Under The Hood: Tinkering Could Fix Lexus Door Locks - The Ledger
I took the car to a mechanic, and he wanted more than $500 to change the master sensor, located on the driver-side door, to correct the problem. A: Ralph, it sounds like your Lexus is suffering from a faulty driver's door power door lock actuator. This part is a small reversible electric motor that pushes and pulls on the door latch's locking mechanism and is unfortunately integrated into a very expensive door latch/lock/actuator assembly ($354 list price, available online for about $250).... While researching your situation, I stumbled across a few folks who also had balked at the price of the Lexus part and, with a little home engineering, grafted a $5 universal door-lock actuator motor to the Lexus latch, and voila. The folks who retrofitted their Lexus left the original actuator in place and connected a push rod from the latch to the new actuator (bracket and push rod are included with the part). This requires some head-scratching and a few holes to be drilled to mount the new part within the door. The two wires connected to the original actuator are transferred to the replacement unit — reverse them as needed for correct actuator direction — and the new actuator pushes/pulls the intact original assembly lever with moderate ease. Source: www.theledger.com
