With this pandemic and all, it seems I have too much time on my hands. "Thankfully", my two Volvos are filling the gaps. First was rotten door panels, next was water in the wife's trunk, now it is something else...

My wife's 198 244 has electric door locks. I hate all these motorized accessories (thankfully no electric windows) and see them as just one more thing to break. Well, that is now the case...

The front, passenger-side door will only unlock by pulling up physically on the interior knob. Trying to turn the key in the exterior lock seems more likely to break the key than unlock the door. I have lubed the keyway and that makes no difference. So the issue seems to lie elsewhere.

From what little I can tell, this might be related to the electric actuator in the front, passenger-side door. I supposed it might only require lubrication of the locking mechanisms inside the door but I rather doubt this will be that easy.

I have hesitated so far to open things up because the last time I did this on my car I was confronted with a new can of worms in finding a rotted door panel and I am not yet fully recovered from that project and I fear the same here. So at this point I am just wondering if my suspect part - the actuator inside the door - is the likely culprit and how to remove and restore it (if it can be restored).

Thanks

Finally overcame my trepidation about opening up the wife's door to deal with this issue. Since doing so on my own 1983 242 and finding rotten panel fiber board necessitating a serious rebuild project, I have been hesitant to do this.

Amazingly, her 1980 door panel is in excellent shape - likely because the butcher paper "barrier" was still intact. However, it fell into pieces when I touched it.

Anyhow, it appears that lubrication is all that is really needed here. I sprayed all I could find with white grease and operated the mechanism a bunch. Seems to be working fine now.

So all I need to do is apply a coat of polyurethane, make and affix visqueen barriers for the door and panel, and put everything back together. However, I did note the typical cracks at the pillar above the speaker well that support the door panel. I have already drilled the end of that crack out and applied a splint of metal strip using JB Weld.

Thanks for all.

You're going to have to remove the interior panel and see what's going on. After all these years, and the probability that moisture has invaded, the linkages and the lock "motor" (which looks to me like a solenoid) may have gotten gunged up and corroded. The setup in there is not that complicated, as you'll see when you're in there.

You can disconnect the linkage from the lock motor and try your key. If that makes things easy, leave it disconnected and and activate the motor from the driver's door. The actuating piston should snap smartly back and forth. I'm betting it's partially stuck and will be slow. Not sure what to do about it aside from the usual WD-40 "fix". Been a lot of years since I was inside my own doors, but I seem to recall the motor casing is riveted together, so disassembly to free the internals up and lubricate would be a challenge.

Probably find a replacement on eBay, if you want to go that route.
--
Son's XC70, daughter's XC60, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB with Chev V6, and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940 and 1998 S90.

Thanks for the info and encouragement. When it stops raining here, I will dive in. Cheers

The bellows splits allowing water to follow the actuator rod inside.











--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Today I was a hero! I rescued some beer that was trapped in a bottle.

As always, Art, simply outstanding! I feared something like this. I had a problem similar similar with the wiper motor in my 83 242. Here in the pacific northwest water intrusion is an issue everywhere with everything! Thanks!

If you need the lock actuator "motors" -- I have a box filled with them. $5 each + postage. I had an issue with an '84 245 wipers--very slow. I found the problem was the pivots. The motor by itself sounded fine--the linkage could barely move by hand. It all came apart, lubed and re-assembled with made up seals. -- Dave

Thanks for this offer. Once I get in there and figure out what the devil is going on, I will get in tough. Cheers

you wrote
The front, passenger-side door will only unlock by pulling up physically on the interior knob. Trying to turn the key in the exterior lock seems more likely to break the key than unlock the door. I have lubed the keyway and that makes no difference. So the issue seems to lie elsewhere..


The power locks are actuated From the Drivers door.
When you use the key in the passenger door you are Not actuating the power locks, you are manually turning the lock in that door.

The resistance you feel is because you are not just turning the lock itself--- a simple cylinder, but you are also moving the power lock piston/mechanism in that door --- with the key - there is no 'power' involved.---

Opening the door panel and lubing the pivot points might help a bit, but the key still has a lot of hardware to move.

It's that way on my 87 wagon and on my 80. I avoid using the key in the passenger door...as it only unlocks that door.

Thanks. I guess I was not quite clear as I wanted to be.

I am not expecting the key on the passenger side to actuate any other door. I was just expecting it to unlock that one door. Otherwise, why is the keyway provided? But when I try this, I get so much resistance I feel the key will break.

I am assuming that the turning key is pushing/moving "something" more than the key does on my 1983 242 without (thankfully) electric locks. And maybe that "something" is frozen or stuck in place. This all reflects a total lack of understanding on my part of how the electric lock thing works in each door.

When I unlock from the driver's side (either by key or pulling up the know, the passenger side rarely unlocks fully (it used to) although sometimes the pull-up knob will rise a little - but not enough to unlock. When pressing down the the knob on the driver's side, the passenger side also does not fully go down.

The rear doors do the right thing. Just not the forward passenger side.

Thanks again.

Then you are going to have to pull off the panel.

as VD says in the post below.


To see how the system works.

1) go to this website
https://ozvolvo.org/archive/

2) scroll down---- way down the list, until you find this file to download.

Volvo/240 Accessories/8-83-9 central locking.pdf

Thanks very much for the web link. That is an amazing archive of useful info. Bookmarked for sure now. Cheers

I was going to New Zealand many years back and I found this Volvo site.

www.volvoadventures.com/

That's where I found the OZ Volvo link. The antipodal Brickboard

I too visited NZ for a month. But didn't find that site until today. Quite cool! I love the 245 EV conversion shown there. That is my kind of EV! Cheers