hypervish

Welcome to Club Lexus!

When you pull the interior door release handle, do you feel any resistance or is it just free?

LivLrg

I have removed the plastic cover of the door handle and the door handle shroud. When I lift the handle to open the door, there is some resistance and I can see that the actuator cable is tied to the door handle I believe that I may have missed tying to lock actuator or the child safety lock is on. Since I can’t open the door or take off the door cover I don’t know what to do?

Bax

I would like to add. I indexed the gear to the housing before I removed the old motor, I put a mark on the large gear and a mark on the housing at the same spot so when I installed the new motor it was the same. So after I replaced everything it was in the same position as I started locked or unlocked.

Bax

ramair350

I am a newbie to the forums, and am happy to say that I stole shamelessly from the instructions and successfully fixed ALL of my doors today. The first door (driver rear) took me about 3 hours, but each additional door took about an hour each. Pretty long afternoon, but beats spending $2K! I am such a newbie that I didn't understand how the "rivet" style pins work in the first door, but after seeing bits of shattered plastic flying around, I figured that one out pretty quick.

As many have observed, possible the toughest part of this fix is getting the module case open to access the motor. I really butchered my first two, and used a new blade on a boxcutter knife and then used a dremel to open these things up. VERY tough.

So the magic solution I found was to secure the module casing in a vise, and then put the boxcutter blade against the seam of the casing. Then, using a hammer, I just gently tapped my way around the casing, and in about 60 seconds I had a perfectly clean split. Worked like a charm; the Dremel method wasn't bad but I got some shavings in the gears and then had trouble getting things cleaned out, plus I am worried about the amount of missing material in those.

Also, I found the gap on each motor shaft to be an identical 6 hundredths of an inch (.06 inches) between the motor housing and where the sleeve slips on the shaft. I was able to remove all of the sleeves from the 'bad" motors by using a method similar to the "claw hammer" that others have used (I used a pry bar and hammer claws, and just tapped my way to success ... messed up the "bad" motor housings but those were going in the trash anyway).

Finally, I just wanted to THANK all of the previous posters who helped make it possible to address this issue (which really should have been taken care of by Lexus as a true serious design flaw, but oh well). This is my wife's vehicle, and she is REALLY happy, so life is good - thanks again everyone!

rmurchek

Your directions were perfect. I followed them to repair the drivers door and one of the rear doors on my 2000 RX300

xtwister16

I did my both rear doors yesterday, they work great now. 1st door took 2 hours, 2nd door took 1 hour.

TIPS:
1: To pry open the actuator, use a vice! Just look at the picture ramair350 posted two post above this post. It made it so MUCH easier
2. For the REAR door, the actuator comes out the TOP hole. Unscrew the 1 bottom crew for the window divider, lightly, bend it back to make a bit extra room to take out the actuator.
3. Once the actuator is Opened, do NOT take out the big wheel. Hold the big wheel in down place.

Xtom73G

Hi RockthisNJ Removing the headlight units is fairly easy. After removing the big bolts, note that there are splring type clips on the bottom. Wiggle the unit free.

Xtom73G

I'm surprised to see the little motor, which I recognized from long ago employment. I won't mention any name here, but I used to be Q.A. Manager for a certain manufacturer of little gun safes. Yes, most common issue was that motor, specifically the pressed-on item on the shaft end, slipping. Nice motor, but shafts not notched to allow a really strong bond with a pressed on end-item. By the way, if moisture sealing on housing is a concern, a bit of silicon bathtub sealant can work wonders, just make sure the surface is clean of all grease to allow a strong seal.

BlueCrabby

I've been pondering about that statement for a while now.

I previously fixed my driver-side front door's lock actuator thanks your instructions.
It had been broken for over 3 years and I just used my key to lock/unlock the doors.
When I finally got my butt off the couch and fixed it, I couldn't believe how easy it was.
(and for only $20)

Since the day I bought the RX300 new more than 10 years ago, all 4 doors had always
locked/unlocked together with the press of the remote. Since they should have had
the exact same amount wear and tear, I can't figure out why the driver's door was the
only one that had a broken lock actuator motor. The other three doors unlock/lock
just fine.

Is there some other cause for the driver's side's actuator to fail first?

...

also..... the driver's door lock now operate perfectly with the remote after little motor
was installed. I was playing with the defective motor that i took out. I hooked it up to
12V. It still spins very strongly.... I wonder what happened to make it stop working
inside the lock actuator assembly?

Baetke

There is a dealer programmable option that allows you to have all 5 doors unlock at the same time or just the driver door, depending on your preference. Owners that have that option set for just the driver door might very possibly see a higher failure rate on the drivers door but with the other option, its just the luck of the draw which door lock would wear out first.

2002RX300

Hmmm. Didn't know about the dealer programmable option of the key remote. On my key remote I push the unlock button once and only the driver's door unlocks, I have to push it twice for all the other doors to unlock. I presumed all RX300's did the same thing, which is why the driver's door lock actuator would wear out first.

If this is an option, I would prefer it that only the driver's door unlocks with one push of the key remote unlock button. Much easier to replace a worn out key remote battery than a worn out actuator motor.

Yellowbro

I just did this fix....thanks for write up... the gear puller was garbage...I did all 4 doors...

Now to change o2, servo, and wait for power window to act up 100% of the time...

Lexmus

I replaced my motor today and wanted to also vouch the method of Ramair350 to open the actuator case. Another thing you should look out for while you have the lock apparatus available is the door cable assembly (p/n 69710-48010). I happened to notice my cable was frayed and only had one strand of wire connecting the pin to the cable . If that cable fails, you can't open the door from the inside. I have replaced one of these on an Accord, so I was familiar with the failure. A quick run to the dealer and for $12 that was fixed as well.

JAB

Anybody got a part number for that cable but passenger side, rear? Thanks.

Lexmus

Looks like right rear and left rear are the same part number, 69730-48010.

There was nothing side specific in appearance about the front door cable, and left and right share the same part number 69710-48010.

You can search the part number and pull up the drawing at lexus of south atlanta parts.