Passenger door lock doesn't work.... sometimes!
 

Howdy,

So 2 possibly related issues crept up last week. Searched around and while there are similar issues, didn't find anything quite the same. I was hoping you guys could help with the troubleshooting.

- the passenger side lock *sometimes* doesn't respond to either the remote fob or the power lock button in the car. This goes for lock and unlock actions. Usually when I first enter the car it will permit me a movement or two (say unlock and lock), and then it will stop responding. I can still hear the relay click in the door, but it doesn't move the lock lever. If I move the lock toggle manually, the door locks and unlocks as expected.

- a couple of days after I noticed this, my remote keyfob (Visteon remote that came with the car back in 04) slowly stopped working. It would take a longer and longer press of the button to lock/unlock the car, and after a few days it died completely. So no problem, says I, get a new battery, slap it in. No joy. Followed this reprogramming procedure: . No Joy.

Any thoughts before I go taking apart the door bit by bit?

Loki,

I had this issue a little while back. Turns out the keyfobs for our 04's are complete junk. After they die, their most likely dead. I've tried replacing the battery a few times and reprogramming it several, it never worked.

My suggestion is to remove the headache and just order a flip key fob. Honestly if you call Paul at Mazmart, he more than likely has one.(thats where i got mine)

As for the door not unlocking even with the lock/unlock button in the car, i have heard of this im not exactly sure so i'll have to do a bit of research and i'll post again.

Cool, I'll give Paul a call. I didn't realize all these things were cross-compatible. Thanks!!

For the door, yeah I've heard of complete lock failures, but not this. I tried disconnecting the battery with no result. Going out to start taking the door apart now :)

My key fob works great(trunk opens every tome and i hear the doors click) but i have the exact same door problem.

It started withy the passenger sometimes then progressed to it never works. Then the driver door did the same thing and only sometimes very seldom works.

Ive searched a bit but never found the answer. Im thinking that the electric actuator is just not workin g right anymore

So after a bit of searching and a bit of digging in my own door, it sounds like this is not unheard of... in particular this thread:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...r-lock-167377/

I don't think it's an electrical problem because I can "fix" it with the door apart by tugging on the actuator cable as follows : if it's in the locked position, push it into the door to be even more in the locked position. It will then power unlock or at least make an effort 9 times out of 10.

From reading this...( especially 3rd pic in the last post)

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...r-lock-204167/

It looks like the lock motor relies on circular contact tracks to actuate in the right direction. I had this problem with a set of power folding mirrors (another car), where those tracks wore out in places where the contact vibrated against them. Suspect this could be similar, because what I'm doing by pushing the closed lock even more into "Closed" is pushing the wheel into a virgin area of contact track. If that's the case, it's an easy-ish fix, you can build and solder your own track pad from copper tape.

It got too dark out today, but I'll get an early start one of these days and disassemble my own motor to see if this fixes it. Alternatively, a new motor assembly should fix it :D
It's a PITA to get to, have to disassembled the entire door :/

Update since seems like I'm not the only one with this issue. So I removed and dissected the lock actuator box and it does look like that's the problem. There was a lot of gunk (dielectric grease with dark stuff in it) on the contact pads, and the pads had fairly deep groves where the contacts pass. So cleaned those off and bent the contacts a bit more to make firmer contact with the pads and -- good news-- the actuator seems to do a full cycle repeatedly on a test bench.

I think I screwed up putting it back into the door though, because while the motor turns, the door doesn't lock/unlock any more. Tip if you do this: take the whole lock assembly out of the door so you can see what you're doing when putting it back together.

I just tried pulling my driver one apart and could not get it to work any better.