It's easy once you know how. And this is assuming it's roughly the same as the MK1!

There is already a speaker wire through the hole. You're going to use the slack on this to do the job for you. Pull the wire either as far into the door as it will go or as far into the car. You choose. Tape the wire you want to thread to the wire where you now have all the slack. Make sure the tape is "streamlined". Now pull the slack to the other end while feeding by hand. Voila! The wire taped to the speaker wire has travelled through the rubber tube. Untape and pull through more wire.

If there isn't enough slack you pull the connector at the speaker end but I managed to get wires for my power mirrors through using this method even though there were already central locking wires in the tube as well as speaker wires. If the design has changed on the Mk2 such that this doesn't work then I apologise. (12/99)

For the past couple of weeks my central locking (Moss kit) has been playing up. Unlocking the drivers side door does not normally unlock the passenger door, but most of the time will lock it again. Once I start the ignition the drivers side door usually locks itself (matches the position of the passenger lock).

My guess is that the actuator arm for the drivers door lock has become un attached or loose and therefore only works by luck. Has anyone else had anything like this or could it be something far worse ? I will have a look this weekend but am dreading the black door gunge that seems to get on everything once disturbed :( (12/99)

Once I start the ignition the drivers side door usually locks itself (matches the position of the passenger lock).

Sounds to me like the switch in your locking motor may be iffy. This could be something you can adjust or you might need a new motor. Perhaps Maplin's 8.99 5-wire motor will fit?

My guess is that the actuator arm for the drivers door lock has become unattached or loose and therefore only works by luck. Has anyone else had anything like this or could it be something far worse ?

It could be a mechanical problem. It could be a suspect motor. Worst case it's the control box, but for some reason I doubt this.

I will have a look this weekend but am dreading the black door gunge that seems to get on everything once disturbed :(

You can actually do most things on the central locking motor without disturbing the black gunk. You can reach through the speaker hole for some stuff but most of the mechanicals are on the accessible side of the plastic sheet. (12/99)

The trouble is the actuator quality I suspect. I fitted the Maplin ones last spring and in 5 months the driver's one died - motor will turn but no action. This was with fitting the motor pointing upwards (some one on list had the motor housing full of water); I still had rust streaks so suspect rust has done no good.. I was going to replace the Maplin duff one under warranty but the return bag never turned up in the post ... so I bought one from the Clifford alarm fitter; Swiss made rather than Taiwanese, looked identical but he has no problems with reliability. Yet to find time to pull broken one apart .. need to know!

So fit quality not cheap ones (Swiss was 19 GBP, Maplin 8 GBP). Adjust them properly (i.e. fully move the motor arm out and attach to rod in the fully extended position.. not sure how these things work as the micro-switch at the end of travel effectively determines the stroke but the Mazda mechanics also determine the stroke .. at odds with each other...) Fit with the motor part sticking up (I only had to drill one hole to fit mine like this) ..

so fault are cheap actuators, fitting the wrong way, fitting out of stroke of the actuator .. and finally the fact that they are fitted in the 'wet' part of the door .. most cars allow them to be fitted inside the car on the other side of the plastic skin according to the alarm mannie...

Quality pays .... and you get what you pay for sometimes! (12/99)

You have probably fixed it by now, but my Moss locking kit died soon after I fitted it (twice!). My guess is you have the same problem I had (a duff switch in the actuator). Mine is fixed now, but this is what I found out.

If the system is not working correctly then pull the fuse, until you can get it sorted. This will stop it unlocking the doors while you are away. :(

To investigate the problem, remove the fuse (if fitted) and the wires from the relay. I don't have a connector map but the wires from the relay box to the doors were as follows.

Black - earth
Blue - Lock motor - The relay puts 12V on to here (for about half second) to lock both the doors
Red - Unlock motor - as above, but to unlock both doors
Brown - Unlock switch - This is earthed when a door is in the unlocked position.
Purple - Lock switch - This is earthed when a door is in the locked position.

There is also a 12 volt supply from the fuse. There is also a two pole connector for the remote entry option. This is not connected on mine. The relay only puts 12V to either the lock or unlock motor when a switch is closed.

Using a resistance meter I checked the resistance to ground of the lock and unlock switches. With both doors are unlocked, brown wire should be open circuit, and the purple grounded. With both doors unlocked the reverse is true.

You can also use a meter to check that the clamps are in the correct place. If you unlock/lock one door and you can tell the switch has moved them the clamp must be OK.

My problem was one switch was not going open circuit. If this happens then there is no way to know which door has the problem, because the switches are in parallel. So I chose to cut the wires in the passenger door. The reasoning was if it was the passenger door switch that was faulty I could live without it. Jackpot! Problem solved. Then it died a week later, this time it was the other switch in the same door. So now the system only unlocks both door from the drivers side. :(

I believe you can get new actuators from Maplin for under a tenner. By the way, you can avoid most of the trouble with the back death if you cut the black death with a knife AND THEN DON'T TOUCH IT. :) It is important not to damage the plastic sheet, and to refit it correctly. (12/99)

Almost (but not quite, thankfully) the same thing happened to me this morning. Driver's side central locking iced up, managed to get in by holding the key in the open position but the lock was stuck in the locked position. The only way I could get out of the car (other than clambering over the passenger seat (and at 6'2" that is a tall order with the hard top on) was to wind down the window and stick an arm out to turn the key in the lock.

ISTR having this problem with my Mark 1 as well -- it's not a Moss thing, since central locking was standard fit to both my Mark 1 and Mark 2. I hope that I don't have the same problem tomorrow morning -- anyone got any ideas about stopping it happening? (12/99)

I have disabled my central locking because it locked me out a few weeks ago (engine running, spare keys 100 miles away !) I dont think that anyone has had trouble free operation of central locking, either factory or otherwise fitted - although soon to be corrected I bet ;)

A couple of motors from RS some sort of controller (may also be available from RS, mine from Moss) some stiff wire for the actuator rods, collets and grub screws and away you go. Took me a few hours to install but then I did the windows at the same time (these are still working :) )

There's an off square cut out (parallelogram?) below the door handle and I thought of fixing the motors there, this would mean drilling some holes!!

When I bought a motor it came with a slotted mounting bracket. Dunno if this needed holes drilling as it was just the motor I needed to replace a dead one. (1/00)

An AVR1200 processor (<5), a 2003 to drive some relays, four meaty relays (recycled from duff old central locking and window lift box) and two thermal cutouts (from old window lift box). Just add diodes, resistors, regulator and reset generator. Total cost depends on the relays you use. Also note I recycled the cut-outs and don't know where to buy these or what they cost. I guess the whole thing is about 30 quid. I used a very nice stainless-steel anit-vandal push button. This was about 12 quid, but I think worth it.

The processor senses the alarm arm signal, a push button, the cut-out state and voltage from the exiting window switches. It gives me central locking with window lift, a dash mounted button to do lock/unlock (good for when young child is in the passenger seat), window lift override and one-touch window lift (hit the window up once to lift that window, twice for both windows).

It also plays tunes and has "trick modes". :-)

Schematics as such are hand drawn in my journal. It's all dead easy, though, and I'll happily share what I have, including source code, completely free.

My current unit is a messy build on veroboard. I'm toying with making a PCB, but you know what plans are like. :-)

To drive the motors you use two relays rigged so that each can connect Gnd or 12V to the wire it drives. You have the quiescent state drive Gnd to both wires. You then drive one relay for about 0.5s to fire the motor. The other relay drives it the other way.

For the windows you rig the relay to switch 12V to the "lift" wire of the window but you switch the 12V with a cut-out before the relay. When the window reaches the top the cut-out trips and the lifting stops. You sense this with the processor and turn off the relay. You can also sense the normal "lift" from the window switch (normally passes through by the relay) and use this to control your "one touch" window lifting. You obviously have a time-out on the lifting as well as the cut-outs.

Or you buy a control box from Maplin and figure out how to connect it to your alarm "arm" signal. (1/00)

Well I fought my way through the "black gunk from hell" yesterday afternoon and removed the actuators from both doors. I have opened one (the knackered drivers side one) which did have water inside as well as signs of rust, the motor however runs perfectly so I guess that the problem lies in the microswitch that senses the position of the push rod. The only other thing I can think of is that the contol box is knackered but I am unsure why this would be.

I will now keep my eyes open to source some good quality actuators from somewhere, or maybe I should buy cheeper ones and replace them once a year. Looks like the inside of the door is not a very nice place to be though... (6/00)

Has anyone fitted central locking motors to a Mk2 1.8i (2000 onwards - W reg), my alarm company is having problems with Mazda about side impact struts where the locking motors would fit.

My alarm company is awaiting details back from MAZDA about fitting instructions, as they are saying that they would need to take one of the struts out of the door (which in turn would probably invalidate my warranty).

Has anyone else heard of this ? (1/01)

Warranty invalidation?

It would completely destroy the validity of the crash testing and side intrusion tests the vehicle type has undergone - in short in would invalidate type approval and it would be illegal to drive the car in Europe/UK. Not only that, were you to be injured in an accident, an insurance company would be quite entitled to claim that you (or the alarm fitter) had contributed to your injuries and sue for reduced damages payment - and probably win.

I am staggered that an alarm fitter would even contemplate such a thing - for his own security, if nothing else. The motor trade never ceases to amaze me.

Makes you think licences based on competence testing might not be a bad thing before some oik could mess with your car and your safety.

There. That's better. Rant over. Can go for a drink now! :-) (1/01)

I've fitted central locking to my 1997 Mk1 using motors which I took from a Granada - along with the door switches which are oval in shape and very Mazda.

The motors are very well built and have internal switches so you don't need a controller and it's easy to interface them with a remote activated alarm. Mine fitted very neatly into the door frame without butchering anything at all. Only problem for some people might be that you need to file up new rocking plates from a piece of scrap steel with an extra arm to take the rod from the motor.

It's unlikely that an auto electrician would do the job this way but with care you will get a superb job done yourself.

Have you tried Maplin for some motors - they sell them for under £10? (1/01)

I've got central locking (installed from new in my '99 Mk2 1.8), and have had a lot of grief with it freezing overnight in winter (good excuse for not going to work though :-) My passenger door recently failed entirely, so I've just had it fixed. If you've got a similar situation, then you might be interested to know the following:

1) Mazda have officially recognised that the unit I had installed was crap, and tended to get water in it, which leads to it freezing and/or failing, so if you're having problems you can get it replaced under warranty.

2) The new lock unit is slightly larger than the old unit, and it's putting pressure on the window, so now my window goes "kerclunk" as it passes the half way up/down position - seems to be rubbing/snagging on the plastic water-protection sheet in the door.

Needless to say, I'll be taking it back in to see if they can improve on this! So if you get one fitted, run your window up & down a couple of times before you leave the garage! (4/01)