I recently bought a 08 XJ and I'm trying to solve a door lock problem but need the experts insight about what I'm looking for.

To start, the driver door lock didn't operate which I traced (I thought) to a bad motor inside the mechanism. I replaced the motor, and tested off the car--it works.

But when I install the latch into the car, the lock doesn't work. I can hear the motor operating, but no lock or unlock. So I'm wondering if I had two problems, a bad motor and one of the microswitches is bad.

But I don't really understand how the latches operate so is there a test to confirm it's a microswitch?

 

If you can hear the motor moving then the microswitch is transmitting 12 v to the motor.

What happens when you lock and unlock with the key?
What happens when you lock and unlock using the interior door handles?
Pull interior handle to unlock and press small chrome button to lock

Hard to say what the problem is at the moment

 

Okay, I will report back in the morn. Your answer confirms there's a lot to diagnosis.

 

Okay...When I use key fob to lock doors, drivers door doesn't lock but other three do. The alarm light starts flashing.

When I then unlock the doors with fob, the 2 back doors and passenger door unlock, and the driver door LOCKS. weird.

(Disclaimer, I have the driver door panel off, does that contaminate the experiment?)

 

When I lock the driver's door with the key, the drivers door locks and all others remain unlocked.

 

Try removing both battery leads and touch together for 10 secs.ie a hard reset
You may need radio code and reset windows afterwards

 

I suspect that thee is something wrong with the driver's door latch.
If you can hear the motor responding but it is not locking it may be that the motor you installed is
out of position or for example the latch was double locked when you installed it.
With the driver's door card removed you will have the cable connecting the internal door handle
sticking up.Check that this is not trapped behind the moisture barrier and that it moves a bit when you
pull on the 'T' section at the end

 

Update:
I took a chance on a used driver door latch off eBay and now everything works as it should. I also turned off double locking per recs.

I'm glad my used latch worked, I’m not certain that a junk car breaker can be expected to know if a latch works exactly right—especially since there are so many ways it can fail. But I got lucky.

and that brings me to another point, there are 3 micro switches inside the latch, one appears replaceable, but the other two are buried in some sort of glue/compound. I’m sure they can be replaced but it will need to be someone that knows about such things.