2008 Lexus es350
It’s my first Lexus. We bought the car used back in Feb ‘19 and a cool feature it had was it unlocked when you grip the handle. Well a month or two later I have to take off the side part to manually unlock the door because although gripping the handle unlocks all the other doors it doesn’t unlock the drivers side, it also doesn’t lock with the black button on the outside but the rest of the car does. Anyone have any thoughts on how to get this fixed?

 

Sounds like the driver's side door lock actuator is busted. Can you lock the driver's door from the inside?

 

The drivers side lock won’t respond to any electronic locking/unlocking. I always have to manually lock it from the inside before leaving to lock the car and manually unlock it with the key from the fob.

 

The actuator is bad.

 

Okay, actuator thanks! Is that something I could do myself or should a mechanic do it?

 

Get it from Amazon or ebay and check for a DIY.

 

That’s the thing I’ve been searching online for a while and I was hoping it was something different because I’ve only found one diy but it’s real sketchy. Any websites you recommend I search through?

 

I always go to YouTube for DIY videos. You might have to look at a couple of videos for cars similar to yours. Here's one for the Camry, a car very similar to the ES:

 

Thanks for all the advice guys!