Rear cargo door won't open
 

My wife managed to screw up the rear cargo door yesterday.

The door won't open from the outside and there's no interior handle.

When I unlock the car, the back door unlocks but then quickly locks...

When I arm (lock) the car with the key fob, all of the doors lock but the alarm won't arm (I think the car believes the back door isn't closed). However, the door is definitely closed as far as it will go...but it doesn't APPEAR to be fully closed.

There don't appear to be any foreign objects closed in the door. When I tug on the door from the outside, I feel like I'm going to rip the handle off the door.

Any ideas before I hire a dealer to fix it?

There is a TSB (technical service bulletin) from Lexus for this problem, so they know exactly what to do. I don't know the details, but my understanding is that there is an issue with the latch internally. If it "fixes" itself (unjams) in the next few days, the dealer can open the door, remove the panel, and replace the latch. Otherwise, they get in from the front, break the plastic door panel (which they will replace, of course), and open the door that way.

Several people on this forum have had this done. BTW, what year is your GX?

Same thing happened to our 04 GX470. We have yet to take it in, but have an appt scheduled for next week. What a PITA. Makes trips to COSTCO a huge PITA. lol.

i think what happens is that the door remains locked and the mechanism is broken. that's what happened to me. actually for the first 3 days, all i did was lock and unlock for 5-7 times and it would open. eventually, a day after it was just lock shut. so they openned the rear panel thingy, and replaced the locking mechanism. :egads:

Yeah, that seems to be the problem! Won't unlock PERIOD. I also noticed that even the keyless entry will not "chip" on lock, only unlock.....Strange how it "knows" something is amiss. Tim

what do you mean by not "chip"? you mean "chirp"? well if it doesn't "chirp", it's not connected to the broken mechanism of the rear door. mine still opens and locks good except at that time , you don't hear the rear door unlock. so yea, the dealer should know what to do since there have been several cases of this before. ;)

Sorry, yea CHIRP... Right when the rear door malfuctioned, the alarm seemed to as well.

When arming (locking) the system with the key, it will not chirp. When unlocking, it chirps twice, as it should. This happened at the same time the rear door lock malfunctioned. Coincidence???? Maybe.

The keyless "remote" still locks and unlocks the doors as it should (except the rear door!), but simply does not "chirp" when locking now. I will have that looked at as well. Thanks for the info, Tim

Instead of just depending on the "chirp" or not, look at the Alarmed armed signal in the dash display. Actually called Security Indicator Light. It should turn on steady when all the doors are shut and locked, and then start blinking after 30 seconds. This means armed.

Also, you can test by lowering a window, locking up the car. Then after 30 seconds open the door by reaching in thru the open window and opening from the inside. Alarm should go off.

Yes, I know, and have checked that the alram still works....and it does. The only issue, asside from the constantly locked rear door, is that I do not get the "arming chirp". Both happened at the same time as I was driving it and just got back from the store...it armed, and chirped at the store......I got home, and the rear would not unlock...I used the remote a few times to unlock it...two chirps each time...no unlock (rear only). I tried to lock then unlock using the remote....no lock chirp... There is no doubt these happened at the same time. Could be coincidence I guess but other than the absent lock chirp, the alram and rest of the keyless entry works fine.

that is strange. didn' t happen to me. well i guess there's something wrong ALSO with the arming chirp.

try this. seems like u r trying to open the rear door buy lock/unlock with the remote. try it from the switch inside. do it , oh, about 5-7 times of lock/unlock and eventually the door mechanism works (sometimes) but will eventually just lock up permanently. :sad:

Finally took the GX in to get this fixed. The alarm "chrips" now on "lock" like normal. Must have been related to the failed cargo door lock.

HOWEVER, I specifically told the service writter (on the phone, as my wife took the car in) to fix the damn "clunk from the rear at stop" problem. Nothing was noted on the repair invoice and it still clunks. Now I have to set up another freakin appt to take care of that. I just may wait till the 20K is due....oh well.

Dont be mad at your wife
 

This is a well known problem they had to put two new handle units on mine before it was normal. Your wife had nothing to do with the door handle breaking. :) Its covered under warrantee to so no money out of pocket.