98 XLT door lock woes.

[jtjgvle]

I reecently bought a 98 XLT , everythign it is very clean and seems to have been maintained well. Until yesterday the only problem I noticed was the common issue with the HVAC blend door. The Unlock part of the driver's door power lock quit working. The switch still "clicks" but nothing happens. The "lock" side od th eswitch works fine. Before I start pulling the door panel off, anyone have this before? I was thinking maybe the wiring plug on the bottom of the switch might be loose since the "lock" part still works.

 

[ozexplorer]

mine is doing the same ...makes it real hard to get out when one arm is in a sling from a motorbike accident ...lol
I had my door apart at work but my prob was inside the lock itself. There are 2 springs that open the jaws that lock on the car body, the top one of these also pushes on another piece of the mechanism,i suspect one spring is broken, withouht this there are 2 pieces that juuuuust catch on their edges. Once i got the door open wth lots of jiggling i locked the door manually while it was swung open . If you look into the lock mech while pressing the unlock button you can see these 2 itms just touching. A small prod with a screw driver and hey presto ...it unlocks.....until u lock the door ....doh. I disarmed the autolock pretty damn quick . Solution for me ...new mechanism as i dont think the springs are replaceable , would pay to compare it with the other side .

 

[mikeh]

Yep you need a new latch mechanism. You need to remove the door panel to replace it. It took me a couple of hours. It's a complete pain in the arse. I did a write up in General Explorations if you want to look it up.

Mikeh