Door Lock Assistance (In a bit of a jam)

Alright, I need some creative (realistic) thoughts to help me out. I recently changed all of my door lock actuator motors. 3 of the 4 went perfect, with no issues. I did the driver's front door last (of course its the one that would have the issue...), and I've got myself into a jam. On all of the other doors, I tested the door locks with the panels off, and the doors open so I could see if everything was working properly. For whatever reason, I had a brain fart on the driver's door yesterday. I got everything reassembled, and shut the door without verifying everything worked. Crap.... So something was not seated correctly when I put the case back together, the door is stuck in the locked position and will not release. I can hear the motor operating correctly, but I think one of the linkages inside of the actuator case must have come off track. I cannot open the door from the inside or the outside.

Here is my current status:



I found the thread that mentions dremeling the case to expose the locking mechanism, but I'm not really a fan of blindly dremeling out the actuator case in hopes that I do it correctly and get the thing to release. Are there any other ways to explore getting lock to release and this door to open so i can access the bolts to the locking mechanism and redo this actuator assembly? There has to be some sort of fail safe built into vehicles in case something like this fails and you cant open a door, right?

 

Does your driver door not have the option to unlock the door with the key from the outside?

 

You could try post #12 and #25 here.
Hope it helps and works
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/door-lock-cable-not-connected-properly.490209/#post-15091526

 

It does, but because something is off with the linkage internal to the actuator, its not turning completely to the unlock position, or at least it doesnt feel like it. I get a good bit of resistance trying to move the unlock position and i don't want to bend the key.

 

Thanks, I'll read through that. Hopefully the mechanisms are the same from second to third gen.

 

I see what you did there.

 

I checked through that thread, it looks like their issue was the cable came loose on the door handle itself. My issue is the lock won't unlock due to something off track inside of the actuator. Good read for someone in that situation, but unfortunately it won't help mine. Thanks for trying to help though!

 

What happens if you push the remote/alarm twice? Does unlock the other 3 doors. If so, you are going to need to pull the door panel, first remove driver seat to gain more room.

 

correct, all of the other doors operate as they should, and i can hear the motor turning in the actuator in this door, but its not connecting to the locking mechanism. the door panel is removed, I'm just trying to avoid dremling out the plastic actuator case as a solution. I mean, if there is absolutely no other way to do this, I will. I just like to leave destruction as a last option lol.

 

Well, I think I will have to resort to the destructive method. Hopefully it goes well. BUT! I was looking up actuators and the part number crossed to an Avalon. So i stopped at the local upull today and picked up the drivers actuator from there for $13. I'll just swap the new motor in there and put the taco's cables on it and call it good. Or, depending on where I end up drilling, maybe I'll just swap out the drilled portion of the case.

 

So heres my update. Its out and replaced. The step by steps in the other thread made it easy. Although, you are doing a bit of the work blind. And in case any one is wondering, the actuator from the Avalon is identical. Still not sure what is wrong with the one that was original to my truck, the locking mechanism is all bound up somewhere in the plastic levers. Oh well, i'll keep it for spare parts. Finally, for the first time in 4 years, i have 4 working power door locks.

 

Awesome. Good to hear it’s all working now.
Thanks for the update.