well as the title of the thread tells you, my passenger side door on my SC won't work from the outside. the first time it happened, i took off the door panel and found that someone had tried to rig it up with plastic tie wraps. whoever did it was a moron, and obviously didn't want to do the job right. so, i replaced the small plastic piece that works with the door latch to open the door. worked fine for about 5 months or so....

second time, i figured i'd try the same thing and see what happens. well, it lasted all of a day and then popped off again, so i went back into the door to look again. what i discovered is that apparently the last owner not only had that ltitle piece rigged up, he had the metal hook that drops down rigged too. needless to say this didn't rub me the right way at all.

when i approached the lexus dealer ::shudder:: about the problem, they came back and told me it would be approx. $240 for the assembly whcih operates the door latch, which has the piece i need. my question is this, i really don't want to pay that much to buy the parts from lexus, so can i get the parts of a camry or something? i called the junkyards around here and they said they didn't have a single lexus...so that got me thinking. if the parts for the door are standard toyota issue, it would make fixing the door a lot easier. is this possible? or is there a better solution i haven't hit upon yet?

 

so what's the problem?

 

problem is i can't use the door handle from the outside, the door only opens from the inside...the pieces that broke are inside the door its self...i'm trying to figure out what i can do, if i can get parts from a camry or something...

 

if you can get the part # and know what part you need you should be able to call a toyota dealership around your area and see if they have the same part . . . some parts they have some they don't. then if you can put it together yourself your set, or see if they will at the toyota dealership.

 

Now that is funny!

 

That was funny!!!, my door handle just broke. As a matter of fact, everything is starting to break!!! I will have to find solutions like the Pianoman72 has given or else I will go broke. Take it easy

 

are you saying that the bars were bent or cut ? why did anyone even get into the door panel in the first place? changed the door handle? changed the lock?
to me it sounds like a problem that could carefully be bent back into shape

 

oh yeah.
hey pianoman.
that was a well educated joke.
had me laughing for a while

 

can you what,... rig it? I'm seeing a pattern here. .....lol.

Good luck bro.

 

haha...no no i don't want it rigged, if i have to pay for the parts i will, i just wanted to see if it was possible for me to get the parts i needef off a toyota camry or some other car w/ compatible door parts, wouldn't be rigging it...

 

the sc door is much bigger. the parts aren't likely to be long enough or heavy duty enough. everything about the lexus doors are massive. especially in comparison to the camary. maybe you'll get lucky?

 

Argh! Well the story is. . after my date, we walked to the car and the nice guy i am, opens the passenger saide door and BAM! It doesnt open. . look at my date and shes laughs . . . kinda embarassing to open your door to my date when it doesnt open but yea. . had to go from the inside. . so whats the part #? and just wondering if you fixed your door? never had to open the door panel before soo i'm alittle sacred. . . so can someone tell me what to expect? what i'm suppose to see?

 

yeah i know that exact feeling. actually no i haven't fixed it yet, because i have been trying to do my best to call junk yards and get the one or two little parts that i need. as far as what you need, it depends on what broke with the mechanism that works with the outside latch. taking the door off isn't really a big thing, there are just a few screws around the bottom, under the arm rest, you need to pop up the window/lock control dealie, and then of course the screw behind the plastic piece that covers it behind the door lock. that just pops off too. for me, i need two things...there is a metal hook piece that goes down into a plastic housing, and i also need the plastic piece that connects that piece to the door latch. if the little plastic piece i mentioned is all you need, i can get you the part number. costs about $2 here, however the previous owner never fixed this right so it is up to me. if you want to order more than that (i hope you don't need anything else besides that) lexus tells me to get it new i have to buy the entire assembly, around $240 i believe i said. not cool! however, if i can't track down the parts i need i will have to get the assembly from lexus. i will try to post up pictures of what i need later, maybe that will help if someone happens to have the parts or know where i can get them.