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Hi all,

As topic says, when i lock my car with the remote central thing it will lock the passenger side but it doesnt lock the drivers side door. When i look in the window i can see the passenger side lock ( the slide moes about 2cm towards the back of the car) and when i look at the drivers side the lock moves but only a tiny ammount (4-5mm). If i lock the drivers side by opeing the dopor pushing the slider then closing the door and holding handle out it will lock both doors and same with the key. the door will unlock using the remote. Ive tried spraying WD40 into the lock and where the slide is but no dice, anyone have some ideas? im not keen in trying to take the door apart or anything if it comes to that ill pay to get it looked at. I have a '90 NA6 with a Stinger locking system. Thanks for any advice, i miss my poor car cant drive it atm due to an unlucky rock to the windscreen

Mate don't be afraid to take the door skin off.
All you have to do is unscrew a few screws on the handle and latch and you simply pull it off as it's attached to the door frame via snap pins (or whatever you call them).
I had the same problem and it was a simple fix. The slider that connects the central locking mechanism to the lock came loose.

The central locking actuator works fine, but it simply has nothing to grab on to, hence it won't lock/unlock.

All that was needed was to tighten the 2 screws on the \"C\" clamp connecting the lock slider and actuator.

It's a little tricky to explain but just trust me, take your door-skin off and you will see how simple it is to fix.

Hopefully.

Ok thanks i might have a look about for a picture guide on how to take it off then have a shot at it. ill let you know how i go!

Good

When it comes to pulling it off the door frame, take it slow and steady and locate where each pin is so you can apply pulling force as close to the pin as possible.

Hopefully your problem is the same as mine.

Thanks Red, problem solved i had a little trouble getting the door skin off i had one pin break out of the cardboard stuff, i looked at it threw the small gay and saw that it was cracking arround that pin before i put any force on it so im saying that was from a previous owner. ill post pics later for those interested. it was a \"clamp\" with 2 screws on it that needed sliding forward about 1 inch then retightened. Took me a few min to understand how the lock worked but like you said, easy fix

Thanks
Oni

I fixed those loose clamping screws for good by applying a little Loctite blue threadlocker.

[thumbs up]
Good on ya Oni

Yeah threadlocker is a great idea. I didn't have any at the time so I just tightened them to buggery

Whilst you have the door off be sure to check those stupid bloody springs that mazda decided to use between the sliding mechanism and the lock. Have given me all sorts of pain. If one looks even remotely strained then replace it straight away, god i hate those springs

My 2 cents, haha

I'm having the same problem with the passenger door not locking. At first I though it as a bad battery voltage, then I thought it was too hard to lock (its harder than drivers side), but now that I've read this I'll check to see if its that screw. Thanks for that!

I would never have known it didn't lock until I opened the door and the alarm scared the crap out of me. Then to think I've been parking everywhere with effectively an invitation to open the door. Lucky no robbers spotted it, despite the alarm.

Some cheap central locking actuators aren't watertight, meaning their insides rust and the actuation weakens. This will also cause the doors not to lock/unlock properly.

I was checking mine once to see why one of the doors wasn't locking. I started to remove the actuator, and after getting it off of its bracket tipped it to the side and let a stream of water out...

Yeah, that one went in the bin.

One of mine suffered water damage so off it went into the bin. Now I have both carefully wrapped in plastic to avoid future water damage.

Tip: For new installation, Install the actuator so that the plunger is facing slightly downward to lessen the chance of water damage.

any pics of repair?