Maintenance/improvements - 4.3

[anchorman]

Difficulty - Easy

Time - About 30 minutes

Tools - Trim removal tool (example here) http://www.diytools.co.uk/diy/Main/Product...ProductID=26229

or flat blade screwdrivers, 10mm socket and spanner

Introduction

In order to prevent the rear lights from being obscured by the spare wheel, RAVs are fitted with a check strap that limits the door opening to about 60 degrees. However a replacement that opens to a full 90 degrees can be fitted at the risk of the owner. This makes the load space far more practical.

Part No 68650-42070

Price £60 inc delivery and VAT from Lindop Bros Toyota

Procedure

To acces the check strap it is necessary to remove all of the plastic trim from the rear door. If you have never done this you will think you are going to break it but don't worry it is designed to come off!

Open the rear door and start with the trim above the rear window. Carefully push the trim tool or similar lever between the right hand side of the trim and the door. If necessary lever off a piece of card to avoid damaging the paint. Prize down towards the floor;

As soon as you have enough room work across to the left side by putting your fingers between and easing the trim downward. There are 4 studs to pop off spaced roughly at quarters along the trim.

Next move to the side trims by levering from inside the exposed opening at the top;

Now the big panel at the bottom comes off. It is held on only by pop studs so again put the lever between and ease the panel out away from the door;

As soon as you can get your fingers behind, start to work your way around the panel progressively popping the panel off. When it comes away, squeeze the catch on the wiring connector and pull the wires off the light;

This picture shows all of the trim off so you can see the location of the pop studs;

Inevitably some studs will stay in the door

In this case ease them out with the trim tool or 2 screwdrivers and slide them back into the relevant location;

Now carefully separate the polythene liner from the door. Try not to damage it as this stops condensation from forming on the inside of the panel in cold weather;

Now undo the 2 10mm nuts;

and the 10mm bolt that hold the check strap on;

Do not let the door swing about or it could be damaged. Manoeuvre the check strap out from inside the door;

Put the new strap in and refit the fixing nuts and bolt. Replace the polythene liner (avoid getting that black adhesive on your hands!) and pop the lower panel back on not forgetting to first plug in the light.

Re-fit the side and top trim by poping them on.

Finally apply a drop of oil to the pivot point but not to the strap itself as it is self lubricating.

[chatman]

Nicely done Anchorman...Think between me and you we have this "How Too" all sealed up :lol:

Would the routine be the same for the 4.2 model as well......give or take some panel shape differences....

[dave.m]

Anchorman, another excellent tutorial, I definitely think we should ask moderator to pin these as they do on other

TOC forums. It would make it easier to find, same with Chatmans for uploading photos.

Dave.

[dave.m]

*****, that was quick, thanks guys good service

Dave.

[anchorman]

Nicely done Anchorman...Think between me and you we have this "How Too" all sealed up :lol:

Would the routine be the same for the 4.2 model as well......give or take some panel shape differences....

Chatman

The process is exactly the same. In fact, shortly after doing mine I used my old one to fit to a 4.2. I just had to change the anchor plate that fixes to the door frame and that door now opens to about 80 degerees.

Cheers

[jock1]

Nicely done Anchorman...Think between me and you we have this "How Too" all sealed up :lol:

Would the routine be the same for the 4.2 model as well......give or take some panel shape differences....

Chatman

The process is exactly the same. In fact, shortly after doing mine I used my old one to fit to a 4.2. I just had to change the anchor plate that fixes to the door frame and that door now opens to about 80 degerees.

Cheers

That is brilliant Anchorman.Clear ,concise and takes the fear out of the exercise.To a none mechanical type even removing trim panels is is fraught with fears.A picture is worth a thousand words.Well done. :)

[Parts-King]

Excellent, well done. Just as an edit, the part number on a 4.2 is:

68650-42040 Same price £60 delivered INC

4.3 Models, built after Aug 07 have another part number strap as well, so if you want to complete this task, a PM to me with your VIN (Chassis) number, should enable the correct choice of strap. (I'm not sure of the differences in straps, they just have slightly different part numbers)They are all the same price at this moment in time.

Kingo

[JHRC]

Hi All,

Well done Anchorman another excellent demonstation on how to do it right.

I purchased mine from Japarts for £50 and its the exact same part No as kingo. :) :) :)

Cheers Jim

[shcm]

Ok, I'm being pedantic here, but I did mine the other day and just some probably trivial points to add.

1. Of course use the trusted excellent AnchorInstructions.
   
2. If you want to do it in record time, pick a cold December day and do it outside with a keen North-Westerly wind. :D
   
3. When I undid the pivot bolt there seemed to be evidence of blue "loctite" having been used. Not essential I would guess, but I put a bit on when tightening up after.
   
4. Watch the thin rubbery washers on the trim fixing studs. I thought I'd lost some until I realised they were stuck to the polythene and about to fall off.
   
5. If you're in any doubt about doing it, then remember the new strap still has a "notch point" (is there a tech term for that?) at the old "fully open" position. I wasn't expecting that until I saw the part. Still, it was a nice surprise.
   

Think I'm going to put some reflective strip down the inside edge of the door, so that it can be seen when open. Has anybody done anything more exotic?

[anchorman]

I have got some led's but don't want to drill anything on the door while it is still under warranty.

I did add some reflective tape though;

Regards

[chatman]

I have got some led's but don't want to drill anything on the door while it is still under warranty.

I did add some reflective tape though;

You could always get the wife to stand by the door with a small torch in her hand to warn other drivers of the open RAV door....also act as a buffer incase she forgets to turn the torch on :lol:

[Fujisan]

I have got some led's but don't want to drill anything on the door while it is still under warranty.

I did add some reflective tape though;

You could always get the wife to stand by the door with a small torch in her hand to warn other drivers of the open RAV door....also act as a buffer incase she forgets to turn the torch on :lol:

How small'er torch?

[anchorman]

Oh btw.

I noticed my check strap had made onto kingo's website.

Famous at last!!!

[chatman]

Oh btw.

I noticed my check strap had made onto kingo's website.

Famous at last!!!

Hey Anchorman claim the royalties for them using your picture.....

[Parts-King]

I did ask first....................:D:

It saves me fitting one and photo'ing it in this Baltic weather Maybe I should add a note, photo courtesy of Anchorman, and forward all the junk mail that comes with it, lol

Kingo

[shcm]

I did ask first....................:D:

It saves me fitting one and photo'ing it in this Baltic weather Maybe I should add a note, photo courtesy of Anchorman, and forward all the junk mail that comes with it, lol

Kingo

I think that's great. The "Professionals" using stuff from the "Keen Amateurs". (Oh, got to be careful nobody takes that the wrong way as an insult )

[anchorman]

I did ask first....................:D:

It saves me fitting one and photo'ing it in this Baltic weather Maybe I should add a note, photo courtesy of Anchorman, and forward all the junk mail that comes with it, lol

Kingo

Its my memory Kingo but damn fine pics anyway. I'll just tear up this copyright claim form!

Anyway who are you? Who am I?

Hello all.

[bothwell_buyer]

This is a truly helpful instruction.

However.

Why would anyone with a 5 door RAV ( :censor: :censor: :censor: ) want to open the rear door 90 degrees if the other 4 don't open the same. Perhaps the same strap can be fitted to all 5 doors ?? :lol: :lol:

Or is it that yer rear doors wilnae open enuf so ye have tae open the back tae reach o'er an strap the we'ens and other junk in?? :yes:

[Novac]

Well, emboldened by Anchorman's superb how to do it guide. I did it, that is fitted one to the 2001 nV. Slightly different in that the fitting at the body is different and all the electrics are stuck to the inner door and none to the lining. My top trim was in three pieces ie cowl for window brake light and two boomerang like corner pieces.

I should have bought the pop stud removal tool but I improvised with a kitchen fork.

This one also has a 60 degree soft check and a little extra effort takes the door to the 90 degree position.

Absolute doddle to fit as long as you have slim hands and long fingers . Total fitting time including searching for dropped nuts & dislodged pop studs 15minutes

Next is to find a supplier of the red reflective tape to stick to the door edge.

Well thats my pocket money spent - another Christmas present knocked off the list !

Thanks again to Anchorman to inspire the confidence and to Chatman for the photies

[Hoovie]

Ok, I'm being pedantic here, but I did mine the other day and just some probably trivial points to add.

1. Of course use the trusted excellent AnchorInstructions.
   
2. If you want to do it in record time, pick a cold December day and do it outside with a keen North-Westerly wind. :D
   
3. When I undid the pivot bolt there seemed to be evidence of blue "loctite" having been used. Not essential I would guess, but I put a bit on when tightening up after.
   
4. Watch the thin rubbery washers on the trim fixing studs. I thought I'd lost some until I realised they were stuck to the polythene and about to fall off.
   
5. If you're in any doubt about doing it, then remember the new strap still has a "notch point" (is there a tech term for that?) at the old "fully open" position. I wasn't expecting that until I saw the part. Still, it was a nice surprise.
   

Think I'm going to put some reflective strip down the inside edge of the door, so that it can be seen when open. Has anybody done anything more exotic?

i know this is quite an old post, but as it has been ressurected, I will add this link to pips website .... Adding LEDs to Rear Door

[bothwell_buyer]

in reading this post, no-one took me up on the strap for the 5 doors...........................

and Hinge Insurance is even more important now!!

[roger49]

Open wide !

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion and provided guidance regarding the longer rear door check assembly ... for anyone else looking and not finding the answer then open the following: http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=71227

Door opening was the one thing that put me off the RAV but thanks to the blog I found the solution before buying a 2007 XT4 D-4D.

I bought the check assembly from Japarts ... £50 plus delivery ... arrived next day ... fitted inside 15 minutes ... would have taken even less if I'd remembered first time to reconnect the door light !

Can someone explain why Toyota worry about rear light visibility when every van on the road has the same problem ?!

[anchorman]

Welcome to the club Roger.

Not sure if you are correct about vans. If the doors open and stop before the lights are obscured - OK. If the doors fold back then I think you will find the lights are in the bumper or the lights are revealed when the doors are back.

[Parts-King]

As above really, but when the RAV door is open, most importantly it covers the O/S lamp. As an added bit of safety, I always advise putting a strip of red reflective tape down the edge of the door too so anything approaching in the dark with the door open can see you!

Kingo

[crofter]

I have just fitted the extended rear door check strap after reading the excellent instructions and tips in the previous posts.

I would like to put forward a couple of things that I found helped me.

To remove the roll pin I placed a socket on top of the frame mounting bracket for the pin to go up into,and then used a small sash type clamp to push the pin out.

To remove the trim clips left in the door I used a short wood screw which just gripped in the small hole in the centre of clip.

With the aid of a block of wood and a split end lever the clips pulled out sweetly with no damage to them.