Door lock trouble

[Ada7]

For a while now i\'ve been having problems with my door locks.

For some reason 1 morning they decided that they weren\'t going to work properly. They normally unlock on the alarm keyfob, but this didnt seem to work, and after about 10 minutes of getting annoyed with it, i found out that i had to unlock it as usual, then use the door key to turn the lock that little bit extra to open the door.

This is ok when trying to get into the car but the handle on the inside doesnt work fully either and i have to put the window down and reach out, and unlock the door from the outside, which as you can imagin is a bit embrassing if at a petrol station or somewhere!!

Anyone got any ideas whats gone wrong and how i can get it back to normal?? is it easy to get to the inside of the locks to have a look if anything has come loose?

Cheers

[Rich Cheung]

Take the door card off and have a look at the meachanism where the 2 cables run into the interior door handle. 1 cable operates the remote central locking, the other cable if you put the key in the lock and open it that way. One of your cables may have snapped or worked loose.

My remote central locking cable snapped and its now too short to reterminate. Reason I\'m bodging it is you can\'t buy the cable seperately and the whole mechanism and cable from Mazda is around 100.00+VAT IIRC.

Rich

[Rich Cheung]

Forgot to say door cards come off easy. 3 large screws and a 4th little one near your interior door handle (prise the little flap up and its under that). Ease door card out gently and undo the electrical contacts for your windows and mirror adjusters and then door card will come away completely.

Rich

[Ada7]

Thanks Rich. I\'ll have a look tomorrow.

I have been told it could be the actuator and that a new 1 from mazda would be approx £80 + labour to fit!!

I do no that the central locking is still working as it does move the switch on the inside handle a little, but not enough to open the lock up fully.

[Rich Cheung]

Good luck with it chap.

My internal switch on the door handle still moves when using the remote but the cable from the switch to the lock is the bit thats broken on mine. (hope that makes sense).

Rich

[gaz 7470]

i had exatley the same problem with the doorlocks and having to strech out the window .when i removed the door card and operated the locks you could see the cable where it goes into the block type thingy (tech term) was bowing out from the door drilled to small holes and secured it with a cable tie never played up since

[deanflowers]

disconnect it it from the lock barrel and see if the alarm works the central locking ok.

this worked for me and if the alarm dies i can still get in from the other side

[Ada7]

Thanks for all your help guys. Got the door card off today and had a look.

I found that the nuts on the small U shaped bolt, which held the 2 small metal bars from the actuator and door lock, had come loose. Tightened these up and now it works better then ever. Bit of a bugger getting the door card back on properly but got there in the end.

Probably saved be a small buddle of cash at the local Mazda dealer who suggested a new actuator was needed without even looking at it!! So a big CHEERS to you!