Door lock actuator hell...

[pj2006]

In the last four months ALL of my door lock actuators have gone out. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have to manually lock a front door, but just wait until the back doors go and you have to reach into the car and flip the lock.

The actuators are horrendously engineered and fail, apparently, like clockwork on about the 7th year of ownership.

Luckily they are not too difficult to replace and you can buy reman replacements from this guy on eBay: dkos79 on eBay

Mostly I'm just venting over the nearly $500 I've had to spend on friggin door locks recently. Hopefully you won't have this problem, but I bet you will.

 

[Buckles]

I know your pain. I bought my 4Runner last year and have had the DF, PF, and PR all go out. I still havent replaced the rear yet as I dont use the door that often. Im just glad there is a decent seller on ebay. Maybe its just something in Houston lol

What year is your 4R?

 

[M1911]

Odd. I've owned my '03 since new, put 140k on it, and I've never had an actuator fail.

Is the actuator plastic? The 4th gen Golf and Jetta had problems with their window actuators, but they seemed to be primarily in the south. There was some speculation that the heat weakened the plastic actuators.

 

[03_4x4Runner]

Having grown up in the 60s and 70s we never had power door locks, it was all manual. I guess we are spoiled. My 03 also has had no problems with the door locks.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

110K on my 2002 and never had any issues with any of the actuators...

 

[Buckles]

Having grown up in the 60s and 70s we never had power door locks, it was all manual. I guess we are spoiled. My 03 also has had no problems with the door locks.

Well when there is no key hole on the rear doors it not that easy.

 

[Atlanta_man]

Extended warranty covered all 4 of mine some years ago (2005 4runner)

But it was one-at-a-time altogether over about a year

 

[03_4x4Runner]

Well when there is no key hole on the rear doors it not that easy.

I do not remember if the old cars had key holes in the back doors or not. I only had 2 doors.

 

[M1911]

I do not remember if the old cars had key holes in the back doors or not. I only had 2 doors.

Mine didn't. You reached around the B-pillar and unlocked them by hand.

 

[Asmara]

In the last four months ALL of my door lock actuators have gone out. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have to manually lock a front door, but just wait until the back doors go and you have to reach into the car and flip the lock.
:

No. You're mistaken. That is door-lock-actuator-purgatory. Door-lock-actuator-hell is when your passenger door actuator fails completely in the locked position, without warning, and pulling the cable still doesn't unlock it. lock-failure-door-wont-open

However, you are correct about Dkos79 on eBay. He's a good dude. Didn't have a passenger door lock listed so he put one up. Also sent me pictures of the interior of the lock and showed me what I needed to move to get the door open.

 

[pj2006]

i know your pain. I bought my 4runner last year and have had the df, pf, and pr all go out. I still havent replaced the rear yet as i dont use the door that often. Im just glad there is a decent seller on ebay. Maybe its just something in houston lol

what year is your 4r?

2006

 

[Buckles]

2006

So is mine. Im about to order a new PR in a minute.

 

[buenhec]

Yep. Mine are going bad. 2010 SR5 with 80k. 1st the driver side, replaced it and 4 days later the right rear. At $110-150 each it kind of hurts. My extended warranty expired two months ago. almost perfect timing......

In the last four months ALL of my door lock actuators have gone out. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have to manually lock a front door, but just wait until the back doors go and you have to reach into the car and flip the lock.

The actuators are horrendously engineered and fail, apparently, like clockwork on about the 7th year of ownership.

Luckily they are not too difficult to replace and you can buy reman replacements from this guy on eBay: dkos79 on eBay

Mostly I'm just venting over the nearly $500 I've had to spend on friggin door locks recently. Hopefully you won't have this problem, but I bet you will.

 

[KOTOC-79]

2004 with 80k, never had any problems...weird that ALL of yours went out.

 

[Atlanta_man]

All mine failed, but was still within the 100K extended warranty.

 

[craigcarmean]

2013 fail

My second door actuator just went out.
Dealership said it happens a lot.
Anyone thought of looking in to a lawsuit?

 

[BlackWorksInc]

My second door actuator just went out.
Dealership said it happens a lot.
Anyone thought of looking in to a lawsuit?

For what? I'll be honest I see door lock actuator failures in Toyotas. But it's not a common thing. I've seen them in 3rd gens, early Corollas, new Corollas, Tacomas, Tundras, Highlanders, ect.

The usual common denominator for most common/re-occuring failures seems to be if you clean or have your vehicle cleaned and people spray chemicals all over the interior of the vehicle (key here being re-occurring failures, though I see most one-time, high-mileage, failures just from the motor giving out or a spring going missing). I guess door lock actuators don't like chemicals in their inner workings?

Not sure that's the answer for everyone's issues, but honestly my 4th gen has't had a single door lock failure in it's 130k history. So I'm sure it's a desgn defect as much as just shit luck for some people. There is a small possibility that voltage drop/low battery could play a factor in that as well, but trying to parse data for that is pretty hard.

 

[Atlanta_man]

I had all mine replaced under extended warranty about 8 years ago. They are all still working fine, even with auto lock enabled. Must have been a design improvement along the way.

 

[skott]

Don't spend the $100+ dollars on a new actuator. It's just the motor (most times) in the actuator that has gone bad. You can get replacement motors online for $10.

 

[dld-4runner]

EZ fix for opening the door to remove actuator unit

OK, so I had the driver's door actuator go out on my 2004 4runner. Of course, it failed with the door closed and NONE of the yanking cables type attempts would allow me to open the door latch.

So....

1. Removed the lower back seat (optional but makes it easier to take out the front seat and sit on the floor) and then the driver seat.

2. Removed the screws from the interior door panel, pried and propped it open as far as I could.

3. Unhooked the cables from the handle unit.

4. Drilled a 1/2" access hole centered 7/8" below the lower edge of the latch opening bracket (you can see it between the door and the door post) and as close as I could to the door post moulding. This hole goes through the sheet metal and into the plastic case ~1/4". See attached pictures.

5. Stuck a flat tip screw-driver in the access hole and pushed/pried up the release lever while pushing on the door.

QED (a mathematician's version of "got 'er dun")

BTW-I deviated from the typical replacement procedures by:
1. I left the rod that is connected to the exterior handle attached at top and just slid it back into the new actuator.

2. I did not remove the window track. Instead I just unbolted it then held it in position while a wiggled the old unit out and the new unit back in.