Tacoma Doors Lock Now

I wrote previously about the need to fix my truck doors so that they actually lock when I think they lock. I tackled the driver door over the weekend, here are some notes.

If you do not care to read (or about) all the words and explanations, feel free to skip to the SHORT VERSION

NOTE: for whatever it is worth, I actually did this work back in January (2019-01-24) so the details are a little hazy, but it is rainy today so I finally had time away from the yard to finish this post…

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BACKGROUND

As I updated in the original post, to my surprise, I actually succeeded in taking apart the back door, removing the actuator body, and dissecting it to replace the actuator motor. Maybe what was even more surprising is that I was successful in getting it back in the truck and it actually worked!

In the nature of full disclosure, I absolutely could NOT have done this were it not for the awesome video by Tony Manriquez. For the back door I just watched the video, paused it, did it myself, and continued until I was done. I couldn’t believe it, but I did it.

It was somewhat unclear in the comments of the youtube video, but I used the same 20mm D Flat Shaft Door Lock Actuator Motor for both the front and back door.

Well, that gave me the confidence to tackle the driver door and, boy, was that confidence misplaced! I had read in the very helpful comments that the driver side door was a bit different and basically begging the author to create another video for the driver door. It did not take long for me to realize just how different things were. There were a few times I wanted to cry as I kept thinking about how much this pure HUBRIS was going to cost me.

In the end, I prevailed, but there were some real uncomfortable times so I thought I’d share some observations. I failed to capture it in video and I only have a few pictures, but hopefully this will help someone.

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CHALLENGES

CHALLENGE #1: initial differences

I could see right away after taking the driver’s door panel off that this door was different than the back door. Of note:

1. this door has a key lock on the handle which results in a bit of a more complicated actuator housing and more/tougher connections
2. this door has a more elaborate control panel for windows and locks
3. the 10mm bolt connecting the bottom of the window track is right out in the open (as opposed to behind a seal on the back door)
4. the “dressing” at the top of this panel is a “sail”, not the larger trim piece on the back door

SOLUTION #1

I wasn’t freaking out yet, here is how I addressed these challenges:

1. I took a lot of pictures before removing the actuator body/housing from the door, hoping they’d be helpful in putting it back in place
2. I watched a video on removing this panel and so I knew I could just pop this panel off and unplug it. This time I actually used the auto trim removal set even though I could have probably gotten away not using it. (after seeing how easy this was, I’m forced to wonder if I could have taken the window control “panel” off the back door before removing it…it was tough to reach the wire clip between the door and the panel)
3. based on my success on the back door, I was confident enough to just start removing bolts (…hubris) and it was easy enough to find the right one:
   
4. this sail just popped right off

CHALLENGE #2: the actuator body is completely different

When I finally mangled the actuator body out of the door cavity, it was clear pretty quickly that it was very different. I am guessing that that is because these front doors have locks in the door handles and so maybe it just requires the motor to be positioned differently.

SOLUTION #2

I found that, similar to the back door actuator, this shell/body also had a total of 7 screws. I removed these screws and pried apart tabs holding the “clamshell” together, just like before. When I opened it up, it was totally different. There were pins in the motor that I need to get to! Those pins were attached to a piece of plastic that it looked like I could remove. So I removed an additional 3 screws from it and gently pulled it out. I was able to remove the motor from the pins and the auger and replaced it with a new one and carefully closed everything back up.

NOTE: there was some sort of blue lever behind a fragile looking piece of metal…I just tried very hard to not touch those and tried to slide it back in position when done…it must have worked! LUCKY!

I was totally winging it here!

CHALLENGE #3: getting the actuator body back in place in the door

Once the motor had been replaced and the actuator body put back together, I was at the part where I needed to get this actuator body back inside the door cavity. It was truly luck that I got it out and I knew getting it back in was going to be even harder.

SOLUTION #3

Armed with the false confidence from getting the back door working and back together, I determined that getting this actuator body back in would be easier if the window track was out of the way. So I removed the bolt that I guessed was connecting the track up higher in the door:

Even with this bolt removed it was ***very*** tricky to get the actuator body back in the cavity that it needed to be in. I found that if I pushed the "face" of the actuator body against the part of the door closest to me (with the cables bent up against the front-inside of the door) I was able to *just* sneak it by the window track and into the cavity where it needed to be.

CHALLENGE #4: connecting the lock from the handle to the actuator body

Even with the actuator body in place, I had to make sure it lined up with a few different parts. The first was the same as the back door, a rod that essentially slides up into a cone hole. This opens the door when the handle is pulled and was easy to line up if I just brought the actuator body up from the bottom of the cavity. However, try as I might, I could not get the arm that needs to go into a “socket” in the actuator body to go into place. I tried and tried and almost cried. This is the piece that connects to the door handle that allows the key to unlock the door.

SOLUTION #4

After drying my tears, I determined that I just needed to get the actuator body in place and then insert that arm from the door handle lock. This means that I had to take the door handle off. As it turned out, this was much easier than I could have guessed. I followed a great post on this. The pictures in that post are better than I could do, but here are some pictures of the socket/arm/rod/random-words-I’ve-used to (hopefully) help illustrate what I’m talking about.

In these pictures, the (easy) door handle rod is indicated with yellow and the (impossible) door handle lock arm and socket is indicated with blue:

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NEXT STEPS

• after overcoming these challenges, button everything back up and relish in your victory

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SIDE NOTES

• the approach here was, instead of replacing that whole “body,” I took that thing apart and just replaced the part that was broken, the motor (same motor fits both “bodies”)
• what I have referred to as a “actuator body” throughout is called either a “Lock Actuator,” “Door Lock Actuator Motor,” or simply “Lock Assembly” by Toyota. I think the part numbers are as follows:
  • rear door: 69050-04020
  • front door: 69040-04030
• I knew exactly how many clips held the door panel in place but still managed to break some because they were old and apparently dry rotted. Just be prepared to buy some
• I attempted to “fix” the cracked arm rest using Bondic but that didn’t work one little bit. At least now I now how simple it is to take that panel off…so I can put this off another few years

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WHAT I LEARNED

• I learned that the Internet has gotten me into many a sticky situation and then totally redeemed itself by getting me out of them!

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REFERENCE

• awesome video by Tony Manriquez
• to take the driver panel off, I referred to this related video…I had to watch it a few times…
• a great post on removing the door handle

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SHORT VERSION

To avoid tl;dr here are some hints that helped me:

1. there are some significant differences between the back door and the front, but just use the knowledge gained there to locate the window track bolt
2. the actuator body is very different too, but just keep carefully removing things until you can get to and replace the motor
3. in order to get the actuator body back in the cavity, remove the top bolt holding the window track in place
4. it is much easier to line up the arm that goes from the door handle lock to the actuator body if you remove the door handle lock, affix the actuator body, and then insert the door handle lock right back in where it needs to go

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