Door Lock Solenoids - Small win :D
Discussion
Hey guys,
Just had a small (albeit very satisfying) win today and thought I'd share since this is a common problem and others may find it useful.
My passenger side door started failing to lock properly a few weeks ago and as some of you will know it beeps 4 times at you to let you know it hasn't locked properly... (while this is useful, it could have been a tad more subtle!!)
Anyway, I took the door card off to investigate the other day and (after spending ages figuring out how to get the mechanism free from the door) found that the mechanism was working fine (not jammed/siezed etc) but that the solenoid was struggling a bit.
I'd been looking around at replacements and they seemed to come in at anywhere between 70 and 120 quid!! So in the end I took a gamble and ordered a used solenoid from the rear driver's side of an omega (the part numbers didn't quite match but it looked almost identical and since it was only £12 I decided it was worth a shot.
The unit is the exactly the same apart from the bit at the top which interfaces with the mechanism (but this bit can be easily swapped with the original) and the connector pins (there were only three where the original had six).
Fitted it today and it works a treat!
(I've yet to find out what difference the missing pins will make... i thought loss of some functionality maybe, but i managed to set off the alarm with it (as a test) and it seems to behave as normal locking the car doors individually and together)
TLDR: Omega rear door solenoids seem to work fine as replacement for faulty passenger door solenoids
Just had a small (albeit very satisfying) win today and thought I'd share since this is a common problem and others may find it useful.
My passenger side door started failing to lock properly a few weeks ago and as some of you will know it beeps 4 times at you to let you know it hasn't locked properly... (while this is useful, it could have been a tad more subtle!!)
Anyway, I took the door card off to investigate the other day and (after spending ages figuring out how to get the mechanism free from the door) found that the mechanism was working fine (not jammed/siezed etc) but that the solenoid was struggling a bit.
I'd been looking around at replacements and they seemed to come in at anywhere between 70 and 120 quid!! So in the end I took a gamble and ordered a used solenoid from the rear driver's side of an omega (the part numbers didn't quite match but it looked almost identical and since it was only £12 I decided it was worth a shot.
The unit is the exactly the same apart from the bit at the top which interfaces with the mechanism (but this bit can be easily swapped with the original) and the connector pins (there were only three where the original had six).
Fitted it today and it works a treat!
(I've yet to find out what difference the missing pins will make... i thought loss of some functionality maybe, but i managed to set off the alarm with it (as a test) and it seems to behave as normal locking the car doors individually and together)TLDR: Omega rear door solenoids seem to work fine as replacement for faulty passenger door solenoids
L2VXR said:
I did come across that post while I was hunting and I'm glad I did as I wasn't aware they had updated the part numbers! It was when I was searching for the latest part number that I came across the one I bought (which was 90493703). Since it had '03' at the end rather than '02' I thought there was a chance it might not work but the gamble has paid off It's been bugging me for weeks so once I'd fixed it, I was stood locking and unlocking the car with a big grin slapped on my face!
dsmith1990 said:
Great saving OP, wish I'd thought of this. Had to replace the passenger side on mine couple years back and just did the drivers side 2-3 months ago. Lots of choice words getting the units in and out!
Haha thanks mate. I bet I chose some of the same words trying to get that mechanism out!! What a real PITA that was!! Not so bad now that I know how to do it though 
Speaking of which, there's a very useful guide on here somewhere that I used for taking the door card off I'll post a link to it on here later
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