Hello all, my jag is still getting worked on at the moment but I've been having the issue of not being able to unlock the car in the meantime. My mechanic has been complaining about it too. First off, the keyhole doesn't really do anything. You can turn the key over and over and nothing happens. Secondly, using the remote to unlock the car works only half the time. When I press unlock, the unlock motor on the driver door does a little click sound but not move up enough to actually unlock the door. I have to lock and unlock multiple times for the door to finally unlock. To me it seems like the motor might not be lubricated enough so its struggling to move, maybe thats why it works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea what to do, thinking about replacing the motor. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

Most likely what needs to take place is all the door lock assemblies need to be removed from the car and onto a bench. Clean out any old grease, throughly blow it out with compressed air and use a high quality latch spray grease/lube on it and exercise it some more before reinstalling it.

 

All of them? The rest work great, it's just the driver door malfunctioning. Do you know anything about the keyhole issue?

 

Sounds to me as if the keyhole mechanism has come loose from the lock assembly. You might start with
performing the task A2B suggested, and then see if the others need attention.

 

I'm assuming he means door lock actuators?

 

Assuming the key and/or cylinder isn’t the issue, If the entire door lock mechanism is binding, it will prevent you from rotating the key in the cylinder. I have encountered a door lock actuator seized up before more than once. At this age, they all likely need to be throughly cleaned and lubricated. The drivers door is the worst one to remove as there’s a protective cover over the lock rods.

 

Could I remove it by removing the 4 bolts securing the door latch? Seems to be the only way to get access to the other 2 (3?) screws holding the actuator in place.

 

I’ll be honest, it’s been at least 2 years since I’ve taken mine (or anyone else’s) apart to service them. If you don’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole (nobody does including me), at minimum you’ll need to remove the door panel so you can get more access to the components. If you want to try and spray lubricant while they’re still mounted to the door and if it works for a while, then maybe that’ll be good enough. I know that all the plastic clips that the lock rods pivot on also need to be lubricated. You can always test it out while the door panel is off to see if it makes a big difference when you open and close the door to lock and unlock. The reason I say to take them out and throughly service them is because the “newest X308” is over 21 years old (July 02’ the last one was made??) and if we have them, it’s time to service them. When I took mine out, they were definitely sticking quite a bit.

 

I get what you mean, I have removed the door panel and the door control module to see if I could reach in there and pull it out, but there's part of the metal frame right over where the actuator is. The only way I see in is removing that door latch, as it seems to all be connected. Once I remove the four bolts on the side I should be able to pull on the entire assembly towards the inner part of the frame so I can access the actuator.

The four bolts I'm talking about.


I'm not entirely sure, but like I said, I should be able to push the assembly inwards from this area, towards the middle of the door and grab the motor.

And.. I don't know why my text is in italic now.

 

That far left bolt holds the window channel in place. Maybe search on this forum for a write up before tackling removal of the lock assembly. I’d still stick with lubricating everything while it’s still in the door to begin with.

 

Alright, will do as you say. Any specific lubricant you recommend? I'm probably gonna go with WD40.

 

WD40 is probably the worst thing to use as it will attract dirt like a magnet and you’ll be right back where you started. You need an actual lubricant (oil or grease or silicone…).

 

I have silicone lube, but its in a spray form, not really sure if that'll do. I can go buy a tube of grease at Harbor Freight tomorrow morning.

 

A spray grease would be more suitable. I’m not completely sure but, maybe some white lithium?? Look into a spray grease made for hinges and locks. For the key lock cylinder I used a dry graphite powder. That comes in a small squeeze bottle with a small dispensing tip.

 

The attached extracts cover the latch removal from Driver, Passenger and Rear doors.

 

This is immensely useful, thank you so much!