2001 4Runner Limited. Power locks. Ok, so on the rear driver's side door, the button goes up and down, however, the door does not lock. The other 3 doors lock, so the problem is only on this door. I don't think it's necessarily the actuator, because as mentioned, the button goes up and down along with the other doors. But even when the button is down, the door is unlocked. Is there a way to fix this? Or as my wife suggested, just manually lock the door so it stays locked? I took off the door panel and see the 2 rods where the door lock button connects, but I can't figure out how this all connects to the actual locking mechanism, or where the mechanism or switch is, to just lock the door and keep it locked.

When I swapped doors on one of my rigs. I had the drivers door doing that. I ended up bending the locking rod slightly to correct the issue.

In your case, I am suspecting a rod fell off or not locked in place. Hence why the knob goes up and down and the door doesn't lock.


I am don't think we have child safety locks in the rear doors in 3rd gens. However, I never looked.

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Hello Brillo,
Thanks for the reply. How do I see if a rod fell off or not in place? With the door panel removed, there is very limited access to get behind the actual metal of the door. We do have child safety locks - but that will only lock the door from the inside. You can still open it with the door handle from the outside. I had thought of that, but the problem is that anyone can open that door, when we park somewhere and lock all the doors, that door does not lock. There are 2 rods running horizontal to the button - those are connected, and they work. Is there supposed to be a rod running vertical from there, to a lock mechanism? If so, how do I get in there to even look for it? If not, is there a way to manually switch a lock mechanism to the locked position?

We do have child locks on the rear doors, found this out when my passengers couldnt open the rear doors.

Trying to attach picture. Everything looks connected. Not sure what I am missing?

Attached Images

 

If rods are intact. Not child safety. The only thing left would be the lock actuator.

So when the botton is in the lock position. It will not lock.

You can also disconnect the rods to verify they are fully going into position.


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Thanks Brillo...I ordered one of these Amazon.com. I pray the part works, fixes the problem, and isn't too difficult to install. I have never replaced one of these before.

hope you get a non counterfeit part. I would have pulled one from a pick and pull.

You really have to watch Amazon and eBay for bad parts, sadly.

Oh, it's fun to work on the inner door components. :/

Just take your time.

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Ok so here is an update on this joyous and fun project. I actually managed to remove the old actuator, take off the parts to re-use, and installed the new actuator! I reconnected the 3 rods and now the door is locked. It will not unlock. So the reverse of the problem we had to start with. My wife is happier that no one can break into the 4runner now, but I have no idea what I did wrong or how to unlock the door now. The button goes up and down. The interior door handle moves the attachment to the gold rod up and down. I was a mess after working on this in the Florida sun for 2 1/2 hours so I need a good break before trying to figure out what went wrong. If anyone has any ideas, thank you in advance.

Tips: Try to work on it when its cooler and not in mid day sun...

So your amazon part flipped the issue? What do you think it is? I am suspecting you got a defective part. Especially, if you can not manually unlock and lock this door. As you can pull the rods and buttons to do through the functions. I agree that is probably not electrical. I honestly think you got a bad part. Very common from Amazon and Ebay sadly. Does it look like a genuine Toyota part?

Hello Brillo,
I'm in Southwest Florida so we won't get cooler weather until after Thanksgiving! It''s a cheap part, I only paid like $15 for it. Definitely not an OEM part but it looks identical. It does get the button to go up and down and as noted, before, we couldn't get the door to lock, and now we can't get it to unlock. I guess I will play with it some more. I can work with the door closed (I can't open it anyway) and the AC on. But tomorrow it's Monday and back to work so I can only really work on this over the weekend. Actually now that I think about it, since I screwed in the latch part (the 3 star shaped screws), I don't see how I can actually remove this actuator because I would need the door open in order to remove the latch part. Ughh. Isn't there just some way to manually unlock/open the door?

Did you check the child safety lock mechanism?

Hi Sid, it's not the child safety lock. I had tried this initially just to see if I could secure it before trying to install the new actuator. This feature only prevents the door from opening from the inside, not the outside. Now, I can't open it from the outside. Not sure how I can even change the actuator (assuming the one I bought is defective) without being able to open the door. The door panel is off so I am still able to work inside and see the rods. I'm hoping there is some way to manually unlatch/unlock the door. This is all just so frustrating.

Oh boy. So now we have a counterfeit [ generic ] part stuck in
The lock position that will not unlock so the door will open. Even when you have it in the unlock rod in the up position.

I don't know of any way of opening this door in this instance.

I always verify the lock mechanism is fully functional before installing. So an event like this doesn't occur.

Probably going to have drill something to break the lock to open this door...:/

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My suggestion would be to pull the inner panel off the passenger rear door and compare the linkage. it sounds to me like an additional rod may be missing or came loose. If you can look in the passenger side door and see how all the mechanisms work, you might be able to use a screwdriver or something in there and open the drivers side door.
Good luck.