How To Replace Door Lock Actuator 1999-2010 Ford Ranger

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Brought to you by 1aauto.com your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Hi I'm Mike Green, I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus years of experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this, to show you the correct way to install parts from 1aauto.com. The right parts, installed correctly, that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video. In this video we're going to be replacing a door lock actuator in this '04 Ford Ranger with power door locks.

Okay so tools you'll need; 8mm wrench to disconnect the battery, Phillips screwdriver, flat blade screwdriver to get the door panel apart, flash light, and mirror. Once you get inside the door, this is kind of blind replacement, so highly recommend you have a flashlight and a little mirror that you can adjust, so you can kind of see what I say when I'm giving you some of the tips and stuff. And then a small flat blade screwdriver.

So first thing you'll want to do is disconnect your negative battery cable. Start by removing 2 screws that are right down here, under the door panel, they're both Phillips screws. Depending on year and options, these screws might be from above on the door pull. Once we remove those screws, we actually just pull on this panel, and it snaps in at the top, so just gently give it a bit of a tug. See that there's clips up here and 1 down here that will hold it. Now you'll actually want to, push all these switches through. They all have little thumb tabs, to push on, come through. This mirror switch, use a little screwdriver, work it in there, pull it off. Feed that harness back through, push that switch through, push back the lock switch. Push it through, use your screwdriver, work it in and put the harness straight through.

Power window switch has a couple of screws on it, I would take them off before I feed the switch through, it's just a little easier. Power window switch here, push it down, push that tab down. Once you have the window switch through, you just want to pop this bezel off, which is just on the top of the bottom. Got to pry up like that, and pry it like that. That bezel comes off, and you can feed that through the panel, that's off. Now you want to remove 2 more screws, 1 here and 1 down here. Once those screws are out, you just lift up on the panel, lift it up over the door lock here, then it comes off. On the backside it just has a bunch of hooks, that hook into the door.

Okay, to access the inside of the door, you'll need to remove this shield. Just do it very carefully, 'cause this protects your door panel and stuff from getting water in it. Okay, I have the screwdriver out. Now here's my door lock actuator actually. See right there, there's my connector. Take my little screwdriver here, and pry out and remove it. There's my door lock actuator.

Here's the actuator out of the car. The easiest way to get it out is to understand how it's held in there. It's actually just held to a bracket, basically on this side. There is a bracket that goes in here. It's a little curve down that comes off. It's like a little tooth that comes down.

Here in the door, you can see I'm holding a little mirror to show you, and if you look in the mirror in the top middle section of the mirror, you'll see that little metal bracket. Then just to the right of that is the little hole that's actually in the actuator. So you're looking at the actuator and that metal bracket inside the door. Then there's also another little tooth where this just locks it into. Basically, imagine that this screwdriver is that bracket. You push it in, and then it just locks like that.

Okay, so what you need to do is take your screwdriver, get it in there, and push this down to unlock it. Then you kind of work it, and you work it right off the bracket. Okay, so what we're looking at here is I've just kind of tilted that mirror down some. If you look below the mirror, you'll see the handle of the screwdriver. You can also to the left, you can see the actuator. If you look in the mirror, you can see that I have the screwdriver placed in the right spot, so I can then pry on that tab, to release it from the door.

Now the door lock actuator mounts in like this, and it pushes in. Reinstall, and I'm going to actually hook my harness back on. Okay, so I've got my actuator. What I want to do is kind of push it this way, and around this window channel here. So you want to make sure you can see right here, this is my harness, that it gets on the other side. There's my connector. Make sure they get on the other side of this window channel. Push it back against the bracket. Also, what I do is I pull this up, and I pull the arm. You can reach in the back and pull the arm of the lock actuator up, so you're in the same basic place.

Basically, I'm just feeling for that bent part of that bracket with my finger. Place the actuator through here. Push it back against - that feels like it's in, back in. It's all set.

Okay, just to keep things short, I'm going to kind of fast forward putting the door panel back together. If you want to see this in regular motion, just check out our other videos for the Ranger door panel. You can probably figure it out enough by having taken it apart, and watching this. This lock actuator, it's not that difficult, but it is kind of blind replacement. But hopefully I gave you enough to go. It really helps if you have a flashlight and a mirror, to be able to see in there and kind of see what's going on, and understand from the tips that I give you. But other than that, I hope this helps you out, and thank you.

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