... and maybe YOU too...

So Awesome's driver's door lock was ailing her. Wouldn't lock the door. Unlock worked just dandy. And of course, several times I left her in a parking lot and didn't remember to manually lock the door, so... yeah. Sort of had to fix that actuator, which I supposed was the issue.

I buy an actuator, a midranged priced one aftermarket, one of several makes of these things. Thought "surely it'll be ok!". Then on a Saturday a couple of weeks(?) ago, I did the job. It worked as planned, now I have locking door and unlocking door from the key fob and the button inside. Yay and things! Definitely the actuator.

Then a couple of days later it became obvious it wasn't 'yay and things', but 'hm. That's weird.' As now, the actuator will absolutely lock the car, but may or more often may not unlock it. Which is livable, as the car has a driver's side key lock in it, so I'd just do that... but it still needs fixin. Diagnosis revealed that putting the lock bezel on the panel was causing *just* enough friction to not get the actuator to push up the rod. Removing the bezel would make it work better, but it would still sometimes not unlock.

Fine.

As cheap as it was I just chalked it up to 'oh well' as it'd be not worth shipping back, and ordered the real deal Motorcraft part.

Got it in, installed it, and yeah. All fixed now. The difference is definite in that the Motorcraft part is stronger sounding in general, especially in unlock.

That's two for two on recent aftermarket/non-genuine electronic related parts. I think Awesome's tryin' to tell me something...

Just figured I'd say, peace, out.

 

Glad it is fixed. Sometimes a part that costs more is worth it.