Expert: Roland Finston - 10/27/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi Roland,
  Recently my power lock for my drivers side slide door will not work (either with remote, from inside car or manually) for my 2002 Town and Country.  I did a little research and tried to take out the IOD fuse for a few minutes, but this did not work.  Any suggestions??  Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Peggy,
I suspect one of the wires from the body computer that goes through the door hinge to the door lock actuator has fatigued and 'opened' so it is no longer continuous along the pathway. This is this is more likely the case if the passenger door lock is working correcctly. There is a 14-wire disconnect that is black in color located at the hinge in the lower area and one half of it appears to be located in the front side hole in the frame opening, and you mauy see both halves at that point. The wires that power the lock are white pink on pin 8 and violet/green on pin 2, while a black/light green wire goes to a ground after passing through pin 3. One of those three wires is broken, I believe and if you have an ohmmeter or continuity tester you could determine which by piercing through the insulation at the farthest separation points you can access of each of the three wires. Once you find it, you can reconnect the broken pieces and slide a piece of plastic tubing over the splice if you thread it on ro one of the two pieces before making the splice.
If the wires seem to be good, then the actuator may have failed and I will then tell you how to get inside the door to replace it.
Roland
PS Please 'rate' my answer and consider a nomination for me to be 'volunteer of the month'. Thank you.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you.  Is there a reference I can go to to get a visual of where to find the wires?

Answer
Hi Peggy,
Yes, I can show a figure of that door area wiring to you.
If you will ask me a NEW question in which you check the box that says to keep the question PRIVATE then you can tell me your email address in the text area of the question so that I can then send you a page from the manual which I have on a CD as an attachment to such an email. If you don't make it PRIVATE then it will be automatically edited out of the text of your question. So please do that as it is the only way I can get access to that email address, as the Allexpert site doesn't show it to me as a routine matter.
Roland

Hi Peggy,
If you find your way to the collection of wires at that hinge area you may be able to flex each of the three that I mentioned to sense by touch that the wire is broken. Or better if you have a volt-ohm meter you could, through elimiantion test of each wire,  detect the one that is broken by simply putting a pin through the insulation and see which one is not showing the voltage or resistance that it is supposed to show, then that would be the one to separate and splice together anew. Let me know if you want the drawing and instruction on what each wire should show with a meter reading. It isn't 'rocket science'.
Roland