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I have a 05 civic sedan and when the DL actuator went bad the first time, i've bought a new one and have replaced it. It worked fine for almost a year then it went bad again. When i say bad, i meant it wouldn't lock/unlock using the remote and using the switch from the inside of the car. I had to lock/unlock manually. I've ordered a new one since it was under warranty and got it a few weeks ago. But before i've installed the new one, i've tested the old one and see if the actuator was really the culprit. I've used two wires and the tapped quickly the connection on the actuator directly to the car battery and it worked fine. I've tested the voltage of the connector that connects to the actuator w/ a multi-tester and i'm not getting any voltage though. Now i'm stuck with two working actuators. What could be the problem? Could it be a broken wire somewhere? I don't know where to start to locate it though and was hoping someone could help me out on this one. Thanks in advance.

 
Rep Power: 813

first thing to check is the wiring in the door crease (in the rubber boot covers when the door is open). over time it can break wires.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks! i'll check that spot . Is it fairly easy to open those boot covers?

 
Rep Power: 813

well not really, but possible. you need to remove the door panel first and then pop off the boot from the metal part of the door, then try to slide it off to expose the wiring. also when you are in there, make sure none of the wiring got tangled under the power window.

 
Rep Power: 0

OK, i'll do that. Thanks for ur help, much appreciated.

 
Rep Power: 0

I had a similar issue on my 2000 Accord. The lock would work intermittently, and sometimes not at all (this would leave my passenger door unlocked even after I used my remote to lock it and walked away :S)

What I did was remove the actuator, which was not very difficult, and opened it up.

Inside there should be some gears and a little electric motor. I opened up the can of the electric motor and found one of the copper wires that attaches to the commutator was broken and just barely touching (hence why it worked intermittently)

This is what it should look like

The work wasn't so hard, through trial and error I may have spent a total of 2 hours installing removing install again, and troubleshooting where the problem was. All it needed was a drop of solder and was back running 100% again