DIY - Front Passenger Door Lock Actuator

S

sake_yo

Member
Location
edmonton, alberta
Hey guys, not sure if there's a detailed DIY to change the door lock actuators but here's my attempt. It's over $500 CDN in labour and parts to change the actuator at the stealership. It's about 2 hours in labour and about $260 CDN ($180 USD) to do it yourself.

1. First buy the actuator

2. Take off the silver finish on the inside door handle/rest. Just pull from the top corner using your fingers. Clips shouldn't break.

3. This should reveal 2 screws (cross head). Take those out.

4. There's a black tab that you can see inside the door lock/handle module. Use a small flat head screwdriver to lever that out. This should reveal another cross head screw to remove.

5. After removing the 3 screws the inside door panel is only held by clips. You can just grab the inside front/bottom corner of the door panel (near the speaker) and yank. You should hear the clips come out. Keep working your way up the front part of the door to the top (with the window seal) and then to the back. THe door panel should come off.

6. Next, there should be 4-5 cables holding the door panel to the metal door frame. Undo 2 cables (for the lights) and undo the window/door lock button module. Then undo the door lock/handle with the 4 silver screws and the clips.

7. Should be able to put aside the inside door panel now.

8. Next remove the silver bar that would have lied underneath the door handle/rest with the two screws.

9. Remove the speaker with the 3 screws and the cable

10. Remove the circular sticker on the metal frame at about the same level as the speaker but farther back the metal frame from it

11. This sticker reveals a hole which you can press the window button to lower the window screws to this hole

12. Next remove the two screws holding the window to the frame through the hole (covered by the sticker) and through the hole of the speaker

13. Have a buddy lift this window up from the window frame and just hold it there. You could try to slide the window out now but I found it more difficult.

14. Next remove the 8-10 bolts holding the inside metal panel on the periphery of this panel. The bolts are silver/grey in color. You do not need to remove the gold bolts that are in the inside aspect of the metal panel.

15. Pull out this metal panel and this should now make it easier to pull out the window.

16. Now you can see the actual actuator. You can disconnect the two cables of the actuator from the door lock/handle.

17. Unbolt the 3 star-shaped screws on the side of the door holding the actuator and remove the actuator. Unhook the wires that control the actuator.

18. The actuator should be held by the cable to the outside door handle.

19. You can pull the rubber grommet on the side of the door above those 3 star shaped screws and you should see a gold screw that you should loosen.

20. Now pull the outside door handle outwards and forwards so you can slide the other chrome part of the door handle out.

21. On the inside aspect of the chrome handle there is another gold screw (star shaped) that you need to remove. You can now slide out the chrome handle and pull out the inside of the chrome handle of which the actuator cable is connected to.

22. Take out the cable and switch actuators.

23. Reverse the process to put things back together.

Hope that's detailed enough. The process was difficult to figure out without instructions but I can do it now in about 30 min once I figured out all the screws. I have pictures but I don't know how to upload them. Let me know if you need the pics.

Sake_yo
 
I just finished doing my front passenger and my rear driver side door. I was able to do it without taking out the window. Just make sure to use painters tape (Blue masking tape) to hold the window. you don't need to many strips of it but it will hold the window. Hardest part is finding a ratchet small enough to fit between the glass and were the screw is for the handle to get it out. Not too hard to do, best if you had a friend there to help.

Great write up, it came in handy. The rear door is the same just a lot tighter to work on. Only difference is the window can stay in place. Just have to have small hands to get to it with out getting your hand stuck.
 
Hi

I bought a 2004 FX35 about four months ago, and now the passenger side back door actuator is just broken.

SAKE_YO, you wrote a nice DIY instruction, and seemed to take pictures too. Do you still have them? If so, would it be possible to send me?

Thanks.
 
Actuator - instructions to DID replace one actuator

Hi - I saw you were looking for photos/instructions to do an actuator replacement yourself. I am interested in doing the same on mine. can anyone send me the same info?
Thansk in advance, Cecilia
:nerd
OverZero said:
Hi

I bought a 2004 FX35 about four months ago, and now the passenger side back door actuator is just broken.

SAKE_YO, you wrote a nice DIY instruction, and seemed to take pictures too. Do you still have them? If so, would it be possible to send me?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


---------- Post added at 10:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 AM ----------

Hi - I saw you were looking for photos/instructions to do an actuator replacement yourself. I am interested in doing the same on mine. Can anyone send me the same info?
Thanks in advance,
Cecilia

OverZero said:
Hi

I bought a 2004 FX35 about four months ago, and now the passenger side back door actuator is just broken.

SAKE_YO, you wrote a nice DIY instruction, and seemed to take pictures too. Do you still have them? If so, would it be possible to send me?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
REAR DOOR: only changes are in bold

1. First buy the actuator

2. Take off the silver finish on the inside door handle/rest. Just pull from the top corner using your fingers. Clips shouldn't break.

3. This should reveal 2 screws (cross head). Take those out.

4. There's a black tab that you can see inside the door lock/handle module. Use a small flat head screwdriver to lever that out. This should reveal another cross head screw to remove.

5. After removing the 3 screws the inside door panel is only held by clips. You can just grab the inside front/bottom corner of the door panel (near the speaker) and yank. You should hear the clips come out. Keep working your way up the front part of the door to the top (with the window seal) and then to the back. THe door panel should come off.

6. Next, there should be 1 cable holding the door panel to the metal door frame. Undo 1 cables (for the lights) and undo the window/door lock button module. Then undo the door lock/handle with the 4 silver screws and the clips.

7. Should be able to put aside the inside door panel now.

8. Next remove the silver bar that would have lied underneath the door handle/rest with the two screws.

9. Remove the speaker with the 3 screws and the cable

10 - 15. NOT NECESSARY

10. You will see a plastic liner held in by black silicon. Carefully use a blade and cut the silicon in a corner. You can then lightly pull the plastic away from the door. I found it not necessary to pull it all the way off. I only opened it up half way (from the rear of the door towards the front of the car) If your careful, you can reuse the silicon...it is VERY sticky and gooey. I was able to push it back on after everything was done.

16. If you look/ feel to the rear of the door through the metal windows...you can see the actual actuator. You can disconnect the two cables of the actuator from the door lock/handle....located just behind under the glass...if you kept the window rolled up.

17. Unbolt the 3 star-shaped screws on the side of the door holding the actuator and remove the actuator. Unhook the wires that control the actuator.

18. The actuator should be held by the cable to the outside door handle.

19. You can pull the rubber grommet on the side of the door above those 3 star shaped screws and you should see a gold screw that you should loosen. It is held in with washers so it does not drop into the door...dont worry about loosening too far....it will stay there and you cannot pull it out.

21. On the inside aspect of the chrome handle there is another gold screw (star shaped) that you need to remove. (throught the metal window of the door on a black plastic piece) You can now slide out the chrome handle and pull out the inside of the chrome handle of which the actuator cable is connected to.

20. Now pull the outside door handle outwards and forwards (towards the front of the car) so you can slide the other chrome part of the door handle out (escutcheon)

22. Take out the cable and switch actuators.

23. Reverse the process to put things back together.

23.5 The rear door actuator contains the child lock too. When installing the actuator, make sure the child lock lines up in the hole correctly.

Hope that's detailed enough. The process was difficult to figure out without instructions but I can do it now in about 30 min once I figured out all the screws. I have pictures but I don't know how to upload them. Let me know if you need the pics.

Sake_yo


If you just print out these directions, and take your time....you can be done in 25 minutes with the rear lock..even if you have never done it before. The front does take longer.... IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to have a star tip before doing this job. These are the GOLD SCREWS located on the rear side of the door, almost where the child lock is.

For the front door lock, I found it so much easier just taking out the window....Have a 2nd pair of hands is very recommended to help take remove/replace the window....(Thanks Humberto)
 
Last edited:
Well, I just purchased a universal actuator on ebay for $3.50 shipped. Will test it out when it comes.
 
Not sure if I can track down all the threads that deal with this particular issue, however i'll go over my experience with this briefly.

All the locks on my FX were 'lazy' and eventually my drivers door was taking two or three 'clicks' on the fob to unlock. Annoyed with the dealers reply "They'll all (5) need to be done, they fail like this all the time" and wanted better than 2 thousand bucks for this, I took a screw driver to the mess.

I pulled the actuator assembly out, cracked it open (literally, it's clearly not intended to be serviced) cleaned it up and re-greased it, bench tested it and it felt 'better' but still pretty lazy. Re-installed, and it was only slightly better. Ripped the whole enchalada out again and stripped the actuator down again.

The lock mechanism is driven by a tiny hobby sized electric motor. I removed it, and removed the end-cap and tested the thermal protection wafer installed in the back of the motor. It was toast. Googling this issue brought up hundreds of other forum posts about exactly this. Seems like every OEM is using the same setup, and everyone's are failing exactly the same way. A 1/10th of a cent part, causing people to spend thousands of bucks in repairs.

I replaced the wafer with a peice of sheet metal (some guys wrap it in tin-foil) and re-assembled. Lock works better than new, and snaps open and closed with authority (and like many others, the remaining doors appear to be 10% snappier as well). This disables any thermal protection in the motor, so if someone leans on the button, the motor will eventually fail. Not much to lose in my case as it was no longer work anyhow.

Not a repair for the feint of heart, you could easily damage the actuator and strand the vehicle until you get replacement parts, so dissasemble carefully. We have a pin passing through the casing that needs to be pressed out (small allen key gets it started then I grabbed it with needle nose pliers to get it the rest of the way) before pulling the casing apart.

Good luck!
 
Extended Warranty

I have an extended warranty but as of yet I cant find the document. My FX is a 2004 and was just wondering if you knew if these actuators would be covered by an extended warranty?
 
Does anyone know where/how I can get pictures of this process for the front door? I am looking at doing this repair and i'm really more of a visual person.
 
Tk,

I was worried when I did this myself. But the tutorial is very complete even without pics. If you take your laptop, or print the instructions, you should be able to do this within a 1-2 hours. Just read through each step and figure out what it is explaining... Honestly its really not that hard. The hardest part was taking out the window and re-installing it. Everything else is pretty well written and easy to follow.

Sent .
 
Door lock actuator problem

Thank you so much for all of you who have explained step by step how to do this! All 4 doors went out within 4 months of each other and have just been using the key because I did not want to spend +$2000 at the dealer or $1600 at my regular guy. After reading everyones posts I took it to Advanced Car Stereo in Murrieta. They do this kind of work all the time but never on an infiniti. I was able to bring him the instructions from the thread and he was able to customize it with a much stronger system than it had before and it works fantastic!!! Best part was it cost $650 total for 4 doors!! I have never been so happy to spend $650!
 
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