door locks acting up on '00 4runner LTD.

[hiloracerboy84]

I posted this on yotatech, but figured a lot of the really experienced guys are here now, so maybe you'll have some answers.

ok, so my mom has a '00 Ltd. 4runner and the keyless entry and door LOCK switches/buttons aren't working. she can unlock the doors with the remote and button on the doors but can't lock the car, except with the key manually. I've tried searching on this but nothing's come up so I'm thinking it's a bad relay or something just preventing the p/l mechanism from working correctly. anyone have this issue or insight on what it might be?


-my dad called me about it just now before taking the thing in to the stealer, after i told him he spent 700 on the steering rack bushings that can be replaced for 20 bucks.

[BruceTS]

is it just one lock or all?

[Bob98SR5]

I posted this on yotatech, but figured a lot of the really experienced guys are here now, so maybe you'll have some answers.


darn straight about that! ;)



ok, so my mom has a '00 Ltd. 4runner and the keyless entry and door LOCK switches/buttons aren't working. she can unlock the doors with the remote and button on the doors but can't lock the car, except with the key manually. I've tried searching on this but nothing's come up so I'm thinking it's a bad relay or something just preventing the p/l mechanism from working correctly. anyone have this issue or insight on what it might be?


Hilo,

take a look at my writeup:

http://4runners.org/writeups/doorhandle/index.html

what youre experiencing *might* be the green (or opaque white in some cases) hinge piece that allows the rods to actuate the door locking mechanism. it could be that the piece itself might be cracked. my wife's camry acted the same and over time, it eventually broke. try opening it and see what you find out. the part is very cheap too.



-my dad called me about it just now before taking the thing in to the stealer, after i told him he spent 700 on the steering rack bushings that can be replaced for 20 bucks.


yikes...to think, i have this writeup 1/2 completed in the queue. sorry, bro!

[hiloracerboy84]

Bruce - heres whats going on:
pressing the unlock button on the keyless remote unlocks all doors
pressing the lock button on the keyless remote doesn't lock any of the doors
using the unlock button on the door unlocks all doors
using the lock button on the door doesn't lock any of the doors
turning the key in the pass/driver door will unlock all of the doors
turning the key in the pass/driver door will lock only that door

so....if all the doors are unlocked, my mom has to manually go to each door and lock it, but even then the trunk door is still unlocked.

on yotatech, someone said there was no relays on their '02, and everything was controlled by the ecu. anyone know if its like that w/ the '00's too?

Bob - i'll tell my dad to look into that tonight.

..and yeah, i had read lots about the steering rack bushings for a while, then one day my dad called me up telling me he'd taken the 4runner in to check on why it was making the "clunking" noise, and they told him he'd have to replace the whole thing. i was like, "ouch!" oh well, we live and learn.

thanks for all the help guys

[Robinhood4x4]

When you try to lock it with the electronic buttons, do the locks make any noise like they're trying to lock? Or is there dead silence?

If there's no sound then there's no electricity getting to the locking mechanism. If there is sound, then something is physically preventing the locks from moving.

However, since you say that none of the locks will lock, it's highly unlikely that the same mechanical malfunction is happening on all the locks at the same time. Therefore it must be an electrical problem. On top of that, it must be a single electrical fault that is affecting all the locks.

If nobody else has a smoking gun, you're just going to have to trace the electrical wires with a multimeter until you find the problem or study the electrical diagrams until you find some likely junctions that affect all the locks.

[BruceTS]

the wiring from the key switch and the interior switch are on separate circuits, both leading back to the body ECU(AKA the interior fuse box assy) The odds are the problem is located inside there, but the only way to test is to pull it apart.

[Robinhood4x4]

How about the alarm/keyless entry system? That's probably an dealer install thing and might have a problem.

[MTL_4runner]

Sounds to me that the locking portion of the circuit is not energizing properly because if you can unlock all doors but only one door locks (manually) by turning the key (no matter how many times you turn it towards lock) then that would indicate that the issue is more that mechanical. It's likely you're going to have to remove the door panel and begin to trace circuits with a DMM.

[azrick]

Similar problem on my 01 4Runner - all doors lock and unlock with key and inside door switches normally, but the remote only functions to lock. When pressing unlock on the remote no function whatsoever... Just started doing it recently.