It covers removal and repair of the locking mechanism, a common failure across the Ford range where the motor fails to drive the lock. This is characterised by one or more doors either failing to lock / unlock however on observation the interior handle will try and move.

First off you need to remove all 6 screws from the outer edge of the door card, the capped one behind the interior handle and the 2 hidden ones under the chrome trim on the pull handle. Wiggle free the interior handle trim and unplug the switch wiring, then lift up the door card and remove it.



Next is the plastic cap on the rear edge of the door through which you can see a bright silver bolt head. As you unscrew this bolt head gently pull the small rear section of the exterior handle away from the door. After a dozen or more turns the rear of the exterior handle will just pull off.



Once that's out the way you can simply pull off the rest of the exterior handle revealing the hidden bolt.



Undo the 3 bolts on the back edge below the plastic cap that holds the lock mechanism in place. Pull/peal back the foam liner and you will see the last fixing screw and the electrical connector that needs unplugging.



Now you can wiggle/pull/yank the lock mechanism free from inside the door. Pull it out so you can get to the white cable clip which needs to be free'd so the cable can be rotated to free it from the mechanism which can then be fully removed from the car.



With the lock free you can now dismantle it. Undo the 2 clips holding the plastic housing together and then release the red cable clip so you can spin the cable out of the lever.



Flip the unit over and remove the screw and the plastic cover trim



Flip the unit over again and you find these 2 larger screws. Unbolt them and the two halves can be separated, just take note of the metal plate and spring and guide them apart as you separate them.



Carefully remove the plastic lever by pulling it and possibly squeezing the black plastic lugs inside it, and remove the 4 retaining screws.



And CAREFULLY lift off the cover.



Remove the white plastic arm from the motor and you can then just lift up the motors. They're not soldered in they are press fit on to 2 metal tangs that supply the power to them



Once removed the motor's can have the end's removed by lifting up the securing tabs



And carefully pulling off the cap. You will then be able to see the brushes in the lid and the commutator on the motor shaft. Mine were rather dirty.



After good soaking in electrical contact cleaner and a wipe down they can clean up fairly well but I also cleared out the slots in the commutator with a scalpel and then buffed it with some 2000grit sand paper. Also gave the surfaces of the brushes a light rub with the 2000grit too.



I tried taking the smaller motor apart but it defeated me as the cog wouldn't come off the shaft. So with the lid removed as far up as I could get it I just drowned it in electrical cleaner and hoped for the best. But I think the smaller motor is the dead lock motor while the larger one is the actual lock/unlock motor.

Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly but be careful when lining up the sections and make sure the metal bar is against the spring correctly. Also make sure you attach any cables into the metal levers BEFORE replacing any cable securing clips.



and that the helper spring is also located correctly



When you go to re-fit the lock into the door, make sure the exterior handle lever is in the half way position by moving it to lock against the metal tab


 

Reconnect the cable to the lever before refitting the white clip, feed everything back into the door and locate the handle into the door skin making sure the locating tabs lock in place.



Refit all the bolts in the lock, plug it back in and before replacing the door card shut the door and test the lock works as expected and hopefully with the central locking now working.

When it's all good, replace the door card.

Before this fix you could see the lock buttons move a little but as you press the button on the fob and after this fix all the locks were working like new.


This article was originally written by MarkM from TalkFord and adapted and reproduced with permission to suit the Mk3 Galaxy / S-Max