Dreaded Honda Door Lock Acutator Fatigue

[Rereonehundred]

Gents:

She’s a 2003 Accord Coupe L4 5MT with 205,000 km.

This Summer it starting with the usual signs of door lock actuator fatigue. Both the remote and the hardwired door lock electrical switch just give a little stutter, neither locking nor unlocking the door. I think the passenger side is almost as tired as the driver’s side. Battery is strong.

There’s lots of information out there about replacing these dud Honda actuators. But I haven’t seen anyone attempting to fix the actuator. Does anyone know if it is an unfixable electronic issue with the actuator or maybe just a touch of grease in a certain location?

It’s a bit of work to got to the actuator, so a new part makes sense, but a reasonably reliable fix of the original part would also be good.

Topic

[Lorrin Barth]

I replaced one about a year ago in a Subaru. I couldn’t detect any difference between the old and new part physically. The moving parts in each moved with the same feel and resistance. The old one didn’t work and the new one did.

So, I’d suggest just lubing the door mechanism and hope that works.

[Rereonehundred]

[quote=”barneyb” post=112361]I replaced one about a year ago in a Subaru. I couldn’t detect any difference between the old and new part physically. The moving parts in each moved with the same feel and resistance. The old one didn’t work and the new one did.

So, I’d suggest just lubing the door mechanism and hope that works.[/quote]

Thanks barneyb.

I’ve virtually never in 11 years used the key to lock or unlock the door. Nor have I ever used the pop up button. So I have no feel if these are overly stiff compared to the early life of this car. But at present the pop up buttons take very little force to move them up or down.

I’ve got a driver’s side actuator coming, and maybe I’ll get it in before the big chill has me hiding indoors.

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[Lorrin Barth]

What I should have written is anything short of replacing the actuator amounts to making sure all the door latch parts are lubricated.

[Rereonehundred]

This morning I undertook to replace the 2003 Coupe’s driver’s side lock actuator.

My ebay sourced $10 actuator came in the mail yesterday. Everything went well with no great challenges, but there sure are a lot of fussy little clips, levers, snaps, and plugs. But not as crazy as a Vigor HVAC unit!

When I got it all done the door lock now snaps up and down like a gun shot. The new actuator certainly draws more power as the courtesy lights dim a lot more than with the original worn out actuator.

Also, the passenger’s side door lock now snaps lively. I think the driver’s actuator has control over the passenger’s actuator.

Every job seems to have it’s humbling moments. In this case my repairs were instantly rewarded with snappish door locks, but now the power windows wouldn’t work. Checking all connections, back to the manual; and then the solution dawns on me. Power door locks don’t need the ignition key on, but window’s do!!

Here’s an image of the original driver’s lock actuator with the plastic case thoughtfully embossed with 12 November 2002 for my 2003 model year Coupe.

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• AccordCoupeOriginalActuator.jpeg

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’m glad you went for the replacement. Those are sealed units and not easily repaired. More trouble than it’s worth in my opinion. You are correct in that the drivers side is the signal for the other actuator. I would have advised the same thing that you replace the drivers side and then recheck the passenger side.

Thanks for your post and for the great updates.

[Author]

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