jenkins000

Yes I was able to remove the B pillar trim and check it out. I'm not sure if the vehicles are the same, but that only gave me access to the rear door bolts. It gave me 1/4 inch more visibility to the striker bolt of the front door. But cutting those bolts is going to be extremely difficult because they're designed to withstand anything.

Let me know if anyone has any more ideas.
Thanks

Bon

Well, it's great that you can see the striker nuts. They are not hardened grade 5 or 8 bolts or nuts. I cut out a 1" x 3" square of sheet metal to give me the access that I needed to get a pneumatic cutter and sometimes a dremel into position to cut through both the nuts and bolts together. I used fiber reenforced discs to do the cutting. At least all the cutting and damage is hidden when you're done.

Have you figured out what you did wrong in your reassembly? Have you considered looking at the other door to inspect it as a guide?

jenkins000

Hey Bon, thanks again for all the input.
I did indeed disassemble the passenger side door. Then, while flexing the panel away from the door and jamming my arm down near the lock, I attempted to feel for the release gear for the latch. It's an exact mirror image of the passenger door so I was able to feel my way around. However, I couldn't quite reach the latch because it was at a weird angle and I want the scrapes on my arm to remain 'home treatable'.
Since that didn't work, I elected to dremel a 2" by 2" hole in the 'cosmetically hidden' area near the latch. I can now see/operate the lock mechanism. However, I am still unable to flip the latch.
So dremelling a slightly larger/lower hole will probably happen tonight.

*I did successfully reassemble the passenger door (after triple checking that the latch and lock worked*

Just wondering, if it came down to it...if I dremelled a 5"x5" hole in the EXTERIOR of the door, how difficult/expensive would it be to repair it like new?

Bon

I"m no expert but it seems like body shops have a floor of around $1000 for everything they touch. That said, I'd sure try everything imaginable before resorting to doing that and I'm sure that you are already doing just that. "Home treatable"

jenkins000

Ok so good news and bad news.
Good news: We found out exactly what is wrong with the door by examining and messing around with the passenger side lock assembly.
Bad news: It is 100% inaccessible unless the lock assembly is completely removed from the car door (aka, the striker bolts are going to be cut asap!)

So here's what happened... Being a tinkering engineer who can't help but start messing with things, I disassembled some things that I had no business unscrewing. The erroneous reassembly occurred underneath the gold colored latch plate.
Once I cut the bolts and remove the assembly, I'll be sure to take some pictures.

But until then:
Underneath the gold plate, the latch (striker) rotates around a central axis bolt. It has two springs keeping it tightly in position. If these were all that held it in place, you could open and close your door, but it wouldn't stay closed. Something is needed to prevent the latch (striker) from rotating once it grabs onto the striker bolt. This piece is spring loaded and moves out of the way when you pull on either door handle.

My mistake:
When removing the gold plate, that spring loaded piece is pushed upward a bit by its spring. When reinstalling this piece, I didn't see the small slot in it where another gear catches. I simply pushed it back in. So this piece is now permanently in the 'prevent the striker from rotating' position and can only be fixed if the gold plate is removed.

Sorry if that's confusing but if you look underneath the gold plate, you'll see what I mean.
Again, pictures to follow.
Thanks again for any and all support guys.
-Will

jenkins000

Alrighty so the buddy who helped me with the door was in somewhat of a rush, so no pictures were taken. My apologies.

However, we were successful in cutting through the striker bolt (both sides of it) with minimal damage to the car.
After moving the driver seat as far forward as possible and removing some interior trim, we took an angle grinder with a cutting wheel to the inside of the B pillar. Once we cut through both plates of steel, we were able to fit a reciprocating saw through the cut. From there, it only took about a minute to cut through both bolts on a low speed.

Sure enough, after taking the lock assembly out and checking it out, our diagnosis (mentioned earlier) was correct.

I'm quite the 2001 Lexus LS430 lock assembly expert by now (At least I feel that way). So message me with any and all questions related to it.

Bon

Congratulations! I'm pleased to see you got it fixed. Whew! I'm certain that others will learn and benefit from your mistake. Thanks for following up.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for digging into this. If you can post pics and detailed instructions in the thread, your insights will help many to come.

LS/SC

I just finished my drivers door. To help those who have to file their shaft flat before they get started the obvious question is how much to file. The answer is (as measured from the removed motor):

The shaft is .080"/2.0mm approx in diameter.
File it down until the shaft thickness is .058"/1.5mm. That's about 3/4 of the diameter, so there should be roughly 1/8 of the diameter left on each side when viewing from top. Recommend you only pre-file about 2/3 of the material removal-- then save the last fine filing for when you remove the plastic spiral gear and can fit it to your reworked shaft so the fit will be good.

Filing is easy! File to within 1/16"/1.5mm of the housing so gear will go on all the way!

Good luck!

groomerz

just finished my front passenger on my 02 Ls430 everything went smoothly, To file the shaft I was able to put small vise grip on back end of shaft to keep from turning placed shaft on workbench and filed. To help remove actuator/ door latch assy I removed both track bolts and slid metal trck down rubber guide about 1 inch the it would slide forward which made removal a piece of cake. When I replaced motor I think I discovered what burns them up if internal actuator contacts are not signalling lock position acurately motor will stay on until it recievies signal from contacts. I know this because I greased the contact slideduring motor replacement and lock would not unlock easily manually. i cycled locks 5 -6 times to clear grease from contact slides and now ok . I ohmed 1-2 contact to check and ok

BMW7_LS430

Finally braved the driver side door but now the door does not lock at all even by using the manual button inside the door. Automatic door closures do not work as well. I am bummed. Opening the door again but not sure what to do.

BMW7_LS430

Ok, second time was a success and I know what the root cause as well.
Here are photos of the lobster.

BMW7_LS430

More photos.
Old motor on left and new on right, (Sorry for the out of focus motor pictures)

LazyAccent

I was randomly on amazon looking for something else and I stumbled upon the d shaft malabuchi motors.

BMW7_LS430

There are so many scratches on the motor. I am guessing it must be a used motor from junkyard or something. Anyways it is not available anymore.