Calling all door lock actuator experts!

[Vnyd Dog]

Greetings. Today while running errands I got the supernatural phantom door lock mode. The situation was returning to a locked van, tried the key in the passenger side and discovered a stuck lock. I couldn't turn the key. Oh great. Trotted around to the driver's side, unlocked with key, and then the locks went all poltergeist as they say. I jumped in and closed the door and was safely locked in. Gee, thanks.
Got home and searched thesamba and performed the actuator rehab. I pulled out the passenger side, disassembled, lubed checked it out. seemed ok. Tested it before reinstalling. Seemed to be working again! Success, right? No.
The actuator was reinstalled. I closed the door, and locked it. Nice and smooth now. All the doors locked! I thought I was a hero for a minute. Sure, I will have that second IPA. Call me Claus from now on. Anyway, I decided to check it from the driver's side. Shiza! Upon turning the key, it went and did the full phantom cycle again. When I close the door, it ends on whichever position I left the passenger side lock in. So if Passenger was unlocked and then I went to driver's side and keyed it, it would cycle and also end on unlock and vice-versa.

So here we are. What am I missing?
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'87 Westy 1.8T Conversion, Orignal Owner, European Delivery @ Westfalia factory in Weidenbrueck.
The Story:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713391&highlight=life

[jmranger]

Have you read GoWesty's article?
http://www.gowesty.com/tech-article-details.php?id=46

[Vnyd Dog]

[jmranger]

My guess is that the issue is still in your passenger door actuator - probably one of the contacts doesn't make contact.
Why?
- if you can control the driver door from the passenger door, wiring should be fine - the same wires are used in both directions
- I'm assuming that the whole system was working properly recently, so I doubt both front door actuators went bad at the same time.

I had to read some (I'm always forgetting how these work) and this thread seems to describe exactly the same issue as yours:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630137

[Vnyd Dog]

Interesting. Well, tonight I'll double check wiring in driver's door as well as see if the issues in the link above are the same. Then I guess I buy new actuator and go from there.
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'87 Westy 1.8T Conversion, Orignal Owner, European Delivery @ Westfalia factory in Weidenbrueck.
The Story:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713391&highlight=life

[dobryan]

And you could have some wire(s) that are internally broken and making intermittent contact after the door is opened and closed.... Lots of fun to trouble shoot.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[Vnyd Dog]

OK for anyone else that comes along with this issue, here's the deal. I had the exact same symptoms as the other post linked above. Locks had always worked then one day went all cray-cray as the kids say. The first teardown of the actuator improved things, but still had the issue with the driver's door. Failing to find any issues in the wiring, I removed the actuator again, full cleaning, lubing (lots of lube (dielectric grease) guys, lots), removed the springs and oiled them up and stretched them a bit since I couldn't find any pen springs to fit the holes, put her back together. Wouldn't you know it, problem solved for now. Honestly if I have to tear it down again I'll probably buy a new one. Granted replacing the actuator is already 90% of the door teardown, but messing with the internals etc is a small PITA. Thanks for the help on this forum! On to the next project. Swaybar upgrades and new springs!
_________________
'87 Westy 1.8T Conversion, Orignal Owner, European Delivery @ Westfalia factory in Weidenbrueck.
The Story:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713391&highlight=life

[Vnyd Dog]

Ok folks! New issue has arisen since fixing passenger side. The other day locking drivers side started causing a problem. Locking passenger side still working or so I thought. Anyway. I tried tearing and cleaning drivers side to no avail. The motor actually had water inside from all our monsoons. The symptoms weren't the phantom locking but rather just cycling once up and down back to whatever position it started in so I assumed with that, the water, and no signs of any wiring damage I needed a new actuator. The people at van-cafe had one to my door in literally a day not counting the Sunday I ordered it on. Sadly, after plugging it in, I still get same symptoms.

This led me to the other doors. Side quesrion as I can't recall from when she was new since I was like 8. When locking the sliding door with key, should it power lock the rest of vehicle?

Now to the rear hatch lock. What's this? Front doors are in the unlock position but the rear hatch is still locked? Strange. Using key in either position in rear does nothing. Can't get her open. I then lock the front doors and voila, rear hatch is now unlocked!

What gives? Bad rear hatch actuator? Why couldn't I unlock with key and how did it get out of sync with the rest of the doors?? Odd!
Help
_________________
'87 Westy 1.8T Conversion, Orignal Owner, European Delivery @ Westfalia factory in Weidenbrueck.
The Story:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713391&highlight=life

[candyman]

[Vnyd Dog]

[Vnyd Dog]

Also I have double-checked the three positions of the rear lock and even leaving the lock in vertical position it continues to lock and unlock out of sync.
_________________
'87 Westy 1.8T Conversion, Orignal Owner, European Delivery @ Westfalia factory in Weidenbrueck.
The Story:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=713391&highlight=life

[Snort]

[jonsonneborn]

Have you tested the continuity of the yellow & white wires in the 2 front doors? Each plug into the actuators & are accessible behind the dash (behind the glove compartment on 1 side & behind the fuse panel on the other). These 2 wires carry the 12v signal to the other actuators & if there connection is broken (typically in the rubber boot between the door & chassis) they will cause the system to go haywire; immediately lock after unlocking & vice versa. I was having this issue in my '89 & my friend Richard in his '87. Together we removed the wiring harness from each door on both vans & replaced multiple compromised wires (splices should always be done on either side of the rubber boot). The harness isn't too difficult to remove once you cut all of the zip ties. Once out it was fairly simple to disassemble & replace the compromised wires. After fixing I added keyless entry to mine! It's all be working great for the past 1.5 years since fixing.
_________________
Luna is a 1989 Vangaon Blue Star Edition with a 2.2L Subaru/Kennedy Conversion. I have grafted a donor Westfalia roof on & now she is a Westy!

[Vnyd Dog]

[tgraham]

[jalan]

After finding a new Eurovan actuator I found myself missing the connecting plug. Luckily I found a picture on line that showed the placement of the wires on the unit. They are from bottom to top, BR, R, Y, W.

Here is a photo that shows the wire colors and placement on the eurovan actuator. The colors are the same as on a vanagon harness. I found a cheap new actuator but didn't have the plug for it. You can use small female spade terminals or cut up std ones as I did. Cover them with shrink tubing.

Of course the van I am restoring had broken wires in both door harnesses. One side just a power mirror wire and on the drivers side the power to the actuator and a speaker wire. I found it was much easier to splice and thread new wires on the side where the rubber loom was already cut open. The first one I hit I used a stiff wire to thread a new wire through the loom. A real pain. Next time I will just cut open the loom as the breaks all seem to occur within a few inches of the door. That must be where they flex the most.

The actuators are actually pretty easy to clean up. Take a photo when you split the case so you can get it all back together correctly. Have done several of them and the problem is usually corrosion on the sliding contacts. Using a little dielectric grease on the contacts will help reduce future corrosion. A drop of light weight oil on the motor bearings and a dab of grease on the gear shaft will keep them spinning for another 30 years. I also stole the boot off the sliding door actuator as it was in much better shape. The slider actuator doesn't see much moisture or dust.

_________________
1989 Syncro Hardtop, 2.5 '07 Subaru
1991 Carat Hardtop
1995 High Top Eurovan Syncro

[Multiman mv]

I have similar problem. When I go to unlock from either passenger or drivers side door, locks go into poltergeist mode until I get in and close the door and then they finally stop in the locked position. I then have to unlock both doors at the same time by lifting both posts up simultaneously (my wife's arms are not long enough to do this and she literally has to climb out the sliding door.) This stops the cycle until next time. Total PITA but maybe a possible theft deterrent. Poltergeist mode could throw a potential thief off his game so I figure I'll live with it for a while until I have time to fully track down the problem. The guys at FAS told me that the problem was most likely a chafed wire in the passenger door and most likely inside the rubber sleeve where the wires exit the door.

[Zeitgeist 13]

Engaging full pimp mode:

Everyone with factory PDLs should just do themselves a favor and buy this kit, pronto.

https://www.a1electric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?...=W02F-712T

It replaces the problematic front door actuators AND hinky factory wiring to them. Just snake the supplied coated wiring loom through the door bellows and you'll never again have issues with breaks in the jamb. You can leave the factory actuators in the slider and hatch, since they rarely go bad, but you'll have the MES actuators in your stash to replace them when they do die. As a bonus in addition to far better Swiss made actuators and a bulletproof wiring loom, you'll also have remotes so your keys and door tumblers get less wear and tear.

I'm right around a decade on an earlier version of this kit.

The pimp has left the building.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH
'01 Weekender --> full camper
NEAT, no ICE.

[Californio]

What's the correct order of the wires for these actuators? I'm finding different results.

Jalan (above) says (from bottom of actuator) brown, red, yellow, white.
Buslab photo shows the same
GoWesty harness pic shows brown, yellow, white, red
Bentley seems to show brown, yellow, white, red

Anybody have the definite answer? It isn't really covered in Bentley because the originals had dedicated pigtails coming out.

[Californio]

Ok, partially answering my own question, Jalan's order (B,R,Y,W) works fine. However, it doesn't allow the keyless entry system to function, so I'm going to have to keep playing with it. To be continued...