How To Open Passenger Door When Lock Internally Siezed?

November 9, 2015

I have a 2006 Yaris with keyless entry. Passenger door lock mechanism seems internally siezed. My challenge is to get the door open so I can swap the lock mechanism, but after several hours of messing I still cant get it to unlock. Any service gurus out there?

I started by cycling the central locking back and forth quite a few times, even whilst pressing against the door so as to take the pressure off the lock-plate... no luck. the lock was clicking but not unlocking. I tried it when the car was cold, I tried it when the full mid-day sun had heated the door panel so it was hot to the touch... no difference.

I then managed to prise the door card half-way off, (but cannot remove it completely without the door being open.)

The lock mechanism seems to have two actuators; one for the dead-lock mechanism, and one for the normal lock. both motors are receiving 12V pulses from the control unit, and if I supply 12V to the relevent pins on the lock, the deadlock motor actuates with a good clunk, but the normal lock motor just gives a quiet click.

Apparently this problem is not unheard of, and the lock has latterly been redesigned due to this weakness.

I've drilled a small hole in the plastic lock housing and injected WD40 several times over 48 hours. This has loosened up the dead-lock, so it clunks open and closed even more loudly, but not the normal lock mechanism. I've even used a 12V drill Battery and pair of wires to cycle the lock motor back and forth dozens of times (quickly reversing polarity), but it still just clicks and doesn't want to move. There is no external lock-barrel mechanism on this door, so I cannot manually trigger the lock mechanism. The internal door handle lock rocker-switch is stuck in the lock position, and if I press it to the unlock position, it springs straight back. I detached the cable from the door handle, and the behaviour of the cable is the same.

The lock mechanism is retained with three torx fasteners through the door jamb, but to get access to those of course, the door needs to be open!

I've been in touch with a local toyota garage, to ask if there is a specific procedure they can use to open the door... I really don't mind paying them to get the door open, even though it frustrates me that the problem is likely down to poor design. Thing is, all they will commit to is charging me £90 to 'assess' the job, with no commitment whether they will actually be able to open the door or not, so I could be £90 down for some technician to say something like... 'yep it's stuck, only way is to chop the outer skin off the door and drill the lock out'

Please Help! I'm very mechanically and electrically competent, but this has really got me snookered. I'm wondering if there is some secret Toyota procedure for breaking the lock off, or drilling the lock mechanism from down the window-slot or similar to get the mechanism to unlock? I even bought the service manual as an electronic download, and this hasn't helped me beyond the electrical pin-ous.

All feedback very gratefully received!

November 11, 2015

Surprised no one has answered with some suggestions. How about sacrificing the door card? Cut it off to allow you access to see if you can do anything about freeing off the lock. A second hand door card would probly cost you less than £90.

You could try striking the outer door skin a couple of times with the palm of your hand or the heel of your fist while you lock and unlock the door and have someone alternatively try the interior / exterior handles. You could also up the ante a bit and place a folded towel or similar on the door skin and strike it with a soft rubber mallet. Another try would be to lie along the seat and thump the door on the inside with your stockinged foot while trying the lock / unlock / door handle sequence again.

It's surprising how much the door is stiffened up when the window is closed. I've had cars where I've managed to get a stuck door open by rolling the window down to get a bit of flexibility. Another thing i've done is to open all the other doors (to maximise body flexure) and jack the car up at the same corner as the stuck door before applying some controlled violence. Yours may be different in that it's the lock actuator itself but anything's worth trying.

November 11, 2015

Thank you for the suggestions Tom, much appreciated. I think I'ts gone a bit beyond a foot strike though.

I tried striking the outer door skin as my very first step (palm, backside, thigh), along with also alternatively compressing the door to relieve the pressure on the lock . Because the door catch/latch-mechanism doesn't rotate (by design) when you avtivate the locking mechanism (only when you pull the actual door release), I figure there is really not much point to compressing or banging the door, or trying to distort the door whilst the window is down... it's now much clearer to me that the jam is deep within the internal sliding metal/nylon lock components.

After managing to partially remove the door card, I driiled a small hole in the lock's outer plastic casing and injected WD40. I tried vibrating the lock by turning a drill-bit back to front, and setting my drill to hammer action, then activating the central locking whilst vibrating the hell out of the lock... still no use. The WD40 did loosen up the dead-lock nicely, so now this gives a right resounding clunk, but the main lock just gives a little click with each reversal of supply polarity. (I've been using a 12V drill Battery to rapidly cycle this motor back and forth to try to free this part). At least the motor is not burned out (yet), it is attempting to move the internal mechanism, but failing.

Today I've spoken with a toyota service manager who consulted his tech... apparently they come across this problem from time to time, and agreed that it's a nightmare to get the door open. They feel confident they can do it for me at the cost of £220 (£96 labour and £124 for new lock), but this will involve completely trashing the door card, of which the price of a new one is ...wait for it... £424!!!!!! So an affordable couple of hundred quid fix now becomes a balking £650, unless I can source a second-hand door card (hens teeth?)

I've drilled yet another 3mm hole, and injected more WD40 (two days ago), so will try the vibrating approach again whilst actuating the motor to see if just maybe the damned thing will unlock... It only needs to move just once for me, and I can then whip the offending lock out and throw it as far as I possibly can!!!!!

Any more suggestions guys?

We had a mk 1 Yaris for years, and it never gave an ounce of trouble, but this mkII is pretty tinny in comparison, and has had constant little niggly faults... Now this door lock failure has really irritated me, because if Toyota had designed it better in the first place, it would be easier to manually release, or not have siezed in the first place!

My current drive is a 54 plate Avensis D4D estate which I have had for over 8 years, and has 210,000 miles on the clock... I'd love to replace it with something newer, but the old girl just keeps on and ariston, whilst giving me 50 to the gallon to boot. She just passed MOT again on Monday with no work required. I just intend to drive her until she eventually goes bang, but she's required such little work in the eight years I've had her:

-EGR valve: two electrical pins fatigue cracked off due to vibration as the loom was dead tight. I opened the valve and soldered two new pins in... been working fine ever since (five years!)

-Fitted a new cam belt last summer, but it was due. Also replaced the water pump as 'good practice', but swear the new one weeps more than the original!

-Last MOT required me to replace a flexible brake pipe, and front disks.

-Last year I had to trim back the clutch slave cylinder hydraulic pipe and re-flare it, as it had rusted through just next to the cylinder, but I caught the issue (Just) before it left me stranded... I saw the corrosion, took a wire brush to it, and after just two strokes, it started to leak fluid!

...She had 100,000miles when I bought her, and the above is the only work I've had to do in eight years and 110,000 miles, other than two sets of tyres and a new Battery!

November 11, 2015

I think it’s me that should be coming to you to ask for advice, Craig, you sound like a pretty capable, resourceful type of guy. Personally I’d consider ripping off the door card – you can always run without one for a while until a pre-loved one turns up.

It’s difficult to know what your next step is short of (if it’s a two door car) removing the rear side trim panel and seeing if you can Dremel off the captive nut plate for the bolts that hold on the striker plate. The costs involved going to the dealer are horrendous – have you looked online for a second hand door?

November 12, 2015

I don't have a solution and please don't be offended by this post. Here is one way to do it though! :eek: Not recommended. :dontgetit:

If at first you don't succeed get a bigger bar and don a straw boater and blue and white striped apron. :laughing:

August 12, 2017

I just had this very same problem with my 07 Yaris. For whatever reason when the sun shone the dead lock mechanism was not releasing, probably due to wear on the lobes of the mechanism and or worm drive, as the motor was cycling correctly . One cool morning when I managed to unlock the passenger door I removed the lock and proceeded to pull it apart. Thankfully it was pretty easy and nothing went flying across the room. After awhile examining how it all worked and re greasing I trial ran it connected to the electrics and this is how I discovered the dead lock was the culprit as it worked fine until that part was activated. So disassembled again and removed dead lock motor. Now it all works fine other than dead locking that door which isn't really causing me any problems. The normal lock is sufficient