldn't mind it if it's just a bad actuator, that's a cheap and easy replacement now that I've done all the work.

As for the driver side switch... since it's able to control the passenger side lock, doesn't that mean it's working normally? The driver side switch does the same exact thing that the passenger side switch does at this point, which leads me to believe that no power is being delivered to the driver side actuator, or the actuator is just bad. Or maybe it's the connectors in the kick panel. What do those do exactly?

Just an update, guys! There were actually two problems with my work, and both of them were my fault I borrowed a voltage test light and took my door panel off. First thing I noticed was that the actuator rod wasn't pinned tight enough in the little connection box that hooks onto the actual door lock rod, so even if the actuator worked, it would just slip through and not actually move the door lock rod. I thought that might be the problem, so I tightened it, reconnected the unlock/lock switch, and pressed the buttons, but nothing happened.

Next, I took the voltage test light and tested the wires where the splices were, pressed the lock button, and it lit up! Pressed the unlock button, and it lit up! So, I'm thinking, must've gotten a bad actuator. But before placing an order for another one, I decide to remove this one and see if I could get it to work somehow. I knocked on the case a little bit, shook it around, played with the wires a little, yanked on the wires, then reconnected the switch. Pressed the buttons, and it worked! Yep, I was back in business. Put everything back together and it feels great. Total satisfaction. As jrichker says on his website, there isn't a more satisfying sound than the THUNK the new actuators make when they lock and unlock!

To all those considering replacing your actuators, listen up. I've never been one to work much on cars, or any type of do-it-yourself stuff really. But I definitely didn't want to pay a shop $60/hour for labor to do the actuator replacement. Other StangNet members said this was a fairly easy job, so I decided I would try it out. I read jrichker's site a bunch of times, and I checked out Westside Mustangs article, too. I ran into some problems, yes, and it took me longer than advertised, but I expected it to due to my lack of experience. I almost gave up a couple of times, but I didn't allow myself to. In the end, I used a little bit from both sites, and the end product came out great.

jrichker said:

Cool! May your actuators continue to go "THUNK" for many years...

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LOL, Yeah! to THUNKing!

HISSIN50 said:

Chris, good deal. i would order an extra actuator just to have on hand.
and you learned a valuable lesson: many electrical things can be fixed with a swinging press.

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Hehe, yep. What's a swinging press?

HISSIN50 said:

a swinging press can be a hammer, a fist, a whack with a wrench, and so on; the possibilities are endless.

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Gotcha!