With this pandemic and all, it seems I have too much time on my hands. "Thankfully", my two Volvos are filling the gaps. First was rotten door panels, next was water in the wife's trunk, now it is something else...

My wife's 198 244 has electric door locks. I hate all these motorized accessories (thankfully no electric windows) and see them as just one more thing to break. Well, that is now the case...

The front, passenger-side door will only unlock by pulling up physically on the interior knob. Trying to turn the key in the exterior lock seems more likely to break the key than unlock the door. I have lubed the keyway and that makes no difference. So the issue seems to lie elsewhere.

From what little I can tell, this might be related to the electric actuator in the front, passenger-side door. I supposed it might only require lubrication of the locking mechanisms inside the door but I rather doubt this will be that easy.

I have hesitated so far to open things up because the last time I did this on my car I was confronted with a new can of worms in finding a rotted door panel and I am not yet fully recovered from that project and I fear the same here. So at this point I am just wondering if my suspect part - the actuator inside the door - is the likely culprit and how to remove and restore it (if it can be restored).

Thanks