2001 ford Windstar Power Door Locks

[erics]

The power door locks on my 2001 Ford Windstar have been slowly dieing. I hit the button to unlock/lock the doors and both front doors' locks move, but not enough to unlock the door. If I keep trying, they move less and less each time. The right rear sliding door makes an obnoxious WHARRRR noise also and sometimes the rear sliding doors won't lock/unlock too.

I searched some other forums and found that it maybe a bad ground. Where can I find the grounds on my van to check them?

I went to NAPA to order new actuators thinking originally that they were bad since that's what the repair shop told us. They wanted over $700 to fix them. NAPA gave me four new ones that fit the sliding doors only and not the front doors. They also required rivets to be attached, which I can't do.

Any other thoughts of what might be wrong?

[resabed01]

Same thing on my 2001. Both front door motors would not work. The door lock motors were kaput. I could have purchased new motors and replaced them but I'm too much of a cheapskate. So instead I removed the actuators, split the case and repaired the motor inside. Now to my wifes delight, all the PDLs work.

$700? for what?

Rivets are to be drilled out and replaced with a suitable nut/bolt upon re-assembly

[erics]

the $700 was 1/2 for the 4 actuators and half for the labor.

How did you repair the motors?

It didn't look like there was enough room for a nut to fit in there.

[resabed01]

This is not for the faint at heart. Possibly a good chance you might mess up the motor and have to buy a new one anyway. You will need to know how to solder and have some 2.7 ohm resistors small enough to fit into the motor case.

Remove the actuator and pry the case open from the end opposite of the two aluminum rivets. The plastic welds on each post holding it together should pop off easily. You only need to pry the case open about 3/4" just enough you remove the motor from the case. It's held there by the two electrical contacts.
Once the motor is out you need to open it by prying open the two crimps that hold the white end cap on.
Carfully remove the end cap and set the rest aside. In the end cap is a rectangular disk that's pressed in, remove it. This disk is the cause of your problems. On my motors I measured the disks and one was at 5.5 ohms and the other was at 25 ohms. That's too high for the motor to work. The disk needs to be around 3 ohms or less to work. That's where the 2.7 ohm resistor comes in. Determine where in the motor end cap that the resistor will fit and not interfere with the motor spinning. Then decide on where the resistor leads will go. Scrape the disk where you will attach the leads, one each side and solder them there. Slide the disk back into the motor cap with the attached resistor. The resistor should be off to one side away from the motor rotor.
Assemble the motor and re-crimp the end cap back on, it only goes one way. Re-install the motor back into the actuator case and ensure the gears are in place. Press the case closed and use tape and zip ties to hold in together. Re-install the actuator back into the door.

Worked for me and cost me nothing! Just makes me wonder what they were thinking when the engineered this part. It's things like this that give Ford a bad name.

[tacomabobd]

Have you looked at EBAY? They have many items for sale including PDL's. Its a lot cheaper that $700.

[zoobie]

Resabed01 gave a great description of how to fix this problem. It is difficult but doable. You don't need any special tools. I didn't even use the suggestion to solder in the new resistor.

I followed the instructions and found the same disk resistor. With a digital multimeter I measured 3-5 ohms across the plates. I tried to find a 2.7 ohm resistor but couldn't easily get one. After thinking about Ohm's law I decided to try and modify the disk resistors. Increasing the current would lower the resistance. I simply crimped the disks with a vice-grip. The resistance then measured 2-3 ohms. I reinstalled the assembly and the lock still needed more power. I took it out and re-crimped it. It then measured 1.5 ohms. This worked great. The first door took about 4 hours because I was looking for the resistor. The second door only took 30 minutes, including panel removal and re-installation.

The gear case is tricky to remove. You'll have to remove the window track. Then remove the three screws that hold the door latch. The gear/actuator plastic case is attached to the door latch. The door latch is steel and the gear case is plastic. The gear case simply slides off the door latch, there are no rivets or screws. You have to wedge of screwdriver in-between the latch and gear case to disengage a clip (a mirror might help here). The gear case then slides off toward the outside of the car (you have to remove the screw driver in order to take it off completely). It helps to see the case before doing this. I found an auto parts store that had the gear case and looked at it before attempting to take it out.

Also, the gear case that you have to break open should be put back together by putting small screws where the plastic welds were. I found that the case was breaking open as the lock moved up and down. Just find the holes on the opposite side of the welds and drill through with a small drill. Then insert some 3/4" small screws. Don't over-tighten the screws.

After thinking about this solution I wonder if Rosabed01 isn't the original engineer that created the lock mechanism. Either that or he's above average. What normal person would have been able to figure this stuff out? Amazing. The next time you're in Minneapolis I'll be glad to take you out to lunch.

[Flyingjackal456]

Drill the old rivets out, and get some small bolts to reattach the new actuators.

[kendallcrossman]

Originally Posted by erics

The power door locks on my 2001 Ford Windstar have been slowly dieing. I hit the button to unlock/lock the doors and both front doors' locks move, but not enough to unlock the door. If I keep trying, they move less and less each time. The right rear sliding door makes an obnoxious WHARRRR noise also and sometimes the rear sliding doors won't lock/unlock too.

I searched some other forums and found that it maybe a bad ground. Where can I find the grounds on my van to check them?

I went to NAPA to order new actuators thinking originally that they were bad since that's what the repair shop told us. They wanted over $700 to fix them. NAPA gave me four new ones that fit the sliding doors only and not the front doors. They also required rivets to be attached, which I can't do.

Any other thoughts of what might be wrong?

I have a 99 windstar with about the same problem, the front passengers door would always lock, but would only unlock about 5-10% of the time.
I went to the junkyard and got another actuator and put it in, still didn't cure it, is there something else I can check, or was I just lucky or unlucky enough to have gotten a second one that was bad??
I have done tests with a voltage meter and there is power getting to the plug that goes to the actuator so I don't think it is a power problem.
One more thing I should tell you is that the drivers door is starting to act up now too, and all other doorlocks are working 110%.
THANKS in advance to anyone that can help.

[theoldwizard]

Originally Posted by kendallcrossman

... I went to the junkyard and got another actuator and put it in, still didn't cure it, is there something else I can check, or was I just lucky or unlucky enough to have gotten a second one that was bad??

Yep ! These things have a high failure rate !

[BroncoJoe19]

While you had the door panel apart did you lube moveing parts?