Rear Doors won't Lock

New member here, just bought a 2002 PreRunner double-cab for my son's first vehicle. Has some issues that I need to take car of before he turns 16. One of the surprise issues that the seller ( a friend from work) wasn't aware of is that the rear door will not lock. The lock buttons move up and down with the switch on the front door, the remote, or moving by hand but neither one will actually lock the door. Fronts work fine. Child lock switch on end of door doesn't affect it. Looks like something is blocking movement because the stroke is shorter and there is no feeling of engagement either up or down, almost like the isn't a connection to the latch. Before I tear into it, I wanted to ask if anyone's run across this problem.

 

Sounds like you've got some projects with this rig.

The Factory Service Manual is widely available in digital form if you search for it- It's for a like a 2003 or something, but it's accurate for the 01-03.5 model years. 03.5-04 have some slight differences.

The Toyota (company/manufacture) parts.toyota.com page is the best place to find actual part numbers for things. They recently updated the site, and it's not quite as good as it used to be. But the sooner you learn to navigate that the easier finding parts will be. I generally find part numbers from there, and then search across the dealer specific and whole sale sites (toyota parts deal, etc..) to find the best deal.

As you've just bought this truck- the first thing you need to address is the lower ball joints. They are known failure point. Just search around here for some examples. So if you don't know when the LBJs were last changed, or what brand they were changed with (OEM only for the LBJs) swap them out, and then get used to doing that every so often.

As for the door locks- If the buttons/knobs move then you need to dig into the doors and find what's not hooked up. There are some rods that connect everything together, and it sounds like one of them is not connected, or the plastic they snap into has failed. Take your time with the old plastic parts, and be prepared to replace things once you break them trying to disassemble things. As careful as I was when I had things apart, I still broke some of the plastic guides and parts associated with the systems...

Take photos of how the rods are routed... note where they enter or exit the vapor barrier, etc... Do one side at a time so you can reference the other side if you get lost.

 

I had this issue and the cause was a build up of debris in the door lock (circled in yellow above) . I was able to remove it and clean it with simple green and a brush. I then added a lubricate and haven't had the issue since.

Its definitely a puzzle to get it in and out but its worth it to have doors that lock.

 

You could say that. It's a nice truck but has the typical frame rust in back, leaky exhaust, brake line leaks, etc.. All normal stuff for a truck this old that lives in the salt belt. Body is actually in pretty good shape though. Thanks for the info, I'm just getting started on figuring out where to go for information and parts for these. I will be going through the front end soon and it will be due for a timing belt, all fun little projects for us to work on.



And I'm not afraid of a little metal work. 1973 Plymouth Cuda I am restoring.

 

Problem solved.
I pulled the driver side rear door panel off to get a look. There was a bit of a trick to pry off the handle cover to access the two bolts. Turns out that it was simply a bit of corrosion and stiffness from sitting unused for a couple years. I verified that the electric lock motor was operating but I could see it wasn't moving past the lock detent. Pulled the latch assembly out, wire brushed it and blew it out with compressed air, then lubed every sliding and rotating surface with lithium grease. The passenger side worked out better in that I was able to get some lube in through the child lock opening and freed it up without disassembly. We also got the bed pulled off to facilitate cleaning up the frame rust and replacing all the brake lines and the proportioning valve.

 

I hope you got a really Good deal sounds like you have your work cut out.

We are always glad to help spend your money.

Enjoy your project.