Thought I would share a small triumph in fixing a drivers door lock actuator going bad. It would barely or not move the lock on the door when using the remote or electric door switch. Cheapest module was $168 online.
I motor is in a sealed plastic unit, and I figured I have nothing to lose opening it. Carefully prying I was able to break the seam along the length of the case. Care must be taken when seperating the halves since there is a small contact that could fall out. What I found was a smoked motor. By chance there are a ton of these "Door Actuator Repair" motors on ebay. The oem motor has a shaft that goes the length of the gear. No such motor found, but there was one with a 20mm shaft that goes 50% of the way and I gambled $6 to try it out. The new motor came, and the contacts and dimensions fit almost perfectly. The only variance was the rear of the motor shaft on the OEM is flush, while the generic was about 1mm. A quick trim with a knife took care of the interference. When putting the case back together, I did not have a plastic welder or glue, so I drilled holes through in two places and used zip ties. After installation, everything worked like new. I plan to buy another motor just in case the passenger door motor fails. For $6 it was a bargain. Here is a picture of the stock oem motor that came out, and the two halves of the box it came from. The link is the ebay motor I used. Its stupid that Mazda has to sell you the entire door latch, and lock box together, since they come apart with only 4 screws.
https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)
2007 Mazda5
I motor is in a sealed plastic unit, and I figured I have nothing to lose opening it. Carefully prying I was able to break the seam along the length of the case. Care must be taken when seperating the halves since there is a small contact that could fall out. What I found was a smoked motor. By chance there are a ton of these "Door Actuator Repair" motors on ebay. The oem motor has a shaft that goes the length of the gear. No such motor found, but there was one with a 20mm shaft that goes 50% of the way and I gambled $6 to try it out. The new motor came, and the contacts and dimensions fit almost perfectly. The only variance was the rear of the motor shaft on the OEM is flush, while the generic was about 1mm. A quick trim with a knife took care of the interference. When putting the case back together, I did not have a plastic welder or glue, so I drilled holes through in two places and used zip ties. After installation, everything worked like new. I plan to buy another motor just in case the passenger door motor fails. For $6 it was a bargain. Here is a picture of the stock oem motor that came out, and the two halves of the box it came from. The link is the ebay motor I used. Its stupid that Mazda has to sell you the entire door latch, and lock box together, since they come apart with only 4 screws.
https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)
2007 Mazda5