Thanks, old post but this is still right on! Worked for me..

 

Different car (diamante) but the problem is so similar that I hauled off and ebayed a new actuator and also noted the swap idea and will disect and see if it's the same thing. Will pass along how it goes.

 

Thanks great right up!. My bumpers where both totally destroyer so I used some hot glue the press in their and make my own. Took a picture of the inside of the actuator to help contribute. When I tested it I got one bounce back but it is surely better. Unplugged it again to test that the others are good and they were.

Not sure if I will have to buy a new actuator, but at least I have the knowledge now of what EXACTLY is going on. THANKS!
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When I unlock my doors they instantly re-lock. Another symptom I have is my doors do not lock when I put it in drive or unlock when I put it in park. This started the same time as the auto re-lock problem. Did this happen to you? Thanks

 

Hey G-Mon, thanks for the postive feedback on my fix and for the helpful photos. Glad it worked for you.

Mountain Arrow - as for your question, Montero's like mine do not have the lock-while-in-Drive feature so I can't help with that. Good luck on finding a solution.

Ron

 

jrmdir-
Thanks for the reply to my question. I have had my 1995 Montero LS for 15 years and plan to keep it for 15 more.
I am excited to check out my lock motor bumpers.

 

One of the bumpers on my driver side lock motor was smashed and the other one was like new. I took your suggestion and switched the bumbers and now my locks work perfectly. I think the unused bumper has earned the name Spare Bumper.
I love this fix not just because it is free and easy but because it uses no new resources. It is fun to be able utilize your detective and engineering time and skills.

 

Thank you JRMDIR for the detailed correction of this problem. I've had my 1997 Montero (full-size) for almost 2 years now. My door locks have been crazy since the day I bought it. I found your posting and fixed the problem. My symptoms were a bit different; you could use the drivers key in the Left/Drivers door, turn it twice and all doors unlocked correctly but if you used the drivers door switch they wouldn't unlock rather, lock and if you got lucky upon numerous attempts the door might actually unlock. If I used the key in the Right/Passenger side turn twice to unlock all the locks would act all crazy and unlock then relock right away (same thing using the passenger door lock button). Well I took your advice and tried this myself.

1st removing the door panel is EASY, remove the two bolts in the door handle and screen in the inside door handle, take out the two door panel clips closest to the mirror (be careful because these break easy but don't play a major role in holding the door panel on). I then pulled the door panel off from the lower outer corner, a putty knife was not necessary and pulled away easily, then lift up to unsnap the window molding clips. I couldn't believe how easy this was. Once removed unplug the door window/lock switch and door light wiring clips.

I did the passenger door first thinking this actuator was faulty due to the locks acting crazy with or without the key, that was not the case. When I removed the drivers door panel and unplugged the actuator the problem when away, all doors function correct with the exception of the drivers side. So I left it this way until I could find a replacement actuator.

For $50.00 (just as jrmdir said), I found a used one online at a salvage yard. When it arrived it came with the entire locking unit and the actuator. I removed the actuator from the lock unit.

I then removed the drivers door panel again, takes less than 5 minutes. There's two bolts fastening the actuator to the door, use a socket not a Phillips screw driver, you need the force of the socket wrench (I think it was 11mm or 12mm head). Once I removed the actuator bolts I was able to unclip the locking rod from the actuator clip; note I did not remove the clip from the actuator just the rod. Removed the old actuator and replaced it with the used one. After installing, I plugged in just the window/door lock switch to verify my crazy door lock issue was fixed; which it was. I did however notice after two weeks being on my Montero the doors starting acting funny again but not crazy. So I'm assuming the used actuator is starting to go bad. BUT it works much better than my previous actuator and works the majority of the time.

I re-installed the the door panel and plan on rebuilding the old actuator. Once you've done this once the next time will be even easier. I couldn't believe how simple this was.

Thanks again JRMDIR on this post; it helped me and hopefully others who are keeping their Mighty Montero's from the wrecking yard. Mine has 146,000 miles and took me quite awhile to find it when I was searching for a Montero.

 

Thanks for the excellent description of the problem! On my '96 Montero, when I opened the driver's actuator, I found BOTH bumpers had degraded to the consistency of the "tar" used to hold the door vapor barrier on! I pulled the right front actuator apart, hoping to use the "spare" in there and found both of them in the same condition. I then cut some rubber pieces from a piece I had, which seemed to work fine, but the super glue came loose on the passenger side after 1/2 hour. Im thinking of putting a blob of silicone in and trimming it to fit after it cures, any thoughts? By the way, "Natalie" (my gf names all her cars) is running fine and doing some serious off-roading at 290,000 miles

 

Thank you for the information on how to test and repair the door locks. We will try this this weekend.

My Montero is a 1998. I love this vehicle and want to continue driving in it forever. Accidentally closing the doors and the doors automatically locking has been so frustrating. Can't wait to see if this works.
The doors except passenger front do open with the key. Passenger side doesn't budge. Any ideas for this issue? Maybe it will repair itself when the auto lock problem is fixed or maybe just a little dry lubricant in the lock might work too.

I have a rear passenger window that goes down fine but goes up slowly while car is moving but stopped barely moves and sometimes manual assistance is needed. Everything else is good.