Power Door Lock Problem - 1992 Toyota Camry

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Aug 14, 2007
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Wisconsin
We cannot open the driver door on my daughters 1992 Camry 4 door by any means - key, power unlock or manual unlock. The other doors all lock and unlock fine. From my research, it sounds like it could be the actuator or possibly a loose wire on the actuator. Here's the problem - I cannot open the door to allow me to remove the door panel to check this out further. I bought a slimjim but have not gotten anywhere after a 1/2 hour. Not sure if this tool works on this car and how it should be used. AAA came but "are not authorized" to open doors with this problem. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Can the doors operate without the actuator? This is a costly part, only available from a dealer at over $300. I am wondering if the doors could just be locked and unlocked manually if I removed the actuator.

Thanks.
 
If the actuator were broken you would still be able to unlock the door either by hand or with the key in the lock cylinde. You might call a locksmith out to see if they could open the door for you. If the lock and or latch mechanism itself is broken though, a locksmith may not be able to open the door either.

What you may have to do is work from the inside of the car to remove the door panel. There should be several #3 philips screws or 10mm hex head screws holding the arm rest on the door. There may be plastic caps over the screw hole locations. Remove the screws and unplug the connectors for the power locks and windows and remove the arm rest. If you can, pop loose the plastic sail cover panel from the upper right corner of the door. I don't remember if there are any screws in the very bottom edge of the door panel, I don't think there are any there. But there may be one behind the courtesy light lens on the bottom left corner of the door panel. You may need to work from the back seat to access it but pop the cover off of the light with a panel removal tool or a small flat head screw driver then use a short philips screw driver and remove the screw from the light, pull the light out and disconnect it.

The door panel is held on by plastic push-in fasteners that slide into holes in the back side of the panel. What you will have to do is pull out on the panel, maybe the lower left corner where the courtesy light goes would be an easy place to grip the panel. If you can, work from the left side and go up, you should be able to pull on the edge of the panel and loosen it from the door and when you get to the top area, see if you can kind of roll the upper lip of the panel off the top edge of the door itself. If you can get the other edges loose from the fasteners too, you should be able to bend the panel in the middle and work it out of the car. Doing so should not damage the panel. It might also help to remove the driver's seat, and let it rest in the back seat area if you can, or maybe you can maneuver it out of the car through the left rear door.

Once you either have the panel off the door or at least out of the way enough in the area where the door latch and lock assembly are located, you can move the plastic moisture barrier out of the way and may be able to reach in and operate the lock lever on the latch by hand and then open the door. The actuator might be OK but there may be a plastic clip that has broken off the connecting rod between the door lock cylinder and the door latch assembly. If that is the case there may be broken plastic pieces in the bottom of the door cavity. I don't know if that is what's wrong with your door but maybe the actuator is OK and there is a less expensive part that has broken instead.

Good luck.
 
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