I surrendered to the dealer on this one!
 

My driver's side door mechanism failed also. I was chicken and allowed the dealer to repair of the door mechanism. $849. Luckily, my extended warranty covered the repair costs.

Does anyone know where to get the door acuator motor that already has the D shaped shaft?

I have a 2003 LS 430, I assume it is the same motor as the other years, yes?

Previous posts here say you can't buy the D shape shaft. But it's fairly easy to file down the round shaft. I used a Dremel, but I think a small file will work also.

Can someone please provide the motor part number.

Thanks

I have the same question. I have a 2003 LS430. On eBay it appears there are 3 different motors - Regular shaft
Long shaft
Brass collar on the shaft.
I was trying to find out which one is the best fit for my car. I didn't want to take my door apart just to see what the motor looked like and then wait a week until the new motor arrives. Someone on this forum should know the answer but hasn't read this thread in a while

Take the time to read through the whole thread. The part numbers are in here,

Randy B

Thank you so much to everyone for their posts. Got the driver's side motor replaced in 2 hrs flat on my '02 LS. I ordered 2 motors from 2 different sellers on ebay. Both were excellent sellers--performed and delivered efficiently as they advertise. The Mabuchi FC-280PT-22125 (regular shaft) had a slightly longer shaft than the original, but it would have worked. I installed the one from DLUXCARS because it had the exact shaft-length and because of concerns I've read that the Mabuchi had more torque than the original. Took 5 min to grind the round shaft to a D with a dremel. Had to use the cable ties; positioned them exactly as the picture showed in this thread. No screws held the case together and it didn't snap back as tightly as it was as before I pried it open. Two additional tips that hopefully help daring owners: lock the doors using the key before disassembling; and completely remove the bottom bolt that holds the window rail, but just loosen the top. Locking the doors with a key will ensure that the slot in the white cup of the actuator lines up with the spade and that the actuator maintains the same locked contact position when you put it back in the door (unless you turn the cup after removing the actuator from the door). Completely removing the bottom bolt that holds the window rail and just loosening the top will allow you to swing the rail up to make it easier to slide back the actuator in place without having to worry about any of the fasteners (I remember reading about a clip) at the top of the rail coming loose. Hope this helps this very worthy and valuable site and its forum readers. Thanks again.

Thank you so much for the instructions that you posted and to all of the other CL users. I was able to replace the Mabuchi motor, but it did take me 5 hours. My car is a 2004 LS430 with smart key. Thank you so much everyone, I felt very proud of my work. If anyone has any questions I will help as much as I can.

where to buy the motor
 

Does anyone know where to buy the "D" shaft motor? Thanks for any help you can offer.

I do not think that Mabuchi makes a D shaft motor anymore. I bought the round one and filed it down.

I checked a Lexus parts website for a 2004-2006 LS430 with easy close doors. The whole assembly for the front doors is around $90 and the rear is $126. Those that did the work of taking the motors apart and reassembling... would it be much faster (and more expensive... i know) to put in the OEM door lock assembly? Thoughts?

Can you give us the URL Link of the Lexus Parts website you are using?

I used this site (below)... They don't have much detail on the parts included in the rear door, so it might not be the correct parts needed for this repair. After checking SEWELL (which is typically more expensive than the other Lexus dealer parts suppliers), they have the "Actuator" listed for $500.10.

A call to the dealer on the site below should clarify what this part is/does.

http://www.trademotion.com/parts/200...component=LOCK

Took a chance and sprayed some wd40 into all the surrounding spaces of the interior door lock - the plastic piece with the orange, I moved it into both positions and sprayed away got the wd40 nozel in the spaces very well-

I never really expected it to do anything but low and behold 24 hours later my door lock is working fine, of course I may have shorted out the window motor but I will not try to roll that window down for a while so it will not kill the joy of today

I would order the Mabuchi motors first and give that a try. Taking the door lock assembly out was the hardest part for me, filing the shaft into a D shaft was the easy part. Since you're going to need to remove the old assembly out anyways, just my .02