Door lock not working - passenger side

[Joshua]

Hi there,

It was extremely hot today. My black Mazda 3 2008 was in the sun all day. I unlocked the doors to air the car out. I could not open the passenger door. All the other doors unlocked fine with the remote except that one. I can't even lock or unlock it with controls in the car. I have to do it manually. Any idea what's wrong? Any idea how much it will cost me to have it fixed?

Thanks!

[Proudfoot]

I have heard it can be a bad acuator. I believe that is the mechanism that controls the opening and closing of the lock on the door. Although I have not done it for my car, I have heard that a trip out of a local scrap yeard to grab one from an old 3 might be the easiest way to deal with the problem.

Here is the link to the responses some members posted on this problem:
http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?70974-Bad-Actuator

[pwdunmore]

I just did this on my girlfriends acura rsx, they are easy parts to order and install. The actuator's are usually only $30-50 and you can do the install yourself if you really want to save some money. It's not that hard to do but if you don't like getting your hands dirty leave it to someone who does.

[Joshua]

Tx guys. So I got an actuator for $110 at a dealership, after a discount. It will cost me $70 to have it installed... this zoom zoom is costing me...

[ericssonfan]

Did you end up doing it yourself or getting somebody else to do it?

Anybody know of any scrapyards with a lot of 3's in them?
Both my front actuators are shot at about roughly $200 for parts combined at the dealership and about & $70 each door, I've been holding off for a while.
I recently found this:http://www.canadapartsonline.com/compare/?R=universalreplacementarb315302-+universalreplacementrb315301-+&B=Tj0wJnV0cz10cnVlJk50dD1hY3R1YXRvciZzZWFyY2hUeXBl PWdsb2JhbCZTZWFyY2g9U2VhcmNo and was wondering if either would work.

[Proudfoot]

The problem seemed to get better and then regress. I forgot about my trunk light being on (not being able to switch it off) and that drained the battery. So, now I disconnect the battery when I park. This will be a pain in the ass when the weather gets colder. I had the door panel off and was trying to assess if there were any bad connections with wires, but everything looks okay.

I am at the point where I want to bring the car in, but really nervous about being screwed over by a dealership, but I am also thinking the dealership may be familiar with this sort of problem. Jimmy is a little far away for me for this kind of work. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the input. I have not responded to this thread in a while. Sorry.