Driver door locked

I ordered my Lock today hopefully ill have it soon. Im tired of reaching over my broken center armrest.

Part Number for Driver side 01 Latch Assembly

5L5Z7821813AA

The customer service at FPN was supperb i ordered the wrong part and with in a few minutes they emailed me making sure that i was getting the right part. Luckily they did because I picked the wrong one. The owner emailed me with the correct part number and cancelled my old order within minutes.

V8BoatBuilder said:

FWIW, I find a graphite based lubricant, such as "Lock-Ease" works wonders for both keyed locks and mechanisms to keep this from happening, and locks from sticking.

Click to expand...

If you are able to open your door still, this is the best advice in here. I pulled off the panel inside looked around, tinkered with this, tinkered with that, then remembered this little nugget of info.

Instead of ripping everything apart, TRY LUBRICATING THE LATCH IN THE DOOR. I wish I would have done this first. It may save you a lot of time and grief.

Well i got my latch and installed in one thing i messed up on was the piece connected to the lock cylinder. I broke the piece of plastic trying to remove the rod. The key i think is to remove the cyiledar clip from the door and then wiggle the rod from the plastic piece. I was able to use some goop to put the plastic piece back in but i think i may go to junk yard and find it. Otherwise this wasnt too bad kind of hard, cause you cant see much. Just take your time and will come out.

maybe I'm having a blonde moment, I don't know

I am having the won't unlock problem with my 98 sport, and have been all over FPN and can't find one for a 98.

Anyone have better luck that me?

thanks.

When I was looking I could not find it either so then I contacted terry(? not sure his name) and he sent me a link (very fast it was). I saw it but was still unable to place the order. It is best to just call it in.

Fixed Door Lock Problem for free in 5 minutes

Hey everybody,

This is my first post. I found this forum surfing the net when my 99 XLT had a door lock sticking problem, the situation where the touchpad and remote will not fully actuate a seemingly stuck lock on the driver's side door.

I read about similar problems on this forum, (hey Ford, what about a recall?) but did not feel up to taking off the panel and trying the do it yourself, or very clever lube, bungi cord, or spring bending solutions. I was about to take the Explorer into the dealer and pay the $170 or more to get it fixed, when I noticed something interesting...

In my case, I could unlock the front passenger door after using the remote door opener and unlock the driver's side door using the inside handle. Several other posters had reported the same condition. Living with "the reach over the console from the passenger side plan" does not work for me, however.

What I found interesting was that I could get the lock and unlock button, remote and touchpad to work perfectly if I held the driver's side inside door handle open half way!

If I pulled the handle fully open, the lock would work, but of course the door would not close. :thumbdwn: So I simply went into my box of "maybe I will need something like this someday stuff" and found a small, two inch piece of "L" shaped plastic and taped it to inside part of the door handle, positioning it carefully, using it as a wedge to keep the inside door handle permanently open half way.

Son of a biscuit, the door lock now works perfectly! I can also open and close the door fine with the handle and the whole shebang cost me nothing and the ordeal was over in five minutes without ever taking the door panel off.

So if you don't mind a "haywire" sort of field fix, or if you are prepping the vehicle for sale, then take it to the dealer. But if you want to save more than a few bucks and don't mind some tape on the handle, then give my quick fix solution a try. Maybe I just got lucky, but I thought I would post my experience with the thought that maybe this simple solution will work for someone else as well.


Jim~ the CompostMan



Update a week later.....

This "haywire" fix works for the remote opener, but only some of the time with the key or the keypad.

The plastic piece I used, however, got loose and slipped into the opening in the door behind the handle. Looking at it closely, I changed the "fix plan" to using an old brush handle, again taped to the handle, resting on the door frame, now prying the handle half open, acting as a "handle extender".

This new sytem is easier to use (smooth handle on the brush molds to the door handle) and is working pretty well so far. Again, the fix is working only some of the time with the keypad or the key, so I am keeping the remote door opener with me when I lock the door. All in all, I think it is still better than paying $200 to get the door lock actuator fixed.

For a back-up, I put a second remote door opener in a magnetic key lock under the bumper in case something goes wrong.