Gen2 Door Locks Misbehaving

[Bibsy]

Well, my first proper fault. Car is a 2007 plate, and over the last few days one of the rear doors have taken to not unlocking, or not locking. Not every time, but it's bound to just get worse.

Which is a pain, as either I have to leave the car unattended but unlocked, or sometime I can't open the rear door from the outside.

A little poking about the internet seems to indicate this is going to be mega expensive. There is a fix published using a little cheap actuator, but it involves taking the door apart and so on, which is more than my skillset covers.

Before I call the dealer (or just sell the car), has anyone been down this route and have a handy tip, ideally using some washing up liquid and the expenditure of no more than three shiny pennies?

[cootuk]

Our rear driver side deadlock froze in the deadlock position making the door inoperable.

No way to really get it out without major surgery.

Eventually got it released after lots of lock/unlock cycles.

Looking at the lock, I think I am more likely to break it further wrt the actuator motor fix.

Temporarily we didn't deadlock the car as the lock still worked normally.

I happened to find a lock on eBay for about £50 and swapped it out.

Relatively easy if you have spanners, the right size Torx, and long spindly arms rather than my sausage fingers.

I see both rear n/s and offside on eBay atm

The hard part is wendling the lock back into position and getting the outer door handle fork to engage properly.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Locks playing up is also a popular symptom of a failing 12v Battery.

The 12v in a hybrid is very small (ask the new Auris owners about that) as it doesnt have to turn the engine over - it just boots up a computer instead.

There are many many posts on how to check your 12v but here goes;

Leave your car overnight. In the morning get in and put the car in Acc mode (NOT Ready mode) and now wind all 4 windows down at once and then back up again. If they really struggle and/or the interior lights go really dim, then your 12v is on its way out. Now put the car in Ready mode and repeat. If all windows fly down and up again, then it really does point to your 12v - assuming it's the original from new. Normally they last about 5 years/70,000 miles (with some exceptions).

They're about £100 fully fitted by Toyota.

Come back and let us all know how you get on.

[Bibsy]

Would it were so easy. New Battery fitted by Toyota very recently.

[cootuk]

The cheapest thing would be some silicon lubricant just to see if that clears it.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Would it were so easy. New battery fitted by Toyota very recently.

It would be if the new Battery were low. Did they fully charge it before fitting? Has it been run flat since? Have you done short journeys and it hasn't had time to fully charge up?

If it had been sitting on a shelf for 10 months and installed with a low-ish state of charge, then they left the doors open whilst servicing the rest of you car, it might be the reason.

There again, I'm asking questions to try and help you. It might be your locks, it might be something different. You can choose to answer the questions or be guarded about it.

Your car, your call.

[cootuk]

I guess you can still manually lock and unlock that door from the inside using the lock button by the handle?

[Bibsy]

Yes, it can be opened manually.

As to Battery, all those checks were done before posting, but thanks anyway.

I'll give the dealer a call and get the price.

[MLW2233]

When my 12v Battery went , the first thing to go, was the locks. With a good Battery it should go....chonck...chonck...a very solid hard sound. With an iffy Battery it is a swish...swish ...softer sound.