Doors not locking/unlocking

[diffuzn]

Hey, my locks on my car don't work via remote anymore, the lights still blink, and the locks half lock and half open but not enough to actually lock and unlock the doors. Anyone know what the problem could be?

[blk_shadow]

first, check your remote's battery.

secondly, check your door lock actuator.

[diffuzn]

how would i check my door lock actuator?

[blk_shadow]

bring it to a mech. its the one attach to your door latch.

[mrwillz]

or wiring

[Doylie]

I'm having the same problem - it's so freaking anoying. I got locked in my own car today!!! ffs!

I think the actuators are screwed, so might need to buy a couple more..

[blk_shadow]

actuators are still pretty good in civics, but not on Euro unfortunately.

[02gzm]

If the lock doesn't move at all the the actuator is probably gone. You'll pick them up from any auto electrician for around $25-$35 each. If the door half locks/unlocks then it sounds like the little metal rod in your door is either jamming up or has popped out of it's holder. Take the door trim off and give the mechanical parts a spray of WD40 and check everything is where it's supposed to be. It happens a bit in older cars.

Oh and to check your actuator, unplug it and touch the 2 ends on a battery. You should see the piston move when you apply electricity.

[finalazy]

this seems to happen to me only when its raining a lot for some reason

[Zilli]

i had this issue and it was my car battery... each door has an actuator, i would go and buy the whole of NSW Lotteries if all my actuators went at the same time...

check your car batter... the remote battery only uses current to send a signal to actuate the door to lock... the car batter and the actuators do the hard work. If ONE door was only half lokcing chances are it's your actuator, but not all of them

[whtteg]

my delsol has this problem when its really cold, i just hose the car windows and doors down and a few minutes later they open and close the way they should. im not sure if this is the same with any other cars but its worth a try.
ive taken to hosing the car each morning and havnt had a problem since. if your in a water restricted area a bucket of water would do the same as hosing.

[ek4-guy]

My car does this but it isn't my battery as the battery is pretty new, the rod hasn't popped off as i've checked this also,

Seems to be a pretty common fault and i doubt we all have the same actuators. I'm now thinking that it's more to do with actuators not being strong enough for the honda door latches. I've got some actuators from my commodore that when i bought them the guys didn't want to sell them to me as it wasn't there normal stock it was stock they had specifically for taxi's. But they had to sell them to me at the advertised price. So i'm thinking that the difference was maybe that taxi actuators are stronger as they get used more often.

[whtteg]

diffuzn does your key unlock the door?

[outatime]

i have this problem in my car too on the passenger's door it won't open at all! the lock wont move. i have to manually stick in the key to open it. i'll try 02gzm's suggestion.

[whtteg]

you guys are lucky if your key works mine wont :( but its only when locks freeze up (you hear the locks click open/closed but nothing happens)

[diffuzn]

yeah the key unlocks the door, i've been locked inside my car once but that was ages ago i thought the problem was a once off.

In regards to the cold thing... yest was probably the coldest +rainiest its been in a while also

[02gzm]

Sometimes the actuators move out of place slightly and when you hit the button the actuator pushes on the rod to unlock the door but the rod will actually bend instead of sliding backwards as the metal isn't really that stiff. I had to realign the actuators in my GF's EK1 because over time from all their movements they shifted themselves into a position where the rod wouldn't slide. This happened more frequently when it was cold as a few others have said which is probably due to the grease in the joints thickening up at lower temps and not allowing it to slide.

I'm bored waiting for my lecture to start so i did a diagram.
The little black box is the actuator.
The blue line is the rod coming out of the actuator which is normally a lot stronger than the honda rod.
The red line is the rod that activates the locking mechanism in your door.
This is all happening behind the door trim obviously.

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n209/willkallis/actuator1.jpg
Here's how the actuator should be working. Pushing and pulling the rod that activates the door lock. This is good :D

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n209/willkallis/actuator2.jpg
And in this one the actuator has slid down it's support a bit from everyday use and instead of sliding the rod it is pushing at an angle and the rod is bending in place. This is bad :(

I straightened the actuator up a bit so it was pushing as horizontal as possible and WD40'd all the moving joints to prevent any sticking and there haven't been any problems since.

[VTECMACHINE]

Same happened to me. Got a new alarm. Replaced driver side motor, and put a motor on the passenger side, as there isn't a motor on the passenger side from stock.

Works perfectly awsome now!

[VTECACCORD]

Guys to fix this problem you have to adjust the aftermarket door lock actuator.

Take off the driver side door panel

You should see an aftermarket actuater, u have to pull or push the rod that moves on it. just pull it to its longest length or push it to it's lowest point. You may need to unscrew one of the screws that attaches it to the door lock mechanism to adjust it properly.

Best way is to sit in the car and play with it untill it's perfect, the connection that bolts it to the rod in the door slips sometimes which causes it to do a half assed job.

Easy 10 min fix.

[outatime]

how hard is it to remove and put back the door trims? where are the screws located?

[02gzm]

Theres a screw in the door handle, behind the opening lever and a plastic screw where the door trim touches the dash (on an EG. I cant remember if the dash screw is the same on an EK). Once you pull them out the bottom and up the side is held on by press on buttons that you will need to pop off. You will know when you have them all as the door trim will wiggle around. Then just lift it up and slide it away from the door so you can get it out of the window space.

Putting it in is just in reverse order. Make sure to do the window slot first and then it'll sit in place ready for the buttons to be pushed back in.