10 months ago I purchased a 2007 Accord with a bad driver’s door lock actuator. I replaced it myself 5 months ago, and when I did so, I discovered that it had been previously replaced, at least once. A month ago it went out again. Not sure if its relevant, but this time when it stopped working I had accidentally pulled the door handle at the same time that I pressed the unlock button on the key fob.
Pull the door panel and check the voltages.
If here’s voltage on the actuator when there should be, the actuator is bad. If not, and there’s also no voltage at the switch, then you have a possible wiring harness failure, probably at the point where it bends back and forth when you open the door… where it travels from the unibody to the door. Wiring insulation can get chaffed there or cracked and cause intermittent shorts to ground.
Bottom line: open 'er up and trace back to find the voltage.
Oh, check for any blown fuses first. Nobody ever checks the fuses… including me!
Have you verified that those actuators are actually bad once removed or is it simply assumed that because they’re inactive they’ve failed?
I don’t know if we are talking the same part but. 3 year’s ago I helped a young girl replace her outer handle mechanism. A few months later it went out again. I took it apart and it is made with a little “step” in the mechanism. I think this step is supposed to keep you from breaking anything if the handle is frozen shut from the ice and cold. Though she swore that it was never frozen shut.
After working that mechanism …out of the door…I realized that this step is just not enough to do the job. I drilled a small hole and put in a screw…eliminating this “step” …or making it so high…the step would never work again.
That was her third mechanism in three years, and this one…redesigned…has worked through three winters now.
Chalk that one up to poor design. A good idea, but never really worked.
Yosemite