midwestmotocross

This is a 2001 Chevy Astro Passenger Van with about 60,000 miles on it.

First, the rear dutch door needed two or three presses of the button on
the door before it would unlatch. Then, it quit opening all together.
You'd hear a click, but it just wouldn't open. Now, there's no click.

Second, the same symptom developed for all the doors when the button to
lock all of them on the driver's door was activated. Like the dutch
doors, this played out over a period of weeks, although you can still
hear a slight click in all the locks when the lock button is pressed.
That is, it doesn't seem totally shut off from any power source like
the dutch door latch.

Third, the interior lights and the cigarette lighter stopped working.
The radio works. The heater/ac/gauges/etc. all work fine.

Finally, the transmission sometimes fails to shift into the higher
gears or shifts at a higher RPM than it should.

I've checked all the fuses under the dash and under the hood.
Everything's good.

We just lived with the door latch problem -- probably longer than we
should -- but obviously I need to deal with the tranny. I understand
these could be totally unrelated but wonder if there isn't some central
module that could affect everything.

Anyone have any experience with something like this?

james1549

I can't answer all your questions but I can tell you this. I help
maintain a fleet of vehicles that involve Safaris and Astros. It is
very common for the door lock actuators to fail. It is hard to believe,
but at times I have had to replace all 4 actuators in one van all at
the same time. Why? I am not sure.

First symptoms of an actuator going bad is that you must hit the button
more than once when it begins to get weak. Eventually it will totally
fail.

James

4546

Try cleaning the indicator switches in the door jam with rubbing
alcohol. On the back and sliding doors.

midwestmotocross

Thanks for the response. Maybe this is a stupid question, but in your
experience, and a bad door lock actuator cause other electrical
problems -- by interrupting a circuit or affecting a ground?

Thanks, again.