2005 Ody LS sliding door latch

Re: 2005 Ody Right Side sliding door latch

Valaur said:

After closing the sliding door, the servomotor locks the door, but then 3 seconds later reverses and unlocks the door. Door open light comes on in the dashboard. Problem only with passenger side, driver side works OK. Tried with remote, automatic, and manual operation, always with the same result. Started pulling fuses trying to isolate the servomotor for the latch. #3(40amp)under the hood,#8(20 amp)passenger side,#13(7.5amp)and #7(7.5amp) driver side fuse boxes. Only #7 turned off the servomotor, and various other functions (automatic and remote door locking/unlocking, some instrument panel lights, etc). Present situation: close sliding door, wait until door locks, quickly pull #7 fuse before door unlocks. Pull #3 and #8 and then replace #7. If #7 is replaced before #3 and #8 are replaced, the door will unlock. Thus presently everything works except the passenger sliding door, with fuses #3 and #8 removed.
Where does the signal to unlatch the door come from ? and why ?

Valaur

Click to expand...

I just ran into the same problem. After a $1,000+ estimate at the dealers I decided to look at it myself.

NOTE: I had to replace the centre roller assembly as well.

The problem is in the door closer itself at the rear side of the door. I took a couple of photos to show what I did.

Take off all the interior panels, the plastic seal sheet, etc. You want to have all the inside nubbins exposed.

Remove the rear door closer assembly. (Turn OFF the power switch on the dash but be forwarned, there is STILL power on the door closer assembly.

To remove the door closer, take out three bolts on the back face of the door where the "catch" is.. And, another two gold coloured bolts on the inside of the door above where the closer motor itself is.

It's a bit fiddly but work the assembly around until you can pull it out through the large hole in the inside door skin. (Detach cable/wiring clips as necessary.

On the "back" of the closer is a plastic cover. Remove it. There are two small #1 phillips screws holding it on along with some "tape" on the top. When you have it off, it should look like the "Door Closer" photo attached.

Now, look at the end where the catch assembly is and look at photo "Door Closer 2". The piece inside the red circle SHOULD pivot. It's probably seized even though there is no sign of rust and there is lots of grease on it.

That piece does two things. It mechanically latches the catch when the door is shut and also activates the blue microswitch to reverse the door closer motor after it's latched the door. With it seized, it does NEITHER. And the door does exactly what you described.

Use a pair of needle nose pliers and some WD40 and losen that piece up so it pivots properly. It should be sitting as you see it in the picture when released. (It will be stuck well away from that position if it's seized like mine was.) Once you've got it loose spray in some lithium or other grease to keep it loose. (The WD40 will dry out)

If you're careful, you can test it by using a small screwdriver to push the latch the way the "U" catch on the body will. When you get to a certain point, the motor will activate, pull the catch shut and immediately reverse back to it's resting position. If you pull on the inside release handle, the catch should release.

Reverse the above steps to reassemble the door closer, plastic cover, etc. It's a bit fidgety getting the closer back into the door because of the window channel. You'll have to push the channel towards toe outside of the door to get the closer motor past it. Don't push to hard. You don't want to bend it.

Once assembled, your door should close properly.

The dealer tells me they "know" about this problem but won't just fix it because Honda has told them to replace the unit outright. Apparently the replacement part is "improved"..... sounds like a recall that never happened. The door closer motor assembly is over $400 by itself. I'll stick with the fix thanks.

Hope this helps.

I am working on the fix reported by Krazy1 and i am partially successful so far. Wondering if anyone else out there have tried it and have some advice for me.

I was able to open the door panel, take everything apart and remove the "door closer" from the door. By the way, you need the windows to be up in order to remove the closer assembly, maybe it was obvious but it wasn't to me and i struggle for a while...

I know how the mechanism works and like krazy1 suggested, the pivoting arm can be seized up and not make contact with the blue micro-switch. Here is my question, is the pivoting arm movement tied one-to-one to the latching lever? I have attached a picture. How are the connected to each other?

Basically, i can get the pivoting arm to contact the switch, but it requires the latching lever to travel a quite a bit. When I move the latching lever, the pivoting arm doesn't quite move with it, only when the lever arm reaches a certain amount, the pivoting arm "clicks" in and moves clockwise and thus making the switch. But that amount required is too much for the "striker" on the door. I am going to try to shim out the striker but that's not the real issue.

If anyone has any suggestion, help is greatly appreciated!!! Perhaps one of the original posters have something to say?

By the way, i have at 2007 EXL, and problems with the driver side sliding door.

Thank You, Krazy1

Krazy1, you are the man. I had the same problem - the door would stay latched for only 3 seconds, then self-unlatch. Found this thread, worked your fix, and saved me 800 bucks or so.

One note on your method:

On ours (2005), there were 3 bolts on the interior - one gold one held the mechanism, another gold one held the window channel bracket, and a silver one also held the closer mechanism (in a slotted hole). When you undo the one for the window channel bracket, it will fall to the bottom of the door if you don't hold it.

And "a bit fidgety" getting the closer back in past the window channel may be the understatement of the year. We had to use a second person to fish a large scredriver through the closer opening in the door (from outside the car) to gently pry the channel toward the outside the car (as you said).

Couple other general notes for those who (like me) don't pop off door panels very often:

You do not need to remove the door from the vehicle.
To remove the sliding door panel, first take off the inside door handle by removing the spring clip thing located behind the handle hub. Then, pop off the lower parts of the black plastic window framing trim. Then slowly work your way around the door panel edge, popping out the plastic retainer plugs located on the perimeter sides and bottom (there are none along the top). I used a couple of large screwdrivers, but it would probably be easier with the proper trim tool. Use a flashlight as you work your way around to locate the next plug so you can gently pry in the plug location. Once all the plugs are popped, lift upward on the panel to unhook it from the top channel. The window shade comes off with the panel. Then just disconnect the window opener wires, and the panel will be free.

The whole operation took us about 5 hours. Could probably do it in two if we knew what we were doing.

Thanks again, Krazy1.

Another door fixed...

1. Thank you to Valaur, Krazy1 and crazy larry for the information on fixing this problem. I was able to do the fuse thing to get the door to close until I had time to fix it properly.

2. The following might be useful for anyone who's thinking about tackling this. I got a 3 day subscription to the manual from Helms online (note: does not work on Macs ) and figured out how to remove the panel. There are instructions for replacing the rear latch assembly, also which were slightly helpful, except that they require removing the window and tracks which I did not do (more on this below). There is also a door system description which describes how the door opening / closing systems work. For three days of access I paid $10.

For about $30 I got a set of trim tools from Sears (not Craftsman, but some other brand). This included a flat tool with some notches in it which was a huge help when it came time to remove the spring clip from the door handle. Maybe there's an obvious way to do this with a wire hook, but I didn't have one that would fit between the handle and the panel. With the flat tool I had the spring clip out in less than a minute.

The trickiest part of this was reinstalling the latch assembly without having the window tracks out. After about 30 minutes of ineffective fumbling, I used a pry bar from the inside of the car to push the window track outboard as hard as I dared, then jammed a wedge shape piece of scrap wood between the inner sheet metal and the track to hold it in place. The latch assembly then went in like butter. The long screwdriver through the end of the door (mentioned above) is probably a better idea but I was doing this by myself and don't have the correct shape tools to do this.

I'm kind of a chicken so I disconnected the battery while removing this, then reconnected it only to test the fix.

3. The cause of the door closing and popping out was identical to the description above from Krazy1 (thank you very much for the pictures). The design of the latch assembly seems to result in the slow but inexorable transport of dirt and grit - presumably from road salt / sand in the winter - into the latching mechanism. It took about 20 minutes to clean with WD40 and confirm the correct operation of the latch. The pivot in the red circle in the picture above was not travelling all the way to make contact with the switch (close - about 1mm away, but not there). There were some other parts of the mechanism that had hard spots in their travel where grit had gathered. I re-lubricated where I had cleaned with WD 40 and reinstalled. When I do this next, I'll make sure to have some lint-free wipes to help get the grit / sand out.

4. This really seems to be a design problem with the latching assembly, so I'm sure I'll be doing this again. I'm sure the second time won't take nearly as long, which makes the $400 fix (assuming it really fixes the problem) unappealing.

Thanks again for all the really useful info!

Following up on above.....success! The passenger door would close for 6 or six seconds, and then open again partially. If the van is left this way, the battery will discharge overnight, and you are dead in the water! I looked at the Krazy1 procedure, and was intimidated. However, I sprayed quite a bit of penetrating lubricant using the little red tube in and about the latch through the opening. I then worked the latch back and forth with a pencil. (dash power switch off). You can watch it close when pushed in by a pencil (or any stick or scredriver). It winds in, and then after the 5 or 6 seconds, it releases again. I repeated this 10 or 15 times, and it began to function properly (not release). Pulling the door handle releases it. I then switched the power switch on, and voila, the door is working perfectly. The battery is no longer discharging, and life is good again. Anyone who has this problem, or is beginning to have this issue should try just spraying some penetrating oil into the latch, and work it as above. I don't think it takes a lot of lubricant to free the pawl. I'll post again if the problem re-occurs. For now I am a happy camper to stay away from the stealership.