Lock Failure - Door Won't Open

[Asmara]

The locking mechanism in my passenger door failed. The door is closed and locked. I can actually hear the solenoid seemingly working fine (makes different sounds for lock and unlock -same as the other doors) but the door doesn't unlock.

I found this thread and did the same thing. Got the door panel pulled back as best as I could and pulled on the lock mechanism. Tried progressively more and more force but it does not move. When I decided I had nothing to lose, I even rigged it up so I could use my legs to try and move the cable - no joy.

So my next step is going to be to drill out/smash out the plastic housing around the locking mechanism and see if I can figure out how to get the door unlocked.

Before I do, I figured I'd post something on the forum in case there were other good ideas. Anyone??

 

[Asmara]

Does anybody have an old locking mechanism that they would be willing to open up and take some photos of so I can get an idea of what the mechanicals look like before I embark on this project.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Got your PM, I don't know of this being a common issue and there are no TSBs about this at the moment. Can you post some pictures? i am having a hard time understanding what you want to drill out.

 

[preacher35]

Asmara, there was a post earlier today, from a guy who was having trouble with a speaker install and happened to have a photo on there of the locking mechanism. Here it is.

Now, I've had the exact same issue as you, but it occurred whole installing speakers and was not careful when putting the door panel, lock and handle back together. If you look closely, you will see two cables from the left. These are what lock/unlock the door. One cable pulls and the other pushes. These look just like bicycle brake cables with a little cylindrical tip that fits into a cylindrical opening on the mechanism. One of your cables quite possibly came out of the little cylindrical opening. Regardless, removing the door panel and lock mechanism is extremely easy and thus should be pretty simple to diagnose. Feel free to PM me if you need any further help.

 

[Asmara]

Got your PM, I don't know of this being a common issue and there are no TSBs about this at the moment. Can you post some pictures? i am having a hard time understanding what you want to drill out.

BlackWorks - It would be item 10 in the diagram. I don't think there is any way I can get a photo of it. Basically, I'm thinking about destroying the plastic housing with a long drill bit so I can get at the internals. My biggest worry is that I have to have the window down when I do it and I don't want to add a broken window to the problems. I'm going to jam a bunch of cardboard in the door to protect the window.

Once I get in there, I have no idea what the internals will look like, nor can I see. I'll have to do it by feel.

If you look closely, you will see two cables from the left. These are what lock/unlock the door. One cable pulls and the other pushes. These look just like bicycle brake cables with a little cylindrical tip that fits into a cylindrical opening on the mechanism. One of your cables quite possibly came out of the little cylindrical opening. Regardless, removing the door panel and lock mechanism is extremely easy and thus should be pretty simple to diagnose. Feel free to PM me if you need any further help.

I've been pulling on the unlock cable (white one) but it doesn't budge. I even took apart the drivers door to make sure I understood how the mechanism works. Something in the mechanism that latches the door has failed. It would be easy to diagnose - if the door was open. In the closed, latched position there is no way to remove the latching mechanism. The screws are on the side of the door in the door jam.You can't even fully remove the door panel unless you want to destroy that.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Have you tried skipping the cable entirely and trying to move the latch at the lock mechanism?

 

[Asmara]

Have you tried skipping the cable entirely and trying to move the latch at the lock mechanism?

The cable goes inside the plastic housing with the mechanism (as near as I can feel). That why I think I need to bust apart the plastic.

If I had a picture of what it looked like out of the vehicle, I might be able to figure it out better. It seems like the electric solenoid is on top and the mechanical piece is below.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Had this happen to mine when the actuator failed, embarassing making chicks sit in the back like you're driving miss daisy. The guy at the body shop said they had a lot of "fun" getting my door open :faint:

 

[sosari]

Asmara,
I have the same problem. Can you share how did you finally resolved the problem of not being able to unlock your door.?

Best Regards

 

[Asmara]

Asmara,
I have the same problem. Can you share how did you finally resolved the problem of not being able to unlock your door.?

Best Regards

It was a huge pain to get the door open. In fact, I just finished up today because I was away for a few weeks on vacation.

Basically what I did was peel the top of the door panel back, and used a big screw driver, hammer, diagonal cutters and pliers to rip apart the lock housing until I could expose the latch mechanism (see photos) and turn it (press it up) to open the door. The whole thing was a pain from start to finish, even after I got the door ‘open’ it still wouldn’t open because the door panel was stuck on the pillar. So I had to put the door panel back just to open the door fully.

If I was doing it again, I would get a right angle drill and use a hole cutter on the metal door panel beneath the interior plastic and expose the lock. Then drill into the lock’s plastic housing right where the latch mechanism is. Once exposed, you can stick a screw driver into it and lever up the tab that controls the latch.

I attached some pictures of the lock I took out. I bought a rebuilt lock from this guy on ebay. He didn’t have a listing for our lock but when I emailed him, he put up a listing up for me. It looks like he does a good job with the rebuild and he was helpful with questions on the inner workings of the lock when I explained my problem.

Be careful with the tools. I ended up dinging up the top of the door panel with the claw of the hammer. I put a piece of cardboard on the window to protect it.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions. If you get the lock without destroying it, please open it and post some pictures. Maybe we can figure out what is failing.

 

[sigepbiker]

My actuators are starting to not lock/unlock when I
*use the fob
*when shifting in or out of Park or
*when using the door switch.

I can hear it trying to lock/unlock the doors and I can manually move the lock switch from lock to unlock and open the door so I don't think my situation is as bad as the OP's, but pictures of what I'm looking for would be helpful when I open up the door panel.

Right Rear has quit all together, front right and left rear are intermittently working or not working.

Is there a mechanical part I can lube or grease?

 

[thegardentool]

The locking mechanism in my passenger door failed. The door is closed and locked. I can actually hear the solenoid seemingly working fine (makes different sounds for lock and unlock -same as the other doors) but the door doesn't unlock.

I found this thread and did the same thing. Got the door panel pulled back as best as I could and pulled on the lock mechanism. Tried progressively more and more force but it does not move. When I decided I had nothing to lose, I even rigged it up so I could use my legs to try and move the cable - no joy.

So my next step is going to be to drill out/smash out the plastic housing around the locking mechanism and see if I can figure out how to get the door unlocked.

Before I do, I figured I'd post something on the forum in case there were other good ideas. Anyone??

Did replacing just the actuator fix the problem or was there anything else wrong?

I've had a stuck rear driver side door for awhile now, but I was able to live without it working. Another kid on the way so I really need to get all 4 doors working. Ironically last night while I was googling and not getting anywhere, I just went and tried opening it from the inside. The lock itself is impossible to move by hand at times, but after several presses on the fob it did finally unlock enough to open the door.

Since I've had issues with all 4 actuators at various times--usually in extreme heat and extreme cold--I am going to replace all 4 at once for peace of mind. I just wanted to try to get an idea if there was anything else that may be a culprit for not being able to manually move the lock to try to get replacement parts for it at the same time. Anytime the other doors have had issues with the actuator they were able to be opened and manually locked/unlocked from the inside so this one door is the outlier in my situation.

 

[Asmara]

Did replacing just the actuator fix the problem or was there anything else wrong?

I've had a stuck rear driver side door for awhile now, but I was able to live without it working. Another kid on the way so I really need to get all 4 doors working. Ironically last night while I was googling and not getting anywhere, I just went and tried opening it from the inside. The lock itself is impossible to move by hand at times, but after several presses on the fob it did finally unlock enough to open the door.

Since I've had issues with all 4 actuators at various times--usually in extreme heat and extreme cold--I am going to replace all 4 at once for peace of mind. I just wanted to try to get an idea if there was anything else that may be a culprit for not being able to manually move the lock to try to get replacement parts for it at the same time. Anytime the other doors have had issues with the actuator they were able to be opened and manually locked/unlocked from the inside so this one door is the outlier in my situation.

Nope. It was just the actuator. Haven't had a problem since.

 

[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.

 

[83Mule]

This happened to three out of four of My Durango locks and I found I could sometimes pull in really hard on the door as my wife hit the power button to unlock. It seemed to ''unload'' the latch enough to release randomly. One door had to be obliterated from the outside by going under the latch and beating it to pieces! It also had the 15mph auto-lock and I think it just wears out the plastic worm gear in the unit from too much use.

 

[Redfish11]

Saved me a ton of time!

Thank you for the detailed posting and the picture of the
The part without plastic. You saved me a bunch of time and hastle because I was able to do exactly what you said and get it open in no time. I did fiddle with it for a while before I found this. Once I got through the plastic I was able to pop it open. Shockingly the local Toyota dealer near me had 1 actuator in stock and got it all put back together in no time

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.

 

[Cascade4R]

Stuck Door Fix

Instructions and photo were very helpful. I did some experimenting. I found that there is a single screw outboard and above the lever connecting to the outside handle that once removed allows the plastic casing to slide outward and off and pulled out of the door. Once the plastic body is off, the lever that unlatches the door is easily accessed (marked R in one of the pictures, lift up) . The case only has to slide a bit and you may not have to drill that hole to push it off. Accessing (and seeing) the screw though the door is tough. It is up high on the assembly facing toward the front of the car. Pictures are for a right rear door.

Bet this applies to a lot of Toyota door actuators where the door is stuck closed. There was an existing hole on the inside covered by tape that would have allowed pushing outward on the case.

 

[Drj4runner]

Thank you for this tip so I took apart my door actuators I put them back together make sure that everything worked and no problems. Well last door I had a problem rear passenger door did not open at close. I was like doors in stock now what I’m gonna do I tried everything to try to stick little wires through tried to release the latch couldn’t find it couldn’t get it until I actually read this last post that mention to remove the screw in the back and just slide it to the side that pretty much pulls the whole mechanism out and then allows you to release the latch so thank you very much for your help hopefully if anybody runs into the same will be able to fix it.