Here's how power door locks work in your car:


Door locks keep the interior of your vehicle secure. Power operated door locks work with an actuating mechanism controlled by the car's ECU.

Here's a look at the latch and lock mechanism removed from the vehicle:


There is a lot of levers that are actuated by the exterior door handle, the interior door handle, the door thumb lock, the power door lock, and in the case of the front door, the key.

The latch grabs onto the striker on the body of the car. "Locking" the car merely disables the door handles from opening it.

Inside the power door lock actuator is a small motor that turns a gear to push and pull the lock arm rod.

Interestingly beneath the gear, there are contacts with diodes, which form a built in protection circuit so the motor isn't over worked against the gear train. You can't lock a locked door, and vice versa.


Enjoy!