2001 Tacoma interior door latch

First time poster. Been about 15 years since I've had a Toyota, was in a car accident on the 12th and totalled my car. Picked up a 01 Tacoma in pretty good shape with just a few small issues.

Drivers outside lock was sticking little, so used some de icer/graphite greese and works a lot better now but I noticed the inside door latch when pulled to open door doesn't retract like passenger side. I searched forums and found some threads but didn't see anything with this exact issue.

Any ideas what would cause the door to have difficulty unlocking but most notibily indoor latch stay pulled open and not close? I assume some type of spring but couldn't really find anyone else with this exact issue.

 

more than likely the latch mechanism inside the door is gunked up. Some people have had luck with cleaning it while it is installed but it isnt that much more work to get it out to do a good clean and relube. In addition to this there should be a rod guide that keeps the rod from the inside door pull to the latch from flopping around. Any flopping around is not allowing the rod to push the inside latch back closed. My 03 has them so I am assuming your 01 has them also.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Tore the door apart and found it was 2 issues. The floppy handle is actually from the handle assembly, somehow it's missing the spring that should be in the handle to keep it closed (can you buy just the spring or do i have to buy the whole inside handle?) The other part was the outside handle was pretty toast, bend up inside and lock mechanism was pretty dirty. Guy i bought vehicle from had a spare handle from the set he bought when passenger broke so was able to swap that out and clean the lock. Just need to sort out inside handle now.

 

Look at salvage yards they may let u judt take the spring.

 

Thanks I'll check them out tomorrow. I did find these on Amazon, anyone use these before or know what the quality is like?

AUTEX 2pcs Interior Front/Rear Left Right Door Handles Compatible with Tacoma 2001-2004 Camry 87-91 Tercel 95-99 4Runner

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01L8WG7L4?m=A26XZY1DGLFZZH&ref=vp_c_A3RGCY7AZTRR8N&th=1&psc=1 they do have a 90 day warranty and $10-11 ain't bad for 1 or 2 sets of door handles..

 

I bought a set of those a while back and returned it immediately. Color was way off. Quality seemed poor. Buy an OEM, have a backup?

 

I looked at OEM but cheapest i had found was about $30, feels little pricey just for a handle. I actually liked the colors of the Amazon ones, was thinking of painting OEM black anyways. I may give it a shot just to see since they have 90 day warranty on them.