I am a 64 yr old disabled widowing trying to figure out what parts might be need to fix my door locking system. I have a church member that helps me out mechanically fixing my car whenever he can. I am trying to not take time away from his family or from his business (which is non mechanical) by getting parts ahead of him taking apart the door to fix my locking problem. We have already had the door apart 3 different times trying to fix a window problem & replacing the window channel & the motor.
I purchased thee 2001 Explorer Sport 2WD back in August of 2014. At that time there was a problem with the doors unlocking. Whenever your pushed the unlock on the key panel or any of the door switched it made a grinding noise. It did not make the same noise when locking the doors. I do not have any key FOBS. the electronic locking system worked fine up (with the grinding noise) until 2 weeks ago. Then the noise went away. Everything works except the drivers door. It no longer locks or unlocks electronically. You have to do it manually. Both the rear tailgate & thee passenger doors locks are working fine electronically. They even lock when the car moves forward. But again the drivers door does not. Is the the drivers door actuator or is it something else?
The other strange thing I have with the locking systems is that at certain times the doors will not unlock with the key. It does not happen all the time & it does not matter whether I use the factory key or the remade keys. I cannot tell if there is a problem on the tailgate because that was changed before I bought the truck & that jerk forgot to change the lock. So until I can afford to have a key made for that it only opens by the electronic locking system.
Sometimes the drivers door will open sometimes not. Sometimes the passenger side will & sometimes it will not. I have been totally stumped by that problem. But that is now compounded by the drivers door electronic lock not working. Just today I had to crawl in & reach across to open the door. It opens without any problem.
Can anyone help me please?
I know there are several threads on the locking system but I could not find one similar in the thousand that are already out there.

Thank you

 

It sounds like the power door lock actuator on the driver's side has failed. The grinding noise you've been hearing for some time was a warning that gears are damaged, and now either the broken teeth have wedged and bound the motor up or the motor has failed from several lock and unlock cycles with the added load of damaged gears.

The door lock actuator is held on to the door by a large rivet from the factory. Your friend may need either the large rivet and rivet tool to replace the actuator or some other means (large screw with a shallow head?).

While inside the door, mention to him about the intermittent locking with the key. Maybe he'll see something that could be binding in the linkages or he can lubricate the latch assembly while he's inside the door. I don't expect that the damaged lock actuator would have an effect on the key operation.

-Rod