2013 Driver Door Lock Actuator Repair

Today my driver door lock started chattering every time I tried to lock or unlock the vehicle. Then it go confused and wouldn't unlock any doors or roll the back window down from the tailgate buttons. I also could not unlock the driver door manually with the small key on the fob. Everything was bound up.
After twenty minutes or so in the Arizona heat (it was 111 today) all doors except the driver door finally unlocked. When I got home I pulled the driver door actuator out and actually disassembled the actuator which is no easy task. I found that the worm gear driven by the little motor to run the door lock had cracked on the shaft so the motor would spin and chatter but the gear would not turn. The motor and worm gear lift straight up out of the housing with a little effort because there are two electrical connect pins that plug into the motor from the bottom that you can't see, just lift straight up. I made a small aluminum sleeve out of a 1/4" OD aluminum bar by drilling the center out with a 13/64" drill bit and then using a round jewler's file to get it to .210" ID so it would fit over the plastic gear shaft. I then had to use a Dremel tool with a 1/4" grinding stone to open the slot in the black plastic housing where the repaired worm gear sat in the saddle. I reassembled everything and it works perfectly once again. Hopefully with the metal sleeve around the gear shaft it will never fail again. I've heard that actuator failures are common, not sure if the cracked gear is the usual culprit or if there are other failures. Photos attached.

 

Genius. Thanks for posting this.

 

It's impressive that you got it diagnosed and fixed so quickly.

 

Body shop toasted my 2013 and insurance paid for it too. $300