All 4 power locks, plus hatch failed?

[J0hnnyb01]

I recently bought an 08’ explorer 4.6 v8 with 100k miles. All the power locks makes a loud buzzing noise.

Pretty much the actuator motor is spinning but no gear action. But I put my ear on all 4 doors plus the hatch and they’re all buzzing.

There’s no way all 5 actuators failed on an explorer with 100k miles on it. Has anyone experienced this? I’m ordering a new driver actuator to see if that fixes the problem. If it does ….. I’ll replace all the rest….

 

[jman315]

Are you noticing any other electrical gremlins? I have read that a failing ignition switch leads to some unusual issues? How about the battery? How old is it and have you tested it? Maybe there is a ground that is making poor contact?The other thing that comes to mind is a failed relay, but I am not sure if that’s something that can easily be replaced.

 

[J_C]

I was going to write welcome to the forum, but you've been a lurker for a few years!

I'd check the door lock relay. You might instead have a frayed wire (barely making connection, high resistance) in the door hinge boot area, but that you hear them is a good sign they are okay and something like a fouled relay contact is causing too little current (voltage drop happening) to get to them. This can be measured with a multimeter when you try to actuate them with the lock switch.

No need to buy a new lock actuator yet. You can use fused jumper wires to apply 12V direct to it to see if it works, and reverse polarity of the power supply for the opposite (lock vs unlock) movement... or for a brief momentary test, could even get away with using a 12V or 18V cordless tool battery as they should have enough current capacity to work the actuator.

 

[J0hnnyb01]

Are you noticing any other electrical gremlins? I have read that a failing ignition switch leads to some unusual issues? How about the battery? How old is it and have you tested it? Maybe there is a ground that is making poor contact?The other thing that comes to mind is a failed relay, but I am not sure if that’s something that can easily be replaced.

Looks like all 5 actuators were actually bad. Had to replace each one. Haven’t seen that before

 

[J_C]

Hmm, glad you got it sorted. Seems very unusual to have all bad, unless they didn't all fail at once and owner just didn't keep up with repair... UNLESS this was a flood vehicle and water did its thing, tho' I'd think you would see more evidence of that than only the actuators.

 

[swshawaii]

Looks like all 5 actuators were actually bad. Had to replace each one. Haven’t seen that before

Thought it was just MY bad luck. Replaced ALL four actuators and both front latches in a five year span. PO may have been a culprit with young kids that love to cycle the door lock buttons until something breaks. Keeping the latches clean and lubed will extend the life of latches and reduce stress on the actuators.

Another door lock issue.

So I have searched and found good advice but it pertained to the guy having his keyfob unlock all doors and not his driver door. my problem is the keyfob will unlock only the driver door and not the rest. I changed the batterys in the fob also. it sometimes will unlock all doors but usually a 1...

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