2016 Door Actuator Broken?? (1 Viewer)

[oDave]

Hi! I am new here. I have however spent many hours searching forums to fix my old 6.0 powerstroke.....Lets hope I am not searching as much as I was with that awesome truck...

Any who. So, I recently got a 2016 and the front doors will not lock. Not with the key fob or with the button on both doors. The other doors will respond to both key fob and buttons. Everything I read on older models seem to point in the direction of the door actuator. I have not found anything from 200 series users and want to confirm my suspicion or at least find some affirmation.

Also it seems like its not old enough for something like this to go wrong. Or is that wrong thinking.

Thanks
Dave

 

[timjax]

Yep. My 2016 driver door actuator went out a few months ago. I replaced it with an OEM refurbished model off eBay for $50 and an hour or so of work.

Here's a link to the Driver Door one specifically:

Toyota Land Cruiser OEM Front Left Door Lock Actuator 2009-2021 Lifetime Waranty | eBay

See full item details.

www.ebay.com

It seems this guy replaces the motor and refurbishes the actuator himself, then offers a Lifetime Warranty if you ship your broken one back, which I assume he also replaces the motor in and adds to his inventory. With Toyota's chronically failing door actuators, this means he has an endless stream of customers and inventory. Pretty good deal versus replacing at the dealer (I've heard of >$300 parts+labor), and perhaps the motors he uses to repair them are higher quality.

Theres a few videos on youtube on removing the door panel, and here's a text writeup from @ayaws on replacing the actuator. If you take some pictures and/or video as you do it, it may prove helpful for others online. My install wasn't too hard with some guesswork and it works great.

All 5 Toyota/Lexus cars we've owned in the last 10 years has had a failed actuator - total of 7 or so actuators iirc. The others went out after about 7-10 years, for some reason the Land Cruiser one went out in 3-4 years. I believe someone on the 5th Gen 4Runner forums has had 5 go out (one he replaced also went out again a few years later). I believe the issue is actually how the motor gets jammed up with grease and gunk and stops working, versus the motor actually dying, since I've seen people repair theirs by just cracking open the actuator and cleaning out the motor.

The actuators seem to be the only quirky recurring issue between Toyotas I've seen. I've been happy with their reliability overall, and I think you will be too - especially so with a Land Cruiser. Welcome to the forum!

 

[99Cruiser]

Amazon sells the Aisin actuators for a around $115. Cheaper than buying at the dealership.

 

[oDave]

Thanks for the reply’s. So..i ordered a pack of four of the actuators today for $27 from amazon. They should come in Thursday. I think I’m just going to try and replace the motor. There are a couple good videos on YouTube that should help.

I’ll post some photos and updates as i go along. If it works.....if not, I will admit my failure and try something else.

Thanks again !
Dave

 

[Madtiger]

So, i guess that these actuators are not part of the “25 years guarantee” thing?

 

[bloc]

Guess not. The really odd thing to me is that they so often seem to go out in pairs. This points to some kind of control module issue.. or at least that makes more sense in my head.

 

[fasteddie2015]

Its the stupid little slot car motor they use. On my 99 GS400 they went out periodically. It got cold here in Austin today and my driver door started actiing up... not locking or unlocking, repeated clicks from inside the door or the rear driver side door. My only word of caution, be careful with the lock and the release cables when you take the door panel off. Learned this one the hard way on the GS and had to replace the whole latch mechanism.

 

[fasteddie2015]

Amazon sells the Aisin actuators for a around $115. Cheaper than buying at the dealership.

Have you used these and are they same mfg as OE?

 

[fasteddie2015]

All of my actuators are 12 years old...and all working fine... So who knows...

Stuff happens...

BTW... The “25 year” guarantee isn’t actually a thing...even though it is said & endlessly repeated on forums...

You're in San Diego where its comfy all year round. Don't gloat.

 

[Markuson]

You're in San Diego where its comfy all year round. Don't gloat.

Heh... No gloating. My truck is currently in the shop. Just sayin...stuff happens & things break.

I do see your point tho & does make sense that freezing climates are harder on things like door actuators. Hardened grease, ice intrusion, etc.

 

[fasteddie2015]

yep. door actuators, especially the drivers door. Batteries 3-4 years almost like clockwork when the temp drops in the winter, or hits 100 in the summer.

UPDATE: Some silicone spray in the latch area and exercising the lock and outside handle seems to have bought me some time. Experience says its just temporary.

 

[bloc]

Its the stupid little slot car motor they use. On my 99 GS400 they went out periodically. It got cold here in Austin today and my driver door started actiing up... not locking or unlocking, repeated clicks from inside the door or the rear driver side door. My only word of caution, be careful with the lock and the release cables when you take the door panel off. Learned this one the hard way on the GS and had to replace the whole latch mechanism.

But why in pairs? If it’s the motors themselves totally random failure seems much more likely.

 

[Volunteer]

Sorry to hear it. Seems like the early model motors lasted longer mine lasted 10 years, so far I only had to replace the drivers side. I bought the pack of 4 motors off Amazon like many in the forum did. It was what my friend would call a 1 banana job on the difficulty scale.

 

[99Cruiser]

Have you used these and are they same mfg as OE?

I bought two for the GX470 and they work great. I don't know if they manufacture the actuators for the Land Cruiser but Aisin is owned partially by Toyota and makes parts for Toyota. The descriptions say original equipment parts.

 

[fasteddie2015]

@Volunteer - I know the motors are replaceable but on my GS it was major surgery to open the actuator to get to the motor. I ordered the whole actuator (Aisin from Amazon) and I'll open up the old one and replace the motor just for practice.

@bloc - By pairs do you mean me and @Dave ? Thats just coincidence. If you mean the driver and rear door on the left for me, its just the driver door. When one lock actuator fails, the locks sometimes keep trying. I hear a click from the rear door but the actuator is fine. Just keeps retrying even though its locked. I can see the inside lock lever struggling to flip on the drivers door.
EDIT: Finally got it. I think you mean the OP and both front doors. Sorry bout that. It is weird but feasible based on my GS experience.

 

[bloc]

@Volunteer - I know the motors are replaceable but on my GS it was major surgery to open the actuator to get to the motor. I ordered the whole actuator (Aisin from Amazon) and I'll open up the old one and replace the motor just for practice.

@bloc - By pairs do you mean me and @Dave ? Thats just coincidence. If you mean the driver and rear door on the left for me, its just the driver door. When one lock actuator fails, the locks sometimes keep trying. I hear a click from the rear door but the actuator is fine. Just keeps retrying even though its locked. I can see the inside lock lever struggling to flip on the drivers door.
EDIT: Finally got it. I think you mean the OP and both front doors. Sorry bout that. It is weird but feasible based on my GS experience.

Yeah, both fronts. Others report both rears in quick succession. Seems odd to me that if it's a faulty motor they wouldn't more often go one at a time. or an obvious control issue, all 4 at once.

 

[fasteddie2015]

In my experience temperature change is a factor, plus use or lack of use. Driver door lock gets the most use and seems to be the one that goes out first.

 

[oDave]

So...

That was it. Both motors. Replaced and everything back to normal.

Thanks to @timjax for the link to the walk through by @ayaws that really took the guess work out of disassembly. Also if you scroll down there is more 200 specific input from @EvilMaddie which was also helpful. The only thing I would disagree with is to take the assembly apart. I tried to do the slip in method..... but the lock arm got bound and I had to take it apart to get it lined up right. There is video on youtube that walks through the disassembly. Its for a tundra buts its the same actuator.



After the drivers side, the passengers side took about 15 min in total. Taking the top cover off saves so much time.

I also bought the motors from amazon. I got 4 for $27. So, I 'm ready the next time this happens.

Thanks for all of the help!

Dave

 

[Hatteras]

Thanks to everyone for pulling this information into one spot. I need to do this soon also. Hope to find time this weekend.

 

[RandyCSVT]

The driver and front passenger actuators went bad in my 2016. They started failing to lock the doors and sticking. I got aisin replacements on Amazon. The job was straightforward. You can find a video walkthrough on door panel removal if you Google clearview mirror how to. The actuator itself is pretty straight forward, but it was nice having a video walkthrough of door panel removal. I was worried about breaking something as some of the pieces seem flimsy.