I have a 03 Quad Cab Dakota with one problem: my rear door on the driver's side is not responding to the power lock switches and/or the remote. I can manually lock it, but no response is made when trying to use the power lock switch. I have taken the door panel off before checking to make sure the rod mechanism itself isnt broken (this happened on my driver door about 3 months ago, but i was unable to even lock the door manually then... yikes!). Nothing seemingly has turned up. Obviously I'm inclined to think it's something electrical. Any ideas or similar problems?

 

All the doors share a common lock output from the Central Timer Module and the driver door has a unique dedicated unlock output from the CTM to enable the driver door only unlock feature from the keyless entry. If the rear door is the only one not working correctly it most likely is a defective or shorted door lock actuator in that door. You can test the actuator by removing the door panel and the moisture barrierand disconnecting the 2-wire connector for the actuator. Then apply 12 volts + and ground from the truck battery, a 12volt or higher voltagecordless drill battery, etc.to the 2 terminals on theplug sidegoing to the actuator. The motor should move in one direction then move in the opposite direction when you reverse the power and groundtest leads at the plug. If thelock does not workin both directions the actuator is shorted. If you do have a shorted actuator, Dodge only sells the entire door latch/actuator assembly. You might try an aftermarket2-wire door lock actuator and mount it in the bottom of the door and attach it to the door lock rod. You might be able to unclip the OEM actuator rod from the bottom side of the lock assembly and bend the rod on the end of theaftermarket motor to attach it to the hole in the bottom of the latch on thedoor lock assembly, then just wire the 2 wires that went to the OEM actuator to the new one. If it operates backwards just reverse the connections. I added door lock actuators to my own Dakotaand attached themby bending the rods into holes inthe OE lock mechanism andhave had no problems with themin nearly 3 years. My truck did not have OEM electric locks though. Theactuators are interfaced with an aftermarket alarm.I mention the aftermarket actuators herebecause they will be much less expensive than the OE latch/actuator assembly. You should be able to get an aftermarket actuator for about $20 to maybe $30 at any car audio/security shop, Best Buy, Circuit City etc. I even saw them on the shelf at Pep Boys the other day but I don't remember the price. I think they were about $10 or $12 there.

 

Wow, thanks for the response man! I'll definately give this all a shot on my day off this week! Hopefully i can get to the bottom of things now; if not, i can at least still manually work the door, so security isn't a huge concern.

 

No problem. The only other thing is if the actuator tests OK then you will need to trace the wiring back to the CTM. The CTM is in the driver's kick panel.The wires may be broken orshorted somewhere. It's not very likely but I have seen it happena few times before.Let us know what you find out.