Directed Electronics Install Essentials 524N High Power Door Lock Motor

This was a replacement for actuator in tailgate of Jeep TJ. Standard actuators are mostly right around 1 1/8” thick and won’t fit. This unit is right at 7/8” and slid into place, works perfectly and at a fair price. Local shop wanted over $40 for slim actuator.

Very powerful locks and a very slim profile, very easy to install with a simple 2 wire install. I installed on a remote starter on a car without power locks and let the remote starter unit control the locks and it works great ( you do need either 2 relays or a power lock for your remote starter which is really only two relays but plugs into the port on the unit making it easier to install. I have had them in for a couple months now and they work every time. They are so strong you really hear them lock and unlock. They seem very well made and should give a few years service.

I added power locks and keyless entry to my Chevy Spark and used these actuators. I initially purchased different actuators that cost much less (4 for about 14 bucks). The cheaper ones seemed to work fine, but I accidentally wired a relay incorrectly and fried one of them when bench testing everything. I ordered one of these to replace it and upon unboxing it was obviously a much nicer actuator. It was way smaller and thinner, and came with all of the needed wire and a rubber wire loom for running the wires between the door and frame. The rubber wire looms along cost 8 or 9 buck here on Amazon. I liked them enough that I ended up buying 3 more and scrapped using the original ones I bought. All 4 are installed and work great!

This is a pretty descent actuator. I purchased it because, as many people will testify, when your actuator fails on your Escape, Ford has decided that you need to replace the entire mechanism in the liftgate at a cost of around $190. For most situations, this is a complete waste of about $160 since the mechanical parts just need to be lubricated when you replace the actuator.Now if you are not a person with tools (drill press and dremel tool) or are just not handy, then this is not the replacement part you want to use. If you mess up installing this item, you could have your rear hatch open unexpectedly with lethal consequences. In addition, you should also check if there is a recall on your vehicle for the liftgate as some models have had a recall for this part failing during a collision.So you are forewarned.To mount this part I had to remove the door handle assembly. This isn't a lot of work, but is a little tedious. I removed the old actuator and slid the connecting arm (a small plastic piece attached to the actuator) off both the old and new actuator. The plastic heads are slotted so they only go on and off the actuators a specific way. If you have to use too much force, you are probably trying to remove it the wrong way.The first modification I had to make to use this actuator is on the mounting point of the actuator. I had to use a dremel tool to cut a slot 90 degrees to the existing slot, so the old plastic connecting arm would slide on the correct way. Once I test fit the old connecting arm I placed the actuator on the door lock plate to figure out where I would need to drill the holes to mount the actuator. This takes a little bit of fiddling around. You have to make sure that the movement of the actuator is basically the same as the old one. For me, I had to drill 2 holes, one just below the old hole closest to the actuator head and another hole to attach the mounting bracket, almost across from the new hole. Its hard to describe here, but I selected a spot that would have the least chance of interfering with anything while providing a bit of a triangular form of bracing. These drilled holes were done on a drill press and are the second modification I had to do.The third modification was to the supplied mounting bracket, the long metal part that comes with the actuator. I had a lot of extra bracket hanging off the door lock assembly that I cut off using the dremel tool. Dont forget to file/smooth the edge where you cut off the extra bracket. Over time, if a wire or something rubs against it, the sharp edge will cause damage. This was the fourth modification I had to make.For the wiring, I didn't want to cut into the wiring harness on the car so what I did instead was I disassembled the old actuator and used the plug from it. This is not as simple as it sounds. The plug is actually part of an injection molded plastic assembly that connects to the motor in the actuator. I had to carefully remove it, grind away the plastic until there was a place to solder on the new wires and bend them in such a way as there new way they could ever short. If you go this route, you will see what I mean. Again, I used the dremel tool to carefully remove the plastic. After that, I soldered the included wire connectors (cut down to length), heat shrunk some protective tubing, electrical taped and made sure there would never be a chance that this part could short or become a fire hazard. Remember, your car will encounter a lot of jarring/movement over its lifetime and you do not want this to connection to fail.Since I was not sure which direction was the correct way to wire the actuator, I did not fully connect the wiring when reinstalling. What I did was loosely push the wires from the actuator into the corresponding barrel connectors I attached to the old actuator plug. If you push these all the way in they will lock in place and are a pain to get out. Once you have them loosely connected, I tested the locks. The first time I tested it, I had the wiring backwards. I reversed the wires and tested again several times. It worked as expected. Now firmly push the wire connectors together and tape all the wires so they don't rub against metal or move around.With the liftgate cover reinstalled, I found this actuator to be slightly louder than the old one.SIDE NOTE: This is a common failure on the Escapes so I wanted to see why it failed. The actuator is a German made part by Kiekert part PA6 GF30... and good luck trying to find that part.. many have tried... and failed.Once disassembled, I found that the electrical motor inside still worked just fine... however the gears connected to the motor had basically froze. The lubricant was so gummed up that the motor couldn't turn anymore. Shame on Ford and Kiekert for not doing a better job here. This part is failing on enough of the cars that it is clearly a design/manufacturing issue and should be addressed. At the very least, there should a lower cost replacement part that doesn't require repurchasing the entire liftgate locking mechanism for the failure caused by poorly chosen grease in the actuator.

Pretty heavy duty and lock with authority.

Great product.

After many reliable years of using this item, over multiple applications, a little disappointed this time. Was used to replace an identical actuator that died after >7 years in an aftermarket vehicle door application. This one lasted a week until it froze hard in the "unlock" position. This left my vehicle vulnerable, and required re-disassembly of car door to enable manual locking again. Let me reiterate that the mechanical setup is solid on my car; all I needed was to replace the actuator motor. I'm such a fan of these that I'm going to buy another and hope for the best. Amazon return-for-refund not worth the hassle for $20 US.

These are great and much more compact than the standard 524 door lock motor. I installed two of these (to replace the two standard ones) in my F150 tailgate (2014) with a tailgate step and a bedrug carpet on the tailgate. Works very well. Releases the tailgate every time. And with 2 DZ43200 tailgate assist. Yes I know DeeZee says not to put one on the passenger side. Regardless I installed it there and have had no issues thus far.Mine were not as shown in the picture. The picture shows a motor sticking out of the side of the body of the actuator. Mine has the motor more streamlined and was much more similar to their 5 wire version of the same actuator.