A customer in Ashford got in touch because the front-door multipoint lock had developed an intermittent fault. It had become unreliable enough that the family had started using the side door instead.
Once on site, I removed the multipoint mechanism and opened the gearbox to see whether the original unit could be saved.
I cleaned and lubricated the internal components and tested the gearbox repeatedly. It would operate perfectly perhaps 20 times and then suddenly seize again, which made it impossible to trust as a front-door lock.
At that point, the customer agreed that replacement was the sensible option rather than waiting for the mechanism to fail completely with the door shut.
I had the correct gearbox in van stock, fitted the replacement and tested the complete multipoint system through repeated locking and unlocking cycles.
The front door was back in normal use again instead of the customer having to rely on the side entrance.
