DIY rear door actuator motor repair

All my actuators died in my 08 prerunner and I got tired of doing without so I looked around and found a pretty solid thread about fixing the fronts in a rav4 forum. I decided to do one for the rears to post here. Getting this done at a dealership would cost a ton. This just costs a saturday morning and part of the afternoon.

Tools used: a couple different picks, phillips head, flat head, vise, 4mm allen wrench and 9mm socket.

Start here, pull back slowly from top to bottom.


Pop this out, nice and easy, as othater stated below you can press the center and it will release:


Go ahead and unscrew the philips here and in the door handle:


Raise this guy up by pushing in a clip once you get under the unit:


Undo the wire harness:


Start appling rearward pressure on the panel from the hinges:


Work your way around the bottom and then raise it up at the window and remove the panel:


After you peel back the moisture barrier, unhook the wire harness and remove rubber plug:



Use a 9 or 10 mm socket to remove these bolts, the hold a guide for the window that prevents you from pulling the actuator straight out. Once its loose, remove it.



loosen and remove:


Pull out the unit and and remove lock and handle cable buy opening little doors detach the cables and go to the work bench:



Remove this little piece and unscrew these:




pull out the lock mechinism and start poping up all these little clips. Its a pain you just have to figure out something that works. I had some old dog tags I used to hold some up while i popped the others:



Get it open and seperate the pieces carefully. You dont want anything to pop out, and it wont if you take your time. Then remove the motor:



Now you have to take the motor apart. The two little clips holding the housing on are hard to pry up. I eneded up putting the motor in a rag and then a vise and just digging the clips up with a pick. Then you seperate the motor into 3 pieces and start cleaning carbon:



Most importantly, you have to clean the carbon off the shaft. The carbon builds up and dosent allow proper contact, so you have to get it off. I used 220 grit paper:


Then reasemble the motor, make sure the contacts are on either side of the copper section you just cleaned:



Pop her back in (can only go one way)

This next part is vital. If this does not get done right the door will shut but won't open from the outside i had to take apart and reasemble a few times:


At this point, you put all your screws back in, reverse the process, drink a beer and laugh at how much cash the toyota place didnt get from your wallet.

 

Very good description VG.
Pic two, you push in the center and it releases.
I did the same but I cleaned and replaced the contacts.
Also you can buy the Mabuchi motors online or ebay.

 

Nice write-up and the pics sure help. Thanks for putting this out there.

 

Good deal thanks!

 

Great write up. My diver side rear door lock just quit on me. So I'm going to give this a shot. Thanks for taking the time to do this and hopefully saving me a bunch of money.

 

Toyota did this for me yesterday under warrenty. I still had to sign the cost sheet. almost $500....

 

nice write up. I hope I never have to use it, but will do if necessary. Thank you.

 

Big thank you to the OP for this write up. Took me a couple hours and cost me nothing but time. Working great now.

 

Awesome. Glad to do it.

 

Sooooooo... question for OP or anyone that could help.

I have done this to all four locks. Driver side went first, then the passenger side went. So I cleaned all the motors and all lock and unlock great. With one minor issue.

With the key in the ignition, doesn't matter if it's just in there, acc, or on. When the passenger door is closed. All of the power locks unlock twice. As if someone is hitting the unlock button 2 times in a row. It's only the passenger door that does it. Does not do it when the key is not in the ignition. I took it all apart again to see if wires got damaged during the fix. I disconnected the battery, thinking maybe something got confused during repair. No wire damage and battery disconnect did nothing for it.

So anyone have any ideas? I don't have a clue.

 

so does anyone know what would you have to do if you broke off that switch and didn't want to deal with the double locking sound? I cant seem to find the switch that you guys are talking about

 

figured it out, if you have more than one door that went bad make sure to lock all of your doors before you test your lock that you repaired. If one of the doors has a bad actuator and is unlocked it will make all of the doors cycle the lock one more time, making you think your switch isn't getting a solid contact. This made me re-do this process like 4 times!!

 

I am attempting this fix on two doors today. I will try to get a picture of the little switch. I have noticed that my lights don't always flash when I lock the truck. Does this mean I have bad switches??

 

I think mine did that once in a while before the fix. I think it's because some of the doors aren't locking. So it's effecting the signal to flash the lights. Also if you're a double cab. If you have the time, do all 4. They all gonna go sooner or later. And by the time you're done your 2nd one, the third and fourth are cake.

 

That's what I figured. Done with the first, but I'm now getting the double lock issue. I looked and couldn't find the small switch. There was so much grease in it I didn't want to go digging through it. Looks like I am now.

 

I wish I took a pic. , but even though it's small, you'll see it. And you'll notice that something doesn't look right as soon as you find it.

 

Found a pic for you on another thread I happen to come across. Circled in red is the switch. That little metal arm gets bent and doesn't make contact. Causing the double lock issue.

 

Ok? I was very careful when I took this apart. My actuator is a little different. I was very easy to take apart. Hmmm

 

Which doors have you done?

 

Driver rear. 08