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Or just pay $10 and do it yourself. It's an easy fix if you do it right. I personally suggest this route unless you like wasting money. Where most screw up is by not re-sealing the casing properly. Again, if you have a UL or easy close it's even easier. This thread really should be about the DIY not promoting some guys business.
Last edited by Lavrishevo; Jan 19, 2016 at 03:41 PM.
Wow LAV.......u kinda twisted a positive into a negative there. And as I recall you yourself bought a new actuator not a motor correct? or has my memory failed me? Lenny aint gunna get rich off of a LS430 thread...I checked out his site...he sells actuators for many makes and models. The reason I suggested to him that he pop on the thread is that he is an expert. On this thread we....especially ( I ) have done a lot of guessing on how to...or why....which part...etc. Well like I said regarding my actuator, the replacement motor did not fix my car....My actuator had an additional broken piece still to be confirmed by Lenny.....so I was chasing my tail on a fix that couldnt happen. So anyway Lenny is an option for anyone to ask a question to a pro or for any of us that STILL want to DIY by buying the entire piece and still saving hundreds......I certainly dont care if u buy from him.....I myself said I bought OEM vs refurb.
You caught me right after a nap LAV.......think positive dude! Now say your sorry to the nice man KIDDING....I AM KIDDING..........
Hi JPV, I received your unit last night. Here is a brief explanation of what I found.
When you lock or unlock your door the motor spins in the corresponding direction turning the large white gear. After this movement, power to the motor is cut and a spring located under the white gear returns the unit back to the "neutral position". Once in the neutral position you can manually lock or unlock the unit by hand. If however the spring fails to return the white gear into the neutral position your door will stay locked or unlock - using a key or manual switch will just bind up.
So this brings us to JPV's unit. His failure is quite common in LS430 models. The spring located under the white gear is attached to the bottom housing. There is a small tab that comes up from the bottom. It is only 1/2" long, 1/4" tall, and less than 1/10" thick. Because it is so thin this part has a tendency to break off. The spring now has no attach point and is unable to return the gear to it's neutral position. Photo's below
There is a simple test I perform on every unit during my rebuilds. With the motor removed take some needle nose pliers and rotate the white gear. If it snaps back into the original position you are good to go.
Lenny.....thank you for getting back to me and for giving us on the forum some useful DIY info. Next time I will perform your test on the gear before putting back together. I have another question for you. Being that I was in and out of my door 5 times or more I became a pro at getting to the actuator and removing the motor. My question to you is this. For any of us replacing the motor....does it matter what position the gear flipper/lever is in when we are done messing around inside the actuator? Or put more clearly...is there something we can bump out of position....or not return to the correct position while we are doing the motor replacement? Normally I was very careful like a surgeon to simply remove and put right back in. But one time I did flip the ( lever? ) back and forth to see if it would move freely. I am also guilty of raising the lever up and spinning the gear then putting lever back down, because I thought the lever had jumped the stop. All that being said....I am trying to figure out if me playing with the lever and gear could have caused my plastic part to break. Wow that was a ramble....hope some of it made sense.
Thanks.....and ps...I have already received my $30 for my old core....many thanks
The only area of concern during re-assembly is the orientation of the white gear. On the bottom of the white gear is a protruding wedge. This wedge must be seated in between the 2 ends of the spring (where the red arrows in my above picture indicate).
Quite interesting Lenny reports that the spring situation is common in the LS430. I guess I was lucky as I replace the motors in my two front doors almost a year ago and still going strong. I still smile as I am able to remotely open the doors again for such a cheap fix. I will say it was more involve (for me) than I expected, but certainly do-able.
2002 UL
Last edited by monrovea; Jan 29, 2016 at 02:46 PM.
Consider Larry's post showing the broken part is a first, I think we all know it's hardly common here in CL. Maybe it is for him. I have never heard of it before.
Consider Larry's post showing the broken part is a first, I think we all know it's hardly common here in CL. Maybe it is for him. I have never heard of it before.
By far the delinquent component is the motor. Out of about ~500 similar motor housings I have repaired I have seen this occurrence 20 or 30 times. Enough that it warrants its own QC step. Hopefully the simple act of testing the spring will help others on CL and prevent the aggravation that JPV went through.
Besides, it is hard to quantify a failure that had not yet been identified, and that is why we are all here.
Well I made it for anout 2 years on my fist actuator replacement. but now its gobe bad again. Does anyone have saved the write up from the first page of this thread?
When I go to the link its all advertisements...
I dont know Buggs.......something is fishy. I dont have very good actuator luck but certainly that little motor should have lasted far more then 2 years. So when U take it apart again look for separation of the housing.....or broken plastic piece. I am sooooo glad I finally gave up and bought a new actuator....I dont have to cringe when I unlock the door anymore. That being said I will always try the cheap motor fix first.
I just did my front passenger's lock last weekend. 2005 ML with soft close doors. The hardest part for me was getting the window rail back in. I completely removed it and, up at the top of the door, it hits a wiring harness that snakes around the end of the window.
Didn't need to tiewrap the lock or anything. Has screws holding it together. Got the motor from
and just slid the white plastic worm gear onto the new motor. Motor does not appear to be any louder than the original.
Be sure you disconnect your battery before digging into the door. Apparently you can trigger a 'roll down' command on the window while your in there. That would not be fun.
The link on the front page is dead, Does anyone have another write up? My driver side one seems to have gone out on me tonight.
I also have another issue that I've had since owning the car but it's not the actuator, I'm thinking the switch. On the passenger side the lock/unlock switch will lock all the doors but will not unlock any of them. Anyone else had this issue?
KIDDING....I AM KIDDING..........
