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How to: Fix your door opener actuator rod lower end
This writeup will explain how the door actuator rod works, breaks, and how to fix the bottom part of the actuator door opener arm without removing the actuator.
I’ve had problems with both door handles (outer) throughout the time I’ve owned my Lex. Both times up until a few weeks ago it was the notorious clip. This time the bottom section of the actuator rod broke off. After searching here, I discovered that to replace the rod (which is permanently attached to the door actuator and not sold separately) you had to pay for a new actuator which can be over $300. Another alternative is to rebuild the bottom piece of the rod, take out the actuator to re-install the rod, then re-install the actuator. If you’ve looked inside your door, there is a window slide right in front of the actuator. You can either remove that slide or just unscrew the bottom bolt and move it a little to get access to the actuator if you replace the actuator. There are good links below regarding rebuilding the rod either by welding or re-attaching a new “fork” bottom piece via small nuts/bolts.
FYI, The door actuator is the part surrounded by white plastic inside the door rear edge. It contains the latch and all mechanisms for opening, locking, and keeping the door closed. It has wires going into it as well as 2 rods (open and lock/unlock) that are connected to the door handle. It also has 2 cables (open and lock/unlock) connected to the inner door handle/lock levers. When you purchase a new actuator, it also includes both levers and cables attached to the actuator. The actuator is attached to the door via 3 star bolts attached to the very rear edge of the door.
This how-to doesn’t cover replacing the entire actuator. If you choose to do this, there are some posts that give general info, but if you do this, I’d recommend not getting a used one. If something has a high chance of already being worn out AND it’s a big huge job to replace, I always buy new since the last thing I want to do is replace something twice if it’s a difficult job.
I decided to rebuild my door opener actuator rod bottom, but wasn’t looking forward to removing the actuator based on what I’d read and seen on mine. I also don’t have access to a welder. I decided I wanted to remove the door handle since it’d provide an access point since it’s up near the actuator. I also stripped the bottom window guide screw despite soaking it in liquid wrench and using an impact driver which motivated me to look for a way to fix the rod without removing the entire actuator.
After I removed the door handle, I discovered I had easy access to the area of the actuator where the rod is inserted- hot damn – I didn’t have to remove the actuator.
The below is a step by step of how to replace/rebuild the bottom of the door opener actuator rod without removing the actuator and without a welder.
If you’re familiar with the rod, what it does, how it works, skip this section. For newbies, here’s a description of the problem and how it works.
Problem: You open your door from the outside and you feel nothing – no resistance – and the door doesn’t open.
How the exterior door opener works: When you lift the door handle, there is a lever inside the door which moves downward. On the end of this lever is a metal piece with a hole in it which is perpendicular to the ground. One end of what’s called the ‘actuator rod’ (or rod) slides into the hole. This section of the rod is parallel to the ground. To help the rod stay in the hole, there’s a plastic clip (see pic 5c below) designed to retain that rod in the door handle lever hole. This clip breaks down after a few years, falls apart, and that upper section of the rod will fall out of the door handle lever hole. When this happens and you try to open the door, of course nothing happens.
If you are lucky and find out about this quickly and don’t open the window, you can buy a clip from the dealer. Those part numbers are (Passenger 69293-12030 - Driver 69293-12040) and cost about $3 at the Toyota (they’re Toyota, not Lexus parts). This problem is discussed in many great posts here but isn’t the reason for this how-to.
The bottom of the rod flattens out in the lower inch into a flat, oval section oval hole inside. This is the section that slides over a circular moving part of the actuator. In normal operation, you lift the door handle, lowering the lever hole which forces the rod downward. The lower section of the rod pushes a metal piece in the actuator downward, which unlatches the door. It’s hard to describe this bottom part in words, but if you can picture something in the actuator in the shape of a hamburger where the meat is a smaller diameter than the 2 bun pieces. Imagine you cannot take apart the hamburger – it’s welded together. The lower part of the rod’s oval hole surrounds and slides around the outer edge of the meat part of the hamburger.
The diameter of the buns are bigger than the oval hole of the lower part of the actuator rod, thereby trapping the lower flat, oval part of the rod inside the hamburger, while the lower part of the rod slides up and down the outer edge of the meat. I’m assuming one of the outside of the hamburger buns is attached to something in the actuator which pops the door latch so the door can open when pushed downward.
Since the buns are welded together, the bottom part of the rod is ‘trapped’ between the buns. While it’s designed to slide past the edges and eventually push the hamburger downward by pushing against the meat, it cannot slip out of the hamburger since the buns are ‘welded’ to the meat. I know this is a silly description, but I had no idea how it worked until I saw it. The “meat” section of this piece in the actuator has a plastic ring around it to smoothen out the operation of opening of the door since the bottom of the actuator rod of course is metal.
The problem of not replacing the upper plastic clip is made worse when/if the door, while closing , catches the rod and bends it downward. Since the lower part of the rod (flat part) is permanently attached to the ‘hamburger’ in the actuator above, the lower section of rod, which is the weakest part, will bend and eventually snap off. (See pic1). I found the little piece of my rod that broke off in the bottom of my door.
I had my lower arm bend a little a few months ago after my plastic upper piece fell off. I had no idea how the lower part worked, so when I put in a new plastic clip, I carefully just bent it back up so I could re-attach the upper part. Since the lower part was bent, there was more pressure pulling the upper part back out of the door handle hole. After only a few months, the entire arm just fell out and fell to the bottom of the door. I think you probably get about 1 or 2 bends of the lower part of the arm before it breaks off.
I hope the above helps, but I wanted you to know more than I did before going into this. In the below procedure, I’m replacing the bottom part of the door opening rod on the passenger door.
Tools needed.
+Phillips head screwdriver, 10 mm ratchet with extender, all ¼” drive (1/4” if possible), 10mm wrench. +Picker/poker (straight or 90 degree angle – I got these at Sears – they have a handle and the working end is a very small point – some are straight, some angled – used to open electrical connectors), +Hacksaw with new blade, (at least a regular size, but I also used my mini),
+Pliers, red threadlocker,
+L-shaped Joist Hanger (at Home Depot or Lowes – about $2 – see pic below) . Get as thick as you can cut without a hassle)
+JB Weld,
+ #4-40X ½” nut and bolt pack (see pic)
+ Dremel with cutoff tool and grinding bit.
+ Bench Vise for cutting the metal(if you don’t have one, use locking pliers but will be more difficult)
Recommended: Petzl hiking Headlamp. I use these all the time when working since they’re awesome lights and you have 2 free hands. A hand-held flashlight helps, too. Also, if you have a telescopic magnet, that comes in handy as well.
Difficulty: I’d say moderate and you have to be fairly handy and know how to patiently deal with frustrating situations without causing bodily harm to spouses, pets, or kids. Swearing and smashing hammers on the garage floor if you get stuck or break something is highly recommended if you are alone.
Step 1. Take off Negative Battery Terminal. Probably not mandatory, but you will be disconnecting / connecting live wires (door light, switches) and it takes 30 seconds to do this.
Step 2. Remove inside of Door – lots of links here but there are 2 in the front, 3 on bottom, one behind door lever cover, and 2 below the arm rests (sad but I’ve taken the damn thing off so often I know this by heart). Before you start unscrewing, pry up the forward section of the armrest window controls and pull it out up and forward, then press and disconnect the 2 electrical connectors. Below that, pull the door light housing out and disconnect the wire connector. After you remove the window bolts, pop the door open/lock cable mounting points off, then pull the cable ends from the opener/lock handle interiors.
Step 3. Disconnect Elec. Connectors and door brace from door. See Pic 1a . Not pictured here but removed is the vapor barrier covering the hole in the door. Remove that barrier and try not to rip it. Remove the door brace (2 rear bolts , 1 up front), Remove the plastic clips attaching the wire harness to the brace and door by squeezing the clip with pliers and pulling out. Disconnect the 2 connectors (one goes to actuator, the other to the door handle lock) on the lower right. I did this to get the wires out of the way. If you want to only disconnect one, you have to disconnect the smaller white one because that’s attached to the door handle. These connectors are a major pain. Unlike most that just have one little locker you press down on before you can pull them apart, they have 3 – a big one on top and 2 nasty ones on the side. Since I don’t have 3 hands, I just pretty much destroyed the 2 on the side and used my ‘poker’ listed above to help open.
Step 4. Get some slack in door handle wire. See (Pic #7). The cable with the white connector runs behind the window track, through a zip tie, then up to the door handle assembly. Since we’re removing the door handle, we need to slacken this wire in order to remove the handle. We don’t entirely remove the handle, but need enough slack to be able to pull it out to work. There’s a white U-shaped mount point for the wire in order to hold it in place. Even though you can’t see it, reach around the window and pull up on the cable on the edge of the guide – it’ll just pop right out. Next (Pic #8) you need to route as much of the cable as possible through the zip tie that’s attached to that door safety bar.
Step 5. Unscrew 2 door handle mount bolts. (see pic 9). Note the 2 access holes for the 2 10mm bolts holding the door handle assy. They may or may not have plastic covers – just pry them open and save for re-install. The front bolt is very easy as long as you have a socket extension.
The rear bolt is a real PITA. If you shine a flashlight into the access hole, it’s ½ way blocked by the window track. So you have to use your socket extension here. (see pic 10) Insert it into the hole, move the socket to the right a bit to get around the track, then once the socket passes the track, move it back to the left and over the bolt. I used my ¼” socket since the ¼ extension I had was much thinner than my regular 3/8” extension.
It takes a few times since you’re working blind, but you’ll get it. Try not to let it fall. I was lucky since the bolt stayed in the socket when I unscrewed it. When I put this bolt back in, I actually put the bolt head on my telescoping magnet, fished it in, and was able to turn it a few screws successfully in the thread before tightening it w/the socket.
Remember which bolt is which – from what I remember, the rear bolt is longer than the front bolt.
Step 6. Remove Door Handle. This was the most challenging part of the procedure for me. Lifting from the bottom, gently remove the door handle. This part is frustrating and you just have to be patient.
Make sure the door lock is unlocked.
The inner, upper section of the door handle archs upward inside the door, so you can’t just pull it straight out – the bottom has to be pulled out first, and angle it so the bottom of the handle is closer to you as you jimmy it out. You may even want to put your key in and move the locker up (it’s default is to the rear I believe) to see if that helps. This is the time to be patient and gentle – don’t break it.
Don’t get mad at the car. And don’t get mad at me, either. (see pic 14 to see what it looks like right after removal) You won’t be able to get all of it out, but you can get it out enough. Once you have it partially/mostly pulled out, you’ll need to disconnect the clip on the top area of the door LOCKING rod on the rear side (toward the rear of the car) of the inner door handle.
This clip is almost exactly like the one used for the door opener (shown in pic 5c) where you have part of the plastic piece to make it a tight fit into the hole, and the other side of the plastic piece clips on to the rod. Unclip using your fingers, the part of the orange plastic clip that’s connected to the unlock rod (not the part inserted into the door handle lock assy). It’ll take some wiggling, but you can do it. Once you unclip that lower portion of the orange clip from the locking rod, the rod will slide right out of the door handle locking mechanism. At this point the only thing holding the handle to the car is that wire. I did let mine hang by the wire for a few seconds (bad idea), but it’s better to just insert it back into the hole loosely while you’re working on the next step.
Step 7. Build and attach your extension. (Pics 2-5a). I wanted a piece of metal that was strong enough not to bend, yet thin enough to cut. I noticed a stray joist hanger I had in the garage and it seemed perfect. I took the old , broken piece from my rod and used it as a template. I outlined using a thin sharpie and started cutting and drilling away. I drilled a few holes on the round end, then put the metal in a vise attached to my workbench and cut from the edge down to the holes with a hacksaw. Use your dremel to smooth out the convex opening that slides into the actuator. The length of your extension should be close to the old one but doesn’t have to be exact.
You should be fairly precise on the inner width of the opening since that fits over the ‘hamburger meat’. The pics show the approximate dimensions. If you’re fortunate enough to have a vice attached to a workbench, make sure you don’t expose too much of the metal when cutting. If you’re bending it when cutting, move it lower into the vise, then cut a little bit, then move it higher, cut, etc. When you’re done with your new extension, feel free to test to see if it fits into the actuator (pic 12)
Once I finished, I used jbweld to join my new extension to the flat part of the rod.
After drying, I gently used some small metal drill bits - I used 2 very small (use pic ‘parts’, nut and bolt pack) as a guide when choosing the bit size.
Basically you want to get 2 holes in there so it won’t twist when you open the door as the rod moves down. Make sure the holes are far enough apart so the nut or the bolt head won’t prevent a tight fit. Also, make sure your holes aren’t too close to the edge of the metal (one of mine was). I installed my 2 bolts the opposite way, i.e. each side had a bolt head and a nut since the nuts had a larger diameter then the bolt head (pic5). Once I was done , I did a ‘dry fit’ with everything connected and the bolts/nuts attached to make sure it was all good.
Test this by inserting the bottom of your rod onto the ‘hamburger’ (see pics 11 and 13). Push down on the rod to move the actuator. If it works OK, move the cables and wires out of the way inside your door so you can close it, close the door and open it using your new tool. At this time you can do a “Napoleon Dyamite YES” as you’re almost there.
If it’s too wide and gets caught up on the plastic edge of the actuator, use your dremel to make room. I did have to remove part of my lower nut. I probably didn’t really need to , but didn’t want to take a chance on it binding.
Take it apart, make some more jbweld (I didn’t use jbquik since it’s not as strong as the classic jbweld), and put it together using the jbweld between the metal parts, even the nuts/bolts. I then used a dremel cutoff tool to remove the excess end of the bolt and let it dry overnight.
Step 8. Re-assembly of rod and handle. Go ahead and insert your new rod, but make sure the Locking rod top is closer to the door handle hole than your new one.
If you want, you can put your new plastic clip into the inner door handle hole (the hole the top of the door opener rod will slide into – see pic 14) so you won’t have to from the inside of the car. If it falls out it’s not a big deal – you can insert it into the hole from the inside.
First you have to make sure you fish as much of the electrical wire down into the hole as possible. Then, pull up on the locking rod (you probably pushed it down when you removed the handle) in order to give you enough room. Insert the very top of the locking rod (the horizontal end) into the door handle locking hole which should still have the orange clip attached. Once it’s in, clip the bottom part of the orange clip into the locking rod (vertical section) to hold it into place. Now, again, be patient while you re-install the door handle. It will take some adjusting and you may get irritated but know that it can be done and you’ll get it in there eventually. After I was complete with this point, I tested the locker with my key to make sure it felt right, but you can’t test the door opener since the top of the opener rod isn’t connected yet.
Next, move around to the inside of the door. I used red thread locker on the 2 bolts which secure the door handle. Tighten the left side snug, but give it a little play. The forward bolt will be easy, but the rear one will be a pain. Once you get the bolt past the door track, do your best to find the thread. While you’re trying to get the bolt into the thread, I found that moving the door handle up and down (it’ll move just a fraction since the left bolt is in) helps the bolt to ‘find’ the thread. I used a telescopic magnet for the initial threading – I just put the rear bolt on the end of the magnet and screwed it into the thread. Next tighten both bolts.
Next you want to attach your upper arm to the door handle lever hole (see the pics).
-Put the clip into the door handle hole first – you can tell which end goes into the hole.
-Try to position the free, unattached end of clip at 2-3 O’Clock while you insert the top(horizontal) of the rod into the hole – You can do this with one hand.
-Once you have the top section of the rod in the hole, swing the other end of the clip clockwise. Once it hits the 6 O’clock position, snap that end into the vertical part of the rod.
At this point you can:
-put the plastic weather guard back over the big hole in the door
-Wedge the top part of the door interior up into place first, then push the rest of the interior into place on to the door. While you’re doing this, make sure the 3 electrical connections are not going to get trapped (squished) between the interior and exterior door so you can connect them to the switches and the light.
The only thing about this procedure I wish I had the ability to do was to put a cotter pin in the very upper tip of the arm so it’d be impossible for the upper section to fall out again. If you looked at the links above, you’ll see that someone did that, but it looks like they did it on a fabricated arm, or they welded an extension.
Thanks so much to the guys who have posted info on this. There's no way I would've tried the above without them sharing the info they did.
I hope you find this helpful.
Sorry, the uploader flipped this sideways. Top of picture is the rear of the car
Difficulty: I’d say moderate and you have to be fairly handy and know how to patiently deal with frustrating situations without causing bodily harm to spouses, pets, or kids. Swearing and smashing hammers on the garage floor if you get stuck or break something is highly recommended if you are alone.
^^^^ So true, one of the worst things I've had to do but it's the type of thing that doing it the second time will be 100x easier.
Very good info, I will be using this. But my door doesn't even have the rod, does anyone have the part number for the rod or do they want to sell it as a whole assembly?
Ozzy - look at every inch of the bottom of your door after you remove the inner panel - unless the previous owner for some strange reason took it out, it should be in the bottom of your door well.
If it's not there you can either make your own (see one of the links in the post above - someone has a nice diagram with the specs of the rod), or you'll have to get the entire actuator assembly which includes the rod...
Welp, I'm tired of opening the passenger door for others, plus it wont pass inspection so, it's time. I'll take some more pictures and see if they help explain anything but this write up is very straight forward, good job man.
08-04-14, 10:09 AM
How to: Fix your door opener actuator rod lower end
