Hello, i've read up on a few of the issues people have had with the door lock actuator going bad. I am just curious to know what the symptoms everyone had when this happened.

I bought my car in May, I had no issues while the weather was colder but as the weather warmed up I have noticed that sometimes when I lock my doors with the remote the drivers door does not lock all the way down, it tries to go down all the way, but stops, I have rolled the windows down and locked it and tried pushing the lock the rest of the way down and it won't lock, as if its binding up.

It locks fine with the remote about 90% of the time.

Using the key to lock it works fine.

I've also noticed a few other things, when my AC kicks on and my headlights are on, they dim. I've never noticed that before.

In June I was parked at a gas station and I left my lights on while talking on the phone and my battery died, I was on the phone for about 10min. Is that normal?

Could my battery be the problem?

 

that is a sign of a bad door lock actuator.

 

I've read about that too. Saw this on MSN Auto regarding the locks as a common issue:

An occasional problem on this vehicle is the failure of the Driver's Door Switch. The cost to replace the Driver's Door Switch is estimated at $3.43 for parts and $26.00 for labor. All prices are estimates based on $65.00 per flat rate hour and do not include diagnostic time or any applicable sales tax.

 

^^its cheaper and easy as hell to diy if you're just changing the switch. more times than any, you will end up replacing the actuator. you can also test the actuator is anything. buy a new one, and plus it in where the old was was plugged. if you flip the switch and it works, then obviously it was a bad actuator. if it doesnt work, then its the switch.