Hi all,
Suddenly the power door is my 2008 RX400h is acting up a bit. When I press either the button on remote or on dash, the door makes a sound as if it starts to open but it does not. When I press (and hold) again button door opens without issues. Basically always opens but in second attempt. Any ideas what may be causing this?

 

wipe the rubber seals around the door. They get sticky. also wipe and spray the strut piston with silicon

 

Also Check the Lift Struts on each side of the Rear Door, they get Weak with age and over time they lose some of the Pressureized Gas that helps to Open the Rear Liftback/Hatch door.

 

I will clean the rubber seals to see if it helps. I doubt they are the struts, since they operate very well in second attempt.

 

My 2005 RX330 was doing the same thing, on the 2nd attempt to open the Rear Hatch, it went up!
One day I propped open the rear hatch and partially removed one of the gas lift struts, and some of the gas had leaked out and it was Very Weak/Bad!
The other strut seemed OK, but since they were both the original struts, I decided to Replace both of them. The Rear Door/Hatch now Opens on the First Try, Every Time!
No More do it Twice, the Weak/Bad Struts were my problem!!

 

Update!: issue resolved itself, maybe warmer weather or just using it more. Now hatch works properly every time.

 

I have an 05 RX330 that I purchased new in 2004. My rear hatch started having issues during colder weather, where it would start to open and then reverse. I would try again and sometimes give it an assist by hand. When warmer weather returned the issue went away. When colder weather returned, the problem did too. Replaced the two gas filled struts - no more problems.

Yours are nearing the end of their functionality. Time to replace.

 

Change your lift struts. The symptoms you mentioned point towards bad lift struts, they are not expensive and easy to replace. Good luck.

 

Thank you for your responses. I will worry about issue and replace struts as needed in the future, for now I will enjoy the Summer.