So the power door locks on my 2000 F-250 were not working very well and found some info on the Internet regarding Ford "lazy door locks" and it cause...

So I pulled the door lock actuators yesterday and opened up the drive motors and wrapped the thermistor (or whatever that device is) with aluminum foil as outlined in the Internet information... Reinstalled the actuators and "viola"!! The door locks are working great again...

I was going to take some photos but I got so involved in the repair that I forgot to do so...

In previous repair articles done by other people, the methodology for refastening the 2 actuator halves back together again is to thru bolt them after breaking off the plastic studs and drilling the actuator halves, but I found that there was enough plastic material left on the plastic studs that I could just remelt the top part of the studs again to hold the case halves together...

I'll have to see how the repair (remelting studs) holds up but so far so good... If the remelt doesn't hold up I can always replace the motors but I saved about $104 repairing rather than replacing...

Les

 

Good on you!
Mine worked great until someone held down the door lock switch for a couple seconds thinking it was the power window switch.... Without the thermistor to protect the motors, they got smoked. Avoid that and the fix will work great for a very long time.

The new actuators from Ford are still working great!

 

Well, it's usually only the wife and I in the truck so we don't have to worry about any kids holding down the button... I read in the original article that the OP held down the button for some time and it didn't create that much heat, so I guess that might be an open ended issue...

Well, if they give out, I can always replace the actuators - about $52 at my local O'Reillys, but in the meantime, I'm feeling pretty good on saving all the $$$

Les

 

You might post this in the Electrical Systems & Wiring forum too-----its bound to be helpful there as well.

Nice write up BTW!