I've seen dozens of posts about door lock actuator problems on various Lexus models, but I haven't found a single complaint about the EASY CLOSER function. Am I the only one who's had a problem with this?

Within months of buying my 2002 LS430 (bought new) the power "door close assist" feature became intermittent on the pasenger front door. The dealer replaced the door ECU under warranty, and the problem went away -- but only for a while. Later it came back, rather intermittent, and on several doors. The car is now no longer under warranty, and for the past year I just accepted the fact that the door closer feature just doesn't work anymore on 3 of the 4 doors, and only works occasionaly of the fourth door. But it bugs me. So now that I've brought the car in for 60K service, I asked them to take a look at the door closers and try to figure out what's wrong.

At first, the techs fingered the lock actuator and the dealer generously offered to replace it free, if I just pay the $200 labor fee. Does that sound familiar to anybody? I'd pay the two bills if it would fix the car, but that was JUST ONE DOOR. I had to remind the service rep that all the doors are experiencing the problem (and 3 out of 4 are solid failures). A day later, and the techs have reset the ECU on two doors, which seems to have fixed the problem there, and they've got new actuators on order for the other two doors. WTF?

I've gotta give the dealer credit for persistence in trying to get to the bottom of this problem, but I'm now convinced that they really have no idea what's causing the failures. I have NEVER had a door lock/unlock failure, only the "easy closer" problem. I've googled high and low looking for similar experiences, but haven't found any anywhere. FWIW, the trunk "easy closer" mechanism has never had a problem, only the four passenger cabin doors.

 

yeah seems like they are scratching their heads as well. maybe you should request and see if they can send a master tech or someone from lexus corp to look at it?

i haven't heard of other cases so far

 

I have the same problem with my passenger front door, I can hear the motor trying to close the door but it doesn't close. I don't want to go to the dealer I know it's going to be some outrageous amount. I've learned to live with the problem don't know what to do.