teking

Just so everyone knows. The same clean it/fix it concept can be applied to the door pads. My drivers door pad had become inoperable and the passenger's was iffy. I thought I was going to have to buy new pads. I cleaned them with electric cleaner and now they both work like new!!! First time everytime!!

Below is the pad opened up, you can see how dirty it is .....



This is a picture of the cleaned unit before reassembly. All I needed was a small phillips head and some RadioShack cleaner!!! Both I already had



I did try the cleaning fix for the trunk button as well. As you can see from the pics below mine was very dirty and was frozen in the depressed position. I cleaned it all up and it was moving freely again. But unfortunately when I got it back on the car the trunk still would not open. So I guess I'm in for a new trunk button..... sorry the pics are so fuzzy

Grumpy

pfm I tell ya

Vasta

Pure Freaking Magic?

Grumpy

weathermaker

Thanks, I needed that.

kp

My drivers side would only work of you pressed it just the right way, been meaning to order a new switch for a long time.

But after seeing this I just took it apart and cleaned it and its working great now

corvettezman

Great idea

A new button from the stealership is around 12 bucks though. Not sure it's worth the trouble to take apart and clean.

I replaced both just for the heck of it when the driver's side went sluggish.

Excind

teking,
You are the poo!

I have been having problems with both doors over the last several weeks. I was torn between ordering switches and a new battery(mine is an original one from 06).

I am not cheap but I like to do things myself, so I broke it down like you showed above. It was a breeze and it worked like a champ!

You saved me $30 which is some decent beer money. If you were closer I would share them with you.

Thanks for the excellent write up/help. This is one of the reasons I think this forum is great.

Boozman

Thanks for the info and pictures

Crow Hunter

Mine are acting up too. Is there any trick to dis-connecting them and removing them from the door? I.e., are there any electrical connections which demand caution? Mine on my '06, have always required significant pressure to operate, which I find annoying.

Thanks in advance!

VettinFan

This is good info.

Rich Mickol

Another reason for the Forum. Thanks for sharing. That rear one takes a beating from all the dirt kicked up on the rear facsia. If it's stuck in, your probably gonna need a new one. Thanks for the post.

Excind

crowhunter,
I just removed the two screws and slide the whole thing back a little. The outer plastic piece will separate from the actual switch. There is a weather pak connector attached to the switch. Just carefully lift the tab and pull the two apart. I kind of pulled a little slack out (on the wire) and turned the connector sideways just to make sure that the connector didnt fall back into the door. It might not be necessary but I didnt want to have to fish around for it later. Other than that its like it is described above.

Gook Luck.

cclive

I have noticed that the majority of these door pad continuity problems are in humid climate places, which makes sense. So this would be a good heads-up for people who have door opening problems and are wondering about a solution.

obxchartercaptain

It would seem GM has a problem with those door pads. I've had BOTH sides go bad at different times. And, when they go bad, lots of other things stop working. I ordered mine via Gene Culley and replaced them myself.

cclive

They certainly can cause weird stuff when they have a problem, like the continuous up and down indexing...stuff that you would never expect to be related to a door pad switch.

mloman

Thanks for the info guys. Completed the cleaning and installation in about the same time it would have taken me to go to the dealer, buy the parts, and drive back.

I also coated both sides of the connector with dielectric grease to protect against contaminates causing corrosion. Hopefully, that will increase the amount of time before I have to service them again. Right now they work like new again.

rakuhn

That is informative, thanks.

Red Rochester

Wow this kinda stuff just shouldn't happen

designerRob

Well done.