What to do if your LG Oven Door Stays Locked after Self Clean

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Appliance Express
March 8, 2021
Oven Repair

LG electric ovens lock when self-cleaning mode is on because the extreme temperatures reached during the cleaning cycle can be dangerous.

Sometimes the lock can fail to disengage once the cycle has finished and the oven has cooled down. Read on to find out why this happens and what you can do to fix it.

The following models of LG oven are covered by this guide:

FG4134ES

FG4341ES

LDG3016ST

LDG3017ST

LRE30451SB

LRE30451ST

LRE30451SW

LRE30755SB

LRE30755ST

LRE30755SW

LRG3091ST

LRG3091ST/00

LRG3091ST/01

LRG3093SB

LRG3093ST

LRG3093SW

LRG3095SB

LRG3095ST

LRG3095SW

LRG3097ST

LSRG309ST

Wait for It to Cool Down

Your oven heats up to around 900°F during the self-cleaning cycle. After the cycle has finished, the lock will stay engaged until the oven has cooled down to a safe temperature. Since ovens are designed to keep heat in as efficiently as possible, this can take a while.

While it usually takes between 30 and 90 minutes for the lock to disengage, it can sometimes take longer. Try waiting another hour or two to see whether the lock disengages before you try anything else.

Restart Your Oven

The oven relies on a temperature sensor to tell it when the oven is cool enough to unlock the door. If this sensor malfunctions, then the lock can get stuck indefinitely.

Resetting the sensor can unlock the oven. To do this, simply switch off the power to the oven and wait for five minutes before turning it on again.

If that doesn’t work, try starting a new self-cleaning cycle and cancelling it after a couple of minutes. Do not attempt to start a new self-cleaning cycle if the oven is displaying an error code.

Release the Door Lock Manually

You can access the door’s locking mechanism through the rear access panel and release it manually. This will open the door and let you access the inside of the oven to conduct further repairs.

Here’s how to release the lock:

  1. Unplug your oven and pull it out from the wall so you can access the back.
  2. Use a Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the screws holding the rear access panel in place.
  3. Remove the panel and place it to the side.
  4. Disconnect the two wires from the terminals on the door lock motor assembly.
  5. Remove the two screws holding the door lock motor assembly in place.
  6. Remove the door lock motor assembly and unhook the actuator rod.
  7. Push on the actuator rod to unlock the door.
  8. Replace the door lock motor assembly, screw it back in place, and reconnect the wires.
  9. Screw the rear access panel back on and move your oven back into place. Switch the power back on.

Check the Lock Motor

Manually releasing the lock motor is not a long-term solution if the lock gets stuck repeatedly. A faulty lock motor will continue to malfunction and will need to be replaced.

You can test if the lock motor is working using a multimeter. Unplug your oven and access the lock motor through the rear access panel in the same way as when you manually released the lock.

Take the wires off the terminals on the lock motor, and place one multimeter probe on each terminal. A reading of one or close to one means that there is no continuity – current cannot flow through the motor.

A reading of zero or close to zero means that current is flowing fine. In this case, you know that the lock motor is not the problem.

If the lock motor is faulty, contact a professional appliance repair technician to conduct the repair.

Check the Wire Harness

If the lock motor is functioning correctly but your lock mechanism is still malfunctioning, the problem could be a faulty connection in the wire harness.

This component allows current to flow from the control board to the lock motor. The control board sends out signals that tell the lock motor when to lock or unlock the door.

To check the wire harness for a faulty connection, follow these steps:

  1. Switch the oven off and unplug it at the wall.
  2. Take the oven out from the wall so you can access the back.
  3. Use a Phillips-head screwdriver to take off both access panels on the rear of the oven.
  4. Locate the two wires coming from the terminals on the lock motor.
  5. Follow these wires up to the control board. The control board is located behind the upper access panel in the middle.
  6. Unplug these two wires from the control board to expose two terminals.
  7. Place one multimeter probe on each of the exposed terminals.
  8. If the multimeter reads zero or close to zero, the wire harness is functioning correctly. If it reads one or close to one, contact a professional appliance repair technician to replace the wire harness.

Replace the Temperature Sensor

With the door now open, you can check the temperature sensor to see if it is working correctly. If it is faulty, the door can remain locked after self-cleaning.

You can use a multimeter to test the continuity through the temperature sensor. If the sensor is faulty, you will need to replace it. It’s possible to do this yourself.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Order a new temperature sensor from LG with the product number 6322B62214A.
  2. Turn your oven off at the wall and unplug it.
  3. Locate the temperature sensor at the top right of the rear wall of the oven.
  4. Open the door and use a Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the screws holding the temperature sensor in place.
  5. Pull on the temperature sensor until you see the wire connector where it is plugged in.
  6. Unplug the sensor and plug in the new one.
  7. Push the new sensor into the hole until it stops moving.
  8. Screw in the temperature sensor.
  9. Plug your oven back in at the wall.

These are the most common reasons for a door locking mechanism that stays locked after engaging the self-cleaning mode on your LG oven. If the above methods do not fix the problem, contact a professional appliance repair technician to find and repair the source of the fault.

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