Have you replaced the INSIDE of a Toyota door

How hard is it to replace the "guts" of a Toyota door?
Now that it's open, it looks tight in there. Real tight.
I need to replace the door handle, door latch, & power lock.
Should I give up and let the dealership do the work?
Or can it be done by an amateur who needs to save money?

Details:
1998 Toyota 4Runner, power mirror, locks, & windows.
Door panel is (finally) removed & plastic sheeting pulled back.
Two things are obviously broken:
1. Door handle flaps unconnected
2. Power unlock unlocks three doors but not this one

I suspect I need to replace three things:


Using your advice, I finally slim jimmed the Toyota driver side door open
and was able to access the plastic screws covered by the dashboard so I
could pull off the panel (warning: I broke the circular molded "hole" on
the panel near where it meets the dash in the closed position because it's
not a plastic anchor clip like all the rest. If you remove the door panel,
pull the back, top, and bottoms OUT TOWARD THE INSIDE OF THE TRUCK first,
by pulling away from the door body and then SLIDE HORIONTALLY FORWARD the
very last clip at the front of the door panel so you don't break this
molded hole!).

Anyway, I now have the "guts" of the driver-side door bared open.
I pulled away the plastic sheeting and I can easily see the first of the
two problems.

The small yellow plastic bearing on the top of the up/down door opening
lever disintegrated allowing the up/down metal rod to fall down off of the
door handle. That was why the door handle was flapping in the breeze.

I can not see why the power lock/unlock isn't working on that one side. It
wiggles the driver side lock knob ever so slightly when the button is
pressed but there is no real movement. I can see that a white teflon-
looking bushing on the door latch itself where the up/down rod pulls up on
is mashed up a bit too so maybe that's the culprit.

I suspect I need to replace three things:
1. That yellow plastic bushing on the door handle up/down rod
2. The door latch itself which has the mushed white bushing
3. The power lock/unlock mechanism

I'm hoping I don't have to replace the door handle itself (because of the
lock cylinder matching the other doors). I probably can't just get the
bushing so I'll just pull the bushing off whatever other parts I get since
the door handle itself is fine.

However, my question is:
There's precious little space inside that door.
The window up/down guides will have to be removed near the door latch to
replace the latch and regulator. Am I getting myself too deeply into
trouble? Is this an easy R&R or a monster? Have you done this yourself?


Unfortunately, the Chilton "68604 1997-00 Repair Manual" for "Pick-Ups/Land
Cruiser/4Runner" does NOT have any R&R instructions for this operation. :(

Have you replaced the door latch and power unlock mechanism?
Can it be done by an amateur or should I give up & take it to the dealer?

Stu

It's a bit of a pain in the ass to change the door lock unit, but I think
it can be done if you have the right tools. I think you'll need a couple
different torx bits and extensions to get around there.
If the arm from the lock unit with the white bushing (the one that
connects to the door lock) is having trouble moving, I would suspect the
lock unit itself. But double check that everything is connected. If you do
end up replacing it, the best way to figure out how to remove it is to go
to the dealer and purchase a new one, orient it properly and hold it up to
the door. You'll see where the clips reside and how the thing bolts in
(should be the three torx bolts on the side of the door around the latch).

Anyway, you've come this far, might as well try to finish her off! Post
if you need a hand.

B a r r y <keep_it_in_the_newsgroup_please@thankyou.com> wrote in
€news:Wn2Lf.1979$%m4.1395@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com:[color=blue]
> For $10, you can get 24 hours of access to the actual documents the
> dealership will use from techinfo.toyota.com[/color]

I called Toyota 1-800-622-2033 to order a repair manual & wiring manual.
([url]http://techinfo.toyota.com[/url] 1-877-762-7666). Unfortunately they take a
week to arrive so I had to finish the driver door latch & lock assembly
R&R without benefit of the factory manuals.

Anyway, I'm done with that job and I THANK ALL OF YOU for giving me
the courage to proceed. This post below is not for me, it's for the next
doityourselfer who tries this job.

HERE ARE MY MAIN MISTAKES YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE (sorry for shouting).

MISTAKE #1
When you remove the driver's door panel, the front-most mid-most clip is
not like the rest. I broke mine because I didn't know it was a circular
molded knob which means you MUST slide the door panel flat against the
door toward the front of the car to get that last clip off. All the
other clips are simple anchor expanders (other than the two press clips
you removed first).

MISTAKE #2
When you finally pull the driver's door panel off, you must hold the
panel against the door and slide forward (see mistake #1) and UP.
You slide up to clear the metal tabs which latch onto the top of
the door metal like your fingers would if you were hanging off a thin
metal cliff. When you do this though, there is a small black plastic
clip which falls down. I put the door panel back on without using this
small (1 inch long) black clip because I couldn't figure out where it
really goes.

MISTAKE #3
You must remove the driver's door rearward window track to pull out the
latch mechanism. DO NOT REMOVE THE RUBBER portion of the track!
Just remove the two bolts holding down the steel portion of the window
track. Then pull the track out. If you leave the track in, you
can get the door latch and locking mechanism off, but you can't get it
back on so you may as well remove the latch before removing the door
latch & lock mechanism.

MISTAKE #4
Do NOT wait until the end to screw back on the door pull-up
lock knob! This knob screws on but it's rectangular in a rectangular
slot so if you wait until the end, you can't screw it down all the
way. I had to remove the door panel for a second time in order to put
this knob back on properly.

MISTAKE #5
Same thing with the inside door handle. Don't wait until the
end or you'll have to take the door panel off again like I did. The
Chilton says to remove the white plastic clip on the inside door handle
rod but I didn't need to so I had to initially thread the inside door
handle through the door panel to remove the door panel. It was one of
the last things I did when I took off the door panel and it should have
been one of the first things I did when I put the door panel back on
but I forgot. So make sure you thread the inside door handle through the
cutout for it on the door panel BEFORE putting the door panel back on!

MISTAKE #6
DO NOT put any plastic clips on prematurely! The original problem was
the outside door handle would not unlock the door but the key would.
It turns out the outside door handle has two rods connected to
it via clips. The larger yellow clip holds the open/close rod while the
smaller pink clip holds the keyhole lock/unlock rod. My yellow
open/close rod clip broke off and that is why the door handle would not
unlock the door but the keyhole lock did unlock the door. This yellow
open/close rod clip very often breaks according to the Toyota dealership
(it is a major design flaw). Luckily, they sell the yellow clip for a
few bucks so I bought one. Since I had a few days to go before my door
latch assembly came in, I put the new clip on the old mechanism so that
I'd have the outside door handle work until the new mechanism arrived.
That was a big mistake! You can't get that yellow clip off without
destroying it. I had to go back to the dealership to buy a new clip.
Luckily it was in stock.

I hope that by posting these six mistakes I made today, you won't make
them!

Thanks for all your advice. You gave me the courage to proceed.

Stu

In article <BWdMf.61153$PL5.55374@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com>
[email]spamtrap@lexregia.com[/email] "Stuart A. Bronstein" writes:
[color=blue]
> [...] This yellow open/close rod clip very often breaks
> according to the Toyota dealership (it is a major design flaw).
> Luckily, they sell the yellow clip for a few bucks so I bought
> one. [...][/color]

Some years ago, the car I then owned developed a fault, whose
repair called for one small part, rather as with your adventure.

I went to the dealer's spares department, waved the dead part at
the man and asked, "Have you any of these?"

The man sort-of-grinned and went into the back of the shop. He
came back with a box large enough to hold (eg) a soccer ball and
set it on the counter. It was half full of the little beggars.

"Yes," he said, "we these go wrong quite often."

When the manufacturers don't bother to wrap them individually,
you _know_ they're in demand.
--
Andrew Stephenson