2007 - Need to Replace All Door Lock Actuators

[ctgriffi]

Hi, I'm brand new to the forum, and am hoping to benefit from the knowledge and experience here. I appreciate any help you can offer.

While I'm not a CRV owner (love Hondas, though—I've got an 01 Accord and a 76 CB200T), my boss owns one, and I'm here to get help for her 2007 CRV EX AWD.

Situation:
She bought this car brand new and has taken great care of it—all the scheduled maintenance at the dealer, low miles, very clean, and no accidents. About a year ago, the locks started clicking off an on spontaneously. She lived with the problem/annoyance until this week when both the front-passenger door and the rear hatch locked shut and refused to open. At this point, neither of those doors will open at all—manually or otherwise, which is very inconvenient, not mention a safety hazard.

Dealer told her that all actuators should be replaced (since they'll all go bad sooner or later), and that would be $850+tax, thank you very much. I heard about this at the office, and it made me very angry. I don't doubt that parts/labor cost for this repair are significant, but door lock actuators should NOT be falling apart on a five year-old, lightly-used Honda. People buy these cars because they're engineered well and have a great reputation for quality and reliability; I think Honda can and should do better than this.

Cut to the chase: I've ordered the parts online from HondaPartsNow.com, and I'm going to do the job myself during the upcoming holiday break. I've done a lot of repair work and am not worried about removing door panels, swapping out actuators and such. What I do need is some pointers on this problem: how do I go about getting the front-passenger door and rear hatch to open at all so I can pull the panels and get access to the actuators?

[ctgriffi]

I'm starting this job tomorrow...anybody got any suggestions for the "jammed" doors? Anything at all?

Thank you!

[downunder47]

I'm starting this job tomorrow...anybody got any suggestions for the "jammed" doors? Anything at all?

Thank you!

Had an '98 hatchback with driver's latch frozen. Dealer said they had to remove the seat to get the door-panel off, and that they might have to do serious damage to it in the process. I had to agree not to hold them liable for a new panel if they destroyed it. Got lucky. They must have been very careful because it had only a few minor dings on the very front which you wouldn't see unless looking for them. $258 total about 7 years ago. Some other dealers quoted $350 to $650 range.

I looked at the Shop Manual and getting the panels off looks pretty much typical except no mention how to do it if the door won't open.

Sorry I cannot be more help.

47

[ctgriffi]

Got the front door actuators replaced...so, two down—three to go.

I started with the driver's side door, which wasn't too bad a job, and it gave a me a chance to get familiar with the mechanics of the locking system. Next, I worked on the passenger front door, which had me worried since it was jammed and wouldn't open at all. I had to remove the passenger front seat (laid it down in the back) and then carefully work the interior panel loose, without scraping and/or cracking anything. This is not an easy job...but it is possible.

Once I had that panel free, I was able to get access to the actuator, although I'm darned if I can really explain how I finally got the thing to open: Basically, I kept working the latch and lock cables back and forth while also beating (hard) in the vicinity of the actuator with the palm of my hand. Finally, it just came loose and the door swung open—yes, a very nice moment, indeed.

Tomorrow, I'm going to tackle the L/R rear doors, which should be a piece of cake (relatively speaking). Then, Sunday afternoon I'll turn my attention to the jammed tailgate; I definitely could use some help on that, if anybody's done it before!

[johnnym]

Glad I found this. I have a 2007 CR-V and I'm pretty convinced my driver door actuator is bad. The lock is "sluggish" and the doors are constantly trying to lock while I'm driving unless I manually lock the driver door. I can only get in it with the key as well, the remote won't unlock the driver door. Amazed that I have this issue (and the joystick of my NAV is faulty) in a 2007 that has under 50k miles on it!!!

Anyway, could you help me locate the correct parts on the hondapartsnow site? I can't seem to find them. I found these on another site but I'd rather buy the Honda parts if possible. http://www.jcwhitney.com/2007-2008-h...07-2008j1.jcwx

Any tips on how to get at the driver door actuator? Is there a picture guide or video somewhere? I am pretty handy but don't have a lot of automotive experience. The most I have done on a car is a sat radio install on my wife's Prius.

[ctgriffi]

Hey Johnny,

I ordered all five actuators from HondaPartsNow.com, and I think their prices/shipping were reasonable. I would recommend them. Driver's side front door actuator is PN# 72150-SWA-A01. (You can look at the parts diagrams on their site to verify.)

I couldn't find an exact tutorial or video out there, but this youtube video was somewhat helpful...I figured out the rest myself.

Note: Most of the job just requires a Philips screwdriver, a small flat-head (for prying trim covers), and a socket set for the 10mm bolts. But, the three large Philips head screws that secure the actuator to the end of the door were very tight on this CRV. I had to use an old-time impact screwdriver to loosen them—the kind where you whack the end of the tool with a big hammer to twist the screw out. Click here for example.

Lastly, I had quite a bit of trouble with this task: The actuator has a metal arm that reaches up to connect with the exterior handle mechanism, and that "arm" was pretty difficult to disconnect at the top. Basically, you need to swivel away the little plastic retainer that holds the top of the arm in place, and then just force the arm out of position with a long, flat-blade screwdriver. I couldn't find a good way to finesse it out—just had to be pretty rough with it, levering it out until it popped loose.

[downunder47]

Tomorrow, I'm going to tackle the L/R rear doors, which should be a piece of cake (relatively speaking). Then, Sunday afternoon I'll turn my attention to the jammed tailgate; I definitely could use some help on that, if anybody's done it before!

The Tailgate can be opened manually. From page 93 of 2007 Owners Manual;

[johnnym]

Thanks for the info. I am pretty concerned that I'm biting off more than I can chew with this one and your saying you had quite a bit of trouble with it just leads me to think that I'm best off letting the shop do this one. I have enough other projects that I can screw up without having big consequences like a car door half off!

[ctgriffi]

Thanks for posting that illustration, downunder47; I really appreciate the help!

Actually, the tailgate miraculously (?) opened today, but I may need that information anyway, in case it freezes up again before I change the actuator.

I'm starting to wonder if replacing the front door actuators could've had some kind of positive effect on that tailgate problem—since they're all part of the networked computer brain that controls modern vehicles.

Anyway...status update: I replaced the R/L rear door actuators this morning; each one took about an hour. Tomorrow, I hope to do the tailgate and be completely finished!

[ctgriffi]

Change of plans...I got all the trim panels off the inside of the tailgate, and then realized that the bolts holding the tailgate actuator in place required a 6mm allen wrench. After procuring the correct wrench, I discovered that those things are on there really tight! You would probably need some kind of impact wrench, driving a socket with a 6mm allen head—even then, it would be hard to remove these without ruining the head of the bolts.

So, I decided to call it quits on the tailgate and put the trim panels back, since it seems to be locking/unlocking just fine now anyway. I'll tell my boss (the owner) to hold onto that new actuator in case it's ever needed. Good enough. Done.