Tacoma Doors Won't Lock

I’m pretty sure I need to replace the actuators that lock my Tacoma doors and from what I can tell, it is no small task.

BACKGROUND

Some time ago, the driver’s door on my 2009 Toyota Tacoma began working only some of the time. This was made obvious when the truck refused to BEEP when using the keyless entry. It got more and more regular until it simply never worked anymore. This was annoying, but I figured, I have the key right in my hand so I resorted to just unlocking the door with the key, and locking the door with my hand as I exited the truck. No big deal.

But recently, the passenger side back door is exhibiting a similar behavior. Truth be told, I don’t know how long this has been going on because it does not effect the BEEP, it simply does or does not lock. SIDE NOTE: the first time I noticed this was when I made a lot of fun of my mom who was sitting back there and couldn’t get out because the door was locked …sorry mom.

This is a little more disconcerting and will ultimately force me to get this fixed.

UPDATE: 2019-01-12

I completed the passenger back door today! I was really anticipating getting hung up and it being a real pain and, actually, failing. I had allocated an entire day of frustration and pain, but it was completed in about 2.5 hours (I actually cut the grass maybe too late in the season between the time I took the actuator out and when I replaced the motor).

I absolutely could not have done it without the video but would like to add the following notes:

• the video is awesome, and at one point even states how many screws you’ll need to undo once the actuator is out. Unfortunately, that sort of foresight is not provided when you’re actually taking the panel off. In all fairness, the video author does state that most Tacoma owners probably already know how to take the door panel off. Apparently I am not most Tacoma owners which is disappointing. For future reference, there are 8 clips holding the door in place. Even with that knowledge, there’s a good chance I would have broken some of them. But in my case, I broke off 4 of the 8. Whoops. And it really sort of sucked because not only did I have to buy more, but it was tough to get the busted ones out. I used this method to get the busted ones out.
• getting the actuator body back into place is…horrible. If I’m being honest, I don’t even know how I got it out, after monkey-ing with it, it eventually sort of plopped out. But getting it back in place probably took more time than any other part of this project. I wish I could provide some solid advice on the best method to get it back in place, but I just wrestled with it. I can’t say for sure what the best method is. Just expect some time at that part of the project.
• I purchased this auto trim removal set but really didn’t use it. This might explain the busted clips, but I don’t want to think so.
• I still need to do the driver side front door…

SOLUTION

Most of what I’ve read online tend to point at the actuators in the door locks. I have not taken the truck to a shop to inquire about the repair, but most of those same articles indicate that having it fixed by a pro is super expensive. Naturally I won’t be doing that.

I have found a pretty detailed video of doing this work on the back door. The page also notes that the part is a 20mm flat shaft actuator motor and can be found on ebay (sold by zinsky) or Amazon.

NEXT STEPS

• Purchase the parts and dedicate some time to do this

SIDE NOTES

• The comments in the video are very insightful and should be read in their entirety. They indicate that the driver side door is going to be a bit of a different process…
• While I have to door panels off, I should also consider repairing the cracked armrest:
  • Door panel armrest repair
  • Driver side arm rest cracked

[return to top of page]