front door lock sticking

I have a 2001 Windstar. Sometimes when I try to power unlock the passenger side door, the lock will not come up. This is with the remote and the inside power lock. I can see the lock move when I click the unlock but it does not come up. Pulling the door handle on inside does open the door. This is an intermittant problem and today it also happened to the driver door. Any ideas? Does this sound electrical or mechanical. How difficult is it to pull of the inside door panel to maybe lubricate part?

Yes, I to have 2001 with the same problem both front door locks will not unlock with the remote or switch. they do try to engage and all others unlock and lock. I pulled the door panel off the pansangers side and power is getting there but looks to me that they willl need replacing.If I pull one off i will try to rebuild it. they are revited close though if not I will replace. Gary

I too have the same problem with my 2000 SEL. I'm convinced that it's a door lock actuator that's causing the problem. I'm trying to figure out how to make the repair myself as apposed to paying the dealer $200. Any insight anyone might have would be appreciated.

I too have the same problem with my 2000 SEL. I'm convinced that it's a door lock actuator that's causing the problem. I'm trying to figure out how to make the repair myself as apposed to paying the dealer $200. Any insight anyone might have would be appreciated.
You can get to it, but the finger room is very limited.
The rods that go to the actuator have plastic locks on them they should
just slide off with niddle nose pliers. 2 plugs snap onto it aswell.
the bad thing is the small opening in front of it but just to the side is the big opening but if you have long arms and skinny fingers it want be hard.
Its been raining here the last few days i am trying to find the wires that make it work so I can replace with a universal actuator.

So the universal actuators will mount in the same spot at the OEM actuators? I've been looking at some of the universal actuators on e-bay thinking that for $10 why not try one, but my fear has been that since there apparently is a difference between the left and right side OEM actuators, that Ford basically designed out the possibility of using universal actuators. But then again, I could be wrong! I'm anxious to see how well they work for you.

No not so much as they will work in the same spot but you can mount it in a spot along with the other.If you pull off your panel you will see its one big linkage unit. If the wires go as plan all I will need to do is pick out a location and guide the rod to a spot were it will attatch to a rod. there are I think 3 to choose from. The one long one is my choice but once I get started may find something better. The only problems I think I will have is the wires. 2 plugs and 3 wires to one and I think 2 wires to the other.I will need to find out what they do first. All I need is to get the ones to activate the actuators.And run with the remote and inside door buttons.I am just waiting on better weather to check the wires with a test light.I have found info on the net that "kind of" explain what going on, but will need to dig into it before I get started.So as its stands right now I WILL Leave every thing inplace but JUST ADD the universal Actuator and tap into the needed wires. If the plain works I will post and have pics made and if any one knows how to post them on here I can email them to them.But first I need a sunny day. rain and 44 deg. here in Fay.,NC. Now..

Gary, when you're ready to post pics you can post them here:

http://groups.msn.com/FordWindstar

Then just add links to them in your messages in this forum, like this picture of the 4.2L Freestar engine for example:

http://groups.msn.com/FordWindstar/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2

I've got the same problem on the driver side door. I opened it up. The actuator seemed loose. I could wiggle it. I can't see where the actuator is mounted or how it's mounted. Has anyone tried taking off one of these before?

I can see the rivets that seal the unit. Not sure if these can be repaired. Curious why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It almost seems like it's not getting enough power to move the linkage rod.

I did it!!! I replaced the actuator and frankly I don't recall any instructions that seemed directly applicable, but here's what I did.


A) Ordered a new actuator from www.y2kford.com for $37.84 plus $8.50 shipping

B) Make sure your window is rolled up completely

C) Removed the door panel. This required removing the little cover plate near the rear view mirror (on the inside) to get at one of the door panel screws. I'd also recommend removing the plastic door panel cover that encases the door latch pully (the thing you pull to open the door). That cover can be removed by gently prying on the forward portion of that cover. Remove all 5 screws that hold the door panel in place (one behind the rear view mirror cover plate, two at the bottom of the door, and two in the arm-rest/door handle itself. Now just pull up on the panel and it should come right up. After that just unplug all the electrical connections to the door panel and your ready to begin surgury on the door itself.

D) carefully peal back the insulation padding on the door. You'll want to be very careful you don't tear this too badly because you'll have to glue it back in place later (I used a hot glue gun that worked great)

E) Locate the bolt that hold the track for the rear part of the window. Note the way the track runs up to the window frame. Remove the bolt, and pull the track down out of the way. Later you'll have to put the track back into position and re-install the bolt.

F) Now there are two connecting bars that run up to the outside door handle itself. I believe one of them is for the door handle mechanism and the other is for the key locking mechinism. One of them can be detached at the top near the door handle by prying it out of it's clip, the other one is detached near the actuator itself with a snap clip.

G) Remove the three hex bolts that hold the complete door latch into place. These are the three bolts on the outside of the door panel that encompass the actual door latch. Careful, they are screwed in there real tight and you don't want to strip the heads of those hex bolts.

H) Once these bolts are removed, you should be able to twist the latch and actuator out of the door frame itself. You'll then have to unplug the actuator connector, and you might also have a door ajar connector there as well. Don't panic if you notice that the new actuator looks quite different from the existing one. Believe it or not the new one will fit and work... Now on the actuator you'll find it's mounted to the latch with a couple gruves top and bottom and a clip between them that keeps it from sliding out. Lift up on the clip and slide the old actuator off the the door latch mounting and slide the new actuator in place.

I) Plug the actuator back in and bring the door panel back over and plug the door planel connectors back in place to check the new actuator before you put things back together. Once you find things working, disconnect the door panel connectors, and reinstall the door latch, connecting rods, and don't forget the window track (I forgot this and remembered it just before I began to finish installing the door panel).

The total job took me about 1.5 hours with about half that just trying to figure out how to get things appart. I believe now I could easily do this in under an hour.

I hope this will be of help to someone. If nothing else, when I have to do the passanger side, at least I can find my instructions again...

Cheers,
DB

Couple questions since you just did yours. I was expecting the door panel to be the hardest part, but that and the insulation panel come off easily. So now I'm looking at the door latch and actuator and they are really tucked in there. Can you talk about step F in a little more detail, which rods and how you disconnect them. I see one that is attached near the door handle with a yellow clip that looks like one to disconnect, but the other one is not as obvious where you would disconnect it. If it would help I can post a pic to help the discussion.

Boy... taxing my memory here... I think I recall one of the rods being connected at the top (near the pop-up door lock nob). It has a plastic clip that I believe was yellow that held the rod in place. The rod on that one seemed to snap out by pushing the rod backwards (toward the rear of the van).

The other rod was connected more closely to the actuator itself. It seemed that this rod had what looked like threads at the bottom of it, however it doesn't really unscrew. There was a similar clip that held it in place but on this clip there was a flap type piece that folded over the rod and kept the rod from slipping out of the clip. Basically, once the rod was in the clip, this flap piece folds around the outside of the rod to help the clip hold it in place. This flip piece can be pryed open with a screwdriver thus release the rod from the clip.

Again, I'm doing this by memory... If I'm confusing you, maybe a picture would help.

Thanks for the reply, I'll try to get a picture on here soon. Was one of the 2 rods you disconnect the rod that goes straight up through the inside of the door panel (where you'd push down to lock the door from the inside), or did that rod have enough room to leave connected?

I think I just realized why your instructions about disconnecting the two rods at the door handle didn't make sense to me when I got mine opened up. Most likely you were doing your driver's side actuator and I'm doing the passenger side. The passenger side (at least on my 2000 SEL) does not have a key lock so there is just the one bar going to the exterior door handle.

Excellent point. And I do believe one of the rods was for the linkage to the key hole. Surely the manner that they connect the rods (whether there are one or two) should be similar left or right side though...

Yeah, the one rod is exactly as you described and I should be able to get it off. Just getting confused since the Ford steps list two clips to remove as well, didn't realize that was for the driver's side. Should get to it this weekend.

Just wanted to thank dbogey... instructions were a lifesaver. First door 5h including Googling to find these great instructions and mooching off because I was stuck... second door < 1h :-)

The inside door button rod does not need to be disconnected. The two rods dbogey refers to both go to the exterior handle...

The clip around the lower end of the threaded rod opens horizontally (two different colored bits of plastic hinge).