96 Town & Country door locks

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Mark Erickson, Aug 25, 2003.

  1. Hi,

    I have a 96 Town & Country with one door lock that has failed (stuck) and
    another on the way. I looked back through our receipts and a total of
    seven door lock actuators have already been replaced, 5 under warranty.
    What is the deal with the part? Is it designed to fail prematurely or
    is something causing them to fail in all 4 doors?

    The dealer is unwilling to help - they act like the fact that the last
    one was replaced over a year ago is some monument to reliability. Is
    there someone I can contact at Chrysler to see if they can help resolve
    the problem?

    Also, does anyone know if this is easy to replace? If so, any help on
    how to get the door panels off w/o destroying everything would be
    appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Mark
     
    Mark Erickson, Aug 25, 2003
    #1
  2. Interesting. My 96 GC still has the orginal door locks and they all
    work fine. The van has 136K miles so it isn't like they haven't been used.

    Matt
     
    Matthew S. Whiting, Aug 25, 2003
    #2
  3. Mark Erickson

    Mike Martin Guest

    My 96 has 210000 km's. All still working fine. I'm pretty sure there is a
    TSB out for the lock actuators though. I don't have the details available.
     
    Mike Martin, Aug 26, 2003
    #3
  4. Mark Erickson

    beemer Guest

    My 96 GC had one sliding door lock actuator replaced early on under
    warranty. My recollection is that it was just making an odd whirring
    noise and not lock/unlock-ing the door. For a few years now, the
    drivers door doesn't always lock on the first attempt. It often
    requires unlocking and relocking a couple of times before the lock
    button will go down.
     
    beemer, Aug 26, 2003
    #4
  5. Mark Erickson

    Terry Guest

    Mine have "whined" for quite a while....sometimes they dont even work,then
    start again.

    I had one totally jam on me (the dirver side sliding door). I purchased the
    new part for like $60 and replaced it myself. It was not easy, you had to
    take quite a bit apart to replate it.

    The dealership tried to make me buy the whole door lock assembly for aournd
    $300, but I finally convinced them that that was crazy and they "found" in
    the computer they were "allowed" to sell just the actuator. Lucky me eh??

    Anway - if you are pretty handy you can do it yourself.
     
    Terry, Aug 28, 2003
    #5
  6. Mark Erickson

    mic canic Guest

    the reason for the 300 .oo part was the revised designed lock assembly that
    made tha lock motor work less
     
    mic canic, Sep 1, 2003
    #6
  7. Thanks Terry. I have the door panel off and I can tell that the
    actuator is "stuck". I don't see an easy way to remove the actuator -
    it looks like it may be attached from the back. Do I have to
    remove the entire door lock assembly (looks like 3 bolts holding
    it in place) to get at the actuator's mounting bolts/screws?

    Mark
     
    Mark Erickson, Sep 2, 2003
    #7
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