VE Commodore Central Locks Not Working

[Joelene]

Anyone else suddenly discovered that one of their doors hasn't locked after pressing the remote button?
Consider this for a simple fix even though it is yet again another design flaw during manufacture.
It seems the locks have insufficient grease when assembled and what happens is the grease ends up in little balls inside the lock mechanism. The workings then bind on each other and the lock seizes up.
Rather than spending $150 or so on a new lock simply pull the existing one out and pull it apart.
Get some grease and smear it in all over the moving parts and put it back together. Works like new.....

 

[kwaka738]

Anyone else suddenly discovered that one of their doors hasn't locked after pressing the remote button?

Yes. It's been happening very intermittently for about a year.

One of my back doors wouldn't lock about 10% of the time. Now it doesn't want to lock quite a bit but if I get in the car and help it (by pressing it with my finger), it works for a while before stuffing up again. I've been waiting for it to not work at all before I tackled it and was thinking it was probably going to be a new actuator but after reading your post I might give it a go and pull it out and grease it up.

There's a youtube video on how to get the actuator out of a VE series 2 front door so it should be a similar process to get my back door actuator out even though my car is a 2008 model (mine has the Alloytec motor).

Was there any trouble getting the actuator apart?
And what year was your Commodore?

Thanks

 

[Joelene]

My09 SSV V8

A little bit of fiddling to get the rear lock out. It was that which failed on mine. take off the three bolts holding the lock inside the door with a star tool. Use a screwdriver with the right blade size will also work inside the star socket.
Remove the trim. Make sure you find all the screws under the plastic caps inside the door lever and on the trim itself mounted to the door frame as well as around the perimeter. Give a sharp tug upwards on the trim and it should come away from the door. Also need to unclip the electric window button wiring from the trim.
Remove the lock and door levers
Unclip the electrical connector
Unclip the outside door lock lever from inside the door.
Manouvre the lock around until it comes out.
The lock mechanism has 4 or 5 standard screws. Just undo them on a bench, lift the cover and put standard grease on the works , reseal and install.

Works perfectly.

 

[MYVESSV8]

it's called a torx type screw/bolt/nut

 

[Muke]

Nice write-up. Might get around to doing it one day, it's only been dodgy for 2 or 3 years now. Thankfully mine locks fine (also rear door). Hardly ever unlocks first go unless I've just charged the battery (slightly higher success rate), though pressing the button a 2nd time (well 3 actually as I set up to only unlock the drivers door first press) always works. I've also gotten into the habit of locking it twice since that always works, even when the voltage is a little low. Not that I unlock it much. Really should fix it though before I get caught out one day where it doesn't lock & I don't realise. (Sadly I must admit to not even doing it when I had the door apart to fit speakers. Damn I can be lazy on some things). Mind you, I was also under the impression you couldn't open the lock easily to fix the door sensor, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to lube it properly anyway. So the idea of pulling it out and putting it back in the same condition meant the lazy voice won. This year may be the year to finally sort it out