Looking on Amazon and FordParts.com the OEM door lock actuators are about $200 for the set of 4. After market from Dorman and others are less than half that but wondering about quality.

Is this one of the times OEM quality is worth spending the extra coin to have a long lasting repair or are the aftermarket ones just as good (or equally bad) these days?

My time is limited so would like to do this only once and done.

 

You caught me in the middle of the same project.

I found OEM door lock actuators at Summit of all places. Cheaper than amazon... $48 each. That's pretty good for OEM. I only needed 2 so I had to buy a couple cotter pins for $0.25 to get to the $99 free shipping.

Go OEM, it's just better. In addition I like to help anyone else that may own the vehicle in 10 years. Having an oem part # on the part makes things easier for them.

I am taking entire latch, door ajar switch, and lock actulator out of all doors and replacing defective parts and cleaning the rest. It's suprising how gunked up these latches can get. Years of PO spraying something in latch has built up alot of goo. I am going to be using some dry silicone spray on all mechanisms so that will not happen in future.

 

I bought the 4 actuators on eBay for $30 bucks, took one apart and compared it to the old one from my Ex.

My observation:

OEM uses a river to hold the plastic case together
eBay one uses a screw

OEM one had a electric motor stamped "china" on it

eBay unto uses a slightly wider drive gear. (Possible a fix to a OEM unit failure point ? )

Anyhow, many many years later my chincom ones still work.

 

Bought a couple of cheapie ones from Amazon. Work nice and solid, no problems so far.

 

Ebay here, worked just fine. I would rebuild my old ones before dropping the money on a new one though...

 

Heres some helpful links plus great pictures on installation for excursion actuators

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...-enhanced.html


https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displayalbum.php?userid=190355&albumid=12198[/url]

 

O'Reilly had Dorman. (Chinese) I have replaced all 4 and subsequently replaced 2 of those in less than 2 years. O'Reilly replaced at no charge.
Incidental problem on Driver's door, power lock works fine with door fully open but half way closed and closed power lock on that door doesn't work. Obviously not actuator problem, maybe pigtail or ?? Anyone else seen this issue?

 

Pilot, that sounds like a wiring problem at the door hinge. You probably have a wire that has the insulation rubbed through and it is shorting out to ground before it gets to the actuator.