hinkydink

I replaced the power door lock actuator on my daughter-in-law's 2005 Accord today. It was the one on the rear door, driver's side. The three screws that mount the latch to the door are very tight, so I used a hand impact driver and bit to loosen them. Each screw required a couple of solid raps. Once the latch was removed, I went ahead and changed out the actuator. (BTW, if you've never done a rear door actuator on this generation, the whole assembly just slips right out once you loosen the latch. You don't have to fight with any linkage while it's inside the door). After putting everything back together, I discovered that the door wouldn't latch when I closed it. Instead, it just bounced off of the striker with a thud. I figured that the latching pawl had simply rotated out of position, so I checked it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the problem. It took me awhile to pinpoint the cause. The sheet metal where the latch is mounted is fairly thin. When I used the impact driver to loosen the mounting screws, the sheet metal had bent inward slightly. Not so much that it was glaringly obvious, but enough to prevent proper alignment between the latch and striker. Once I corrected this issue the door closed and latched as it should. Moral of this story: DON'T USE A HAND IMPACT DRIVER TO LOOSEN THE SCREWS!
Prior to doing this job, I checked out a few videos and articles on replacing the actuator. Not once did anyone warn that this could occur. Maybe it's never happened to anyone else before, but it sure happened to me. I'm taking the time to share this with future readers in the hope that they will remember this post in the event that they should encounter the same problem.

BLKFLSH

When I removed the latch to change my actuator. I pushed hard on the end of the screw driver with one hand, and used a cresent wrench to turn the screw driver. You have to have a strong screw driver, with a good bit that fits the screws. At the time, I didn't have an impact driver, and probably a good thing I didn't.

Thanks for letting everyone know about your experience.

ONEOF137

I just replaced the drivers door actuator today on my daughters 03 Accord coupe. I bought a replacement Honda actuator on EBay. I also used my hand held impact wrench on the 3 screws and luckily had no issues. The front door must have thicker metal because I gave it 2 or 3 goods wacks each in order to loosen them. The issue I'm having now is the door locks make a noise after I lock or unlock them, that I never heard before. It's a electrical part noise like the actuators are receiving a brief surge of power. The horn doesn't sound either, when you lock the doors, like they did before. Any ideas on what my problem is?

hinkydink

I remember reading about a similar problem to this one, but it was on another forum and I don't recall the name of it. Someone told the poster that it was likely an electrical connector that wasn't firmly plugged in. Sure enough, the poster rechecked his work and found that one of the connectors clicked into place when he pushed on it and that everything then worked normally again. I can't promise this is your problem, but you may want to check it out if you haven't already done so.

ONEOF137

thank you for your reply. i will check all the connections again, today. this situation has me really frustrated!