Fixing Celsior's door lock / unlock problem
My Celsior had an intermittent problem that the passenger’s side door couldn’t be
locked nor unlocked by the remote switchs. It happened once in a while and
the re-trying was mostly effective to work. But recently the symptom is getting
worse and I finally decided to fix it. As aged, the door lock / unlock actuator
whole unit asking you around 300 US dollars including the unit and the labor.
Below is the way I tried and fixed it without any money other than my efforts.
But I really enjoyed the way to find the cause and the process to repair it.
I could save 300 dollers as well as I found something intersting to add my
experience. As Steve Jobs said, "Stay hungry" , My hungriness and the
curiosity help my day very enjoyable. So, I think I’d better to share the way
I have tried.
Below is the inside of the door. The actuator is located at the left edge
under the see- through protector. You need to remove this and the 3 screws
that hold the actuator.
In order to take out the actuator, you need to unscrew the hexa-bolt which
holds the rail indicated ny an arrow below.
After removing the bolt you can move the lower part of the rail freely some and
you can take out the actuator barely. Holding the rail by your left hand to the
left as much as possible, grab the actuator by your right hand twisting and
rotating it, you can manage to pass through it . The space between the moved
rail and the inner side of the door is just the size of the actuator. So you need
some patience to succeed it. (This part is added on April 23, 2012)
Below are the removed and the disassembled actuator. The yellow one near
the top is the motor. Lower side photos are the disassembled motor. The carbon
bridges the two motor terminals and the resistance shows less than 1 ohm.
Blowing the compressed air to that point increased the resistance and I quickly
noticed that it caused the problem. Cleaning the bridge and other part using
alcohol was successful the motor run properly again.
I must add some more details about the motor. The motor showed the
resistance about 1.5 ohm to 2 ohm initially at the terminal. It was too
small for this type of mini-sized motor. If it were 1.5ohm, the current
would be 12v/1.5ohm=8A. This is too much and it would kill the motor.
But the motor has a positive Thermistor what we call a Posistor series
with the motor circuit and it limits the current. The bigger the current,
The bigger the resistance. The current heats up the Posister located
at the left part of the motor’s photo. The heat increases the internal
resistance of it and automatically it limits the current. Actually the
measured current was up to 0.14A when settled while DC12V was
applied to the motor.
I know there are many those who suffer this type of problem. Feel free to
comment this and I will reply you to answer it.
