Power door lock won't open reliably

Good morning gang,

So far I have been blessed by your wisdom to help me through a number of significant engine issues with my 2002 Windstar. Now that it's running like it should, I need to address the less critical issues.

On the driver side of the car, the sliding door has an issue. The motor or servo or whatever it is that drives the door locking mechanism, is failing. Hasn't worked properly in like 2 years. It's been a mild annoyance, but in recent months it's gotten much worse.

When you unlock the doors, it pops up, but doesn't engage and stay there. It drops right back down to the locked position. So you have to play a timing game... one hand on the clicker, one hand on the handle. Click and pull with the right timing, to catch the door lock in the up position before it falls back down.

Well now it's not even reaching that point many times, and I'm worried that we're putting massive wear and tear on the other units in the car (pressing the unlock button 12 times to unlock it once), and also that in my rage I'm going to rip the door handle off the car!

I'm looking for some good instructions on how to take apart the door properly to get access to the motor or whatever it is. Is it something Autozone will carry or do I need to get it from a dealership? Is it something you'd get from a junkyard? Any advice you've got I'd love to get my hands on. Thanks!

Farns

Sorry, I posted this before checking Autozone...

I'm guessing this is what I'm after, but I'm not sure:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Duralast-Door-Lock-Actuator/2002-Ford-Windstar/_/N-jhdoxZ8iigi?counter=1&filterByKeyWord=windstar+door+lock&itemIdentifier=421279_115631_0_91487

It says "manual sliding doors" which I have... but then in the notes it says "cargo door". Is that the rear lift gate door? Or would the side doors be considered cargo doors?

Looks like I have to order it. Based on my description, do you guys think this might be the part that is failing?

Farns

Not sure if that is your problem, but I would check Rockauto.com prices. And I'm pretty sure that the side slider and rear are both considered cargo doors.

Sorry, I posted this before checking Autozone...

I'm guessing this is what I'm after, but I'm not sure:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Duralast-Door-Lock-Actuator/2002-Ford-Windstar/_/N-jhdoxZ8iigi?counter=1&filterByKeyWord=windstar+door+lock&itemIdentifier=421279_115631_0_91487

It says "manual sliding doors" which I have... but then in the notes it says "cargo door". Is that the rear lift gate door? Or would the side doors be considered cargo doors?

Looks like I have to order it. Based on my description, do you guys think this might be the part that is failing?

Farns

I've replaced one of these already. They are very easy to do, and yes this is the part.

I took mine off a wrecked Ford 150 at a junk yard. Paid ten or 15$ for it.

This part wears down on a lot of Windstars, and I had the same problem, and also it unlocking and locking after locking the door and walking away from it. You described the problem to a "T", this ought to fix it.