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This instructable will show you how I saved a ton of money when trouble shooting the rear latch on my Toyota Sequoia. This is a great vehicle, but certain recurring problems with inside door handles and rear hatch handle assemblies constitute a safety hazard in my opinion. If one of these fail, you could be trapped inside your vehicle if the side door handle breaks or a kid could fall out of the vehicle if the rear hatch is not closing properly and remains stuck open when you think it is closed. This should be a passenger safety recall issue. I don't know why Toyota doesn't face up to this problem and fix it before somebody gets injured or killed.
This instructable is meant to help you understand the underlying issues with the rear door latch. Please understand that you are responsible if you try to fix your vehicle and screw something up and someone is injured. You should take your vehicle to a serviceman who knows how to fix this problem, has the appropriate training and factory manuals and is insured by the dealer if he screws something up and you or a passenger or some other person get injured. Don't try to blame me if you try to do the repair yourself and somebody gets hurt! This is definitely a safety issue!
This instructable is meant to help you understand the underlying issues with the rear door latch. Please understand that you are responsible if you try to fix your vehicle and screw something up and someone is injured. You should take your vehicle to a serviceman who knows how to fix this problem, has the appropriate training and factory manuals and is insured by the dealer if he screws something up and you or a passenger or some other person get injured. Don't try to blame me if you try to do the repair yourself and somebody gets hurt! This is definitely a safety issue!
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Toyota Sequoia Rear Hatch Issues:
I own a 2003 Sequoia that I bought new. A couple of months ago, I experienced a failure of the drivers side inside door handle. I took it to the Toyota repair shop and it cost almost $300 to fix the cheapo plastic lever that opens a very heavy driver's side door. I was in a hurry and we had company, so I did not have time to try to troubleshoot this problem myself at the time. So, I was at the mercy of the dreaded Toyota Service Department.
I was moderately upset with the $200 in parts and $95 per hour labor fee. This apparently is a very common type of failure on this vehicle and is definitely a safety problem that should be a recall item. When this lever fails, you CANNOT get out of the vehicle on the drivers side. Very dangerous unsafe situation. I'm surprised that Toyota has not issued a recall to replace the poorly designed door handle.
Then without warning, a few days ago, the rear door latch quit working. I could NOT get the rear door latch to engage the "U" shaped connection on top of the rear bumper. Had to drive home with the rear door open, vibrating and clanging up and down with every bump and irregularity in the highway. Choking on exhaust fumes.
Do not waste any time getting this fixed when it happens to you. And don't try to slam the rear door closed or you will break the latch or even bend the "U" shaped thing on the bumper below that engages this latch!
Never sit in the car unless you are moving with all the windows and the moon roof open. Don't drive in this dangerous condition with passengers, especially young children of infants. Carbon monoxide could fill the cabin and you will get a nice long dirt nap.
Turns out that this rear latch failure problem is ALSO a very big problem. Looking in the Sequoia owners forum, there are over 15,500 hits on a topic dealing with inoperable rear door latches on Sequoias. Another good reason for a recall on safety issues if you ask me.
A kid or the groceries could fall out of the back of the vehicle if the door can't be closed. Dangerous as hell. Plus, you cannot turn the alarm on when the rear hatch is not closed. Poor design and very poor materials.
So, it was with some trepidation that I once again drove on over to the Toyota dealer for an estimate. The service guy told me that he never saw one of these latches broken before. In his next breath, he tells me that when the door latch mechanism breaks, you usually have to replace the windshield wiper and rear window opening mechanisms as well... Must have had "STUPID" stamped on my forehead that day.
Sooooo, he just said he never saw one of these break before... but he is sure that I will have to replace everything but the transmission to get my door to work again. The cost would be between $890 and $1150, so much for parts and so much for labor at a whopping $95 per hour.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.........
I don't think so.
I own a 2003 Sequoia that I bought new. A couple of months ago, I experienced a failure of the drivers side inside door handle. I took it to the Toyota repair shop and it cost almost $300 to fix the cheapo plastic lever that opens a very heavy driver's side door. I was in a hurry and we had company, so I did not have time to try to troubleshoot this problem myself at the time. So, I was at the mercy of the dreaded Toyota Service Department.
I was moderately upset with the $200 in parts and $95 per hour labor fee. This apparently is a very common type of failure on this vehicle and is definitely a safety problem that should be a recall item. When this lever fails, you CANNOT get out of the vehicle on the drivers side. Very dangerous unsafe situation. I'm surprised that Toyota has not issued a recall to replace the poorly designed door handle.
Then without warning, a few days ago, the rear door latch quit working. I could NOT get the rear door latch to engage the "U" shaped connection on top of the rear bumper. Had to drive home with the rear door open, vibrating and clanging up and down with every bump and irregularity in the highway. Choking on exhaust fumes.
Do not waste any time getting this fixed when it happens to you. And don't try to slam the rear door closed or you will break the latch or even bend the "U" shaped thing on the bumper below that engages this latch!
Never sit in the car unless you are moving with all the windows and the moon roof open. Don't drive in this dangerous condition with passengers, especially young children of infants. Carbon monoxide could fill the cabin and you will get a nice long dirt nap.
Turns out that this rear latch failure problem is ALSO a very big problem. Looking in the Sequoia owners forum, there are over 15,500 hits on a topic dealing with inoperable rear door latches on Sequoias. Another good reason for a recall on safety issues if you ask me.
A kid or the groceries could fall out of the back of the vehicle if the door can't be closed. Dangerous as hell. Plus, you cannot turn the alarm on when the rear hatch is not closed. Poor design and very poor materials.
So, it was with some trepidation that I once again drove on over to the Toyota dealer for an estimate. The service guy told me that he never saw one of these latches broken before. In his next breath, he tells me that when the door latch mechanism breaks, you usually have to replace the windshield wiper and rear window opening mechanisms as well... Must have had "STUPID" stamped on my forehead that day.
Sooooo, he just said he never saw one of these break before... but he is sure that I will have to replace everything but the transmission to get my door to work again. The cost would be between $890 and $1150, so much for parts and so much for labor at a whopping $95 per hour.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.........
I don't think so.
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but having trouble detaching that male connector on the left off the plastic latch cover, therefore can't get to the next step which is removing that darn plastic cover on the solenoid/latch!
I had to really wrestle that thing off of there. I put a screw driver between the male and female parts of the connector and slowly and carefully jiggled and pryed until the thing came apart. You gotta be careful you don't pull wires out of the connector (fatal error for sure) or crack the plastic (not so fatal, but a PITA to fix) or physically break the contacts. It can be done, I can't exactly explain it, but examine the connector carefully while prying on it and you will see how the thing works. Good luck and remember to not put this thing back together until you are sure everything is fixed. I don't think this connector was designed to be hacked open after it was assembled. Another Toyota gotcha!
My hack and repair still words exactly as shown in this instructable. Be careful, if you screw this up, you may not be able to open the rear hatch in an emergency and that would not be a good thing. Poor engineering and cheapo design if you ask me.
Anything you can't hack successfully, you should take it to your friendly Toyota dealer and prepare to empty your wallet!
My rear latch handle just broke. I hear it snapped while trying to open it during our last ski trip on the mountain. I found the metal handle you mentioned on ebay [just search for sequoia metal liftgate handle]. Do I still need to disassemble the rear inside panel to replace the handle?
I had to roll down the rear windshield then use a pry bar to pry the plastic panel off from the top (after removing the window seal, of course). To my surprise, these plastic panels are attached to the car body with plastic buttons. They can be easily snap on and off. If I had known this, I could have just use the pliers and pull it off while attaching to where the pull down strap attaches.
Don't be fearful of damaging the plastic panel. Its very rugged.
I got this latch thing fixed with only the cost of my time, but I am really disappointed at the quality of things underneath the glitter of my Toyota Sequoia.
It is my opinion that this latch issue is a safety issue first and a quality issue second and the entire fleet should be recalled for replacement of this cheapo and poorly designed mechanism. Wonder how many litigations were settled over this same issue because it was cheaper to settle a serious injury or death claim rather than recall ten million vehicles.
I recently had to visit the dreaded Toyota garage AGAIN (!) because the brake light, which has periodically gone on since this boat was brand new got stuck on permanently. I had this thing in the shop repeatedly since new and they could never figure out what the problem was. Now that it is out of warranty, it cost me $1200 to replace the computer and a stabilization sensor. Note that the Toyota news groups are now full of posts about this same exact problem. Where are the Feds on this when you need them?
Initially I really liked this vehicle, but never another Toyota for me! The Toyota service department really ripped me off. I could have legally gotten this thing declared a lemon because it had been in the shop with the same problem seven times the first year alone. I liked the vehicle and tried to be patient with Toyota while they figured out what was wrong. What a big mistake that was.
I can feel for people who have the out of control braking problem. Toyota service is arrogant and they don't give a flying f%$K about anything once you drive that new vehicle off the lot. Toyota? Never again.
Toyota advertising has falsely led a lot of people to think they don't have issues with their vehicles. They certainly do, deadly issues.
I don't take my sequoia back to the dealer, because the last time I took it in for maintenance, they called me to pick up the car without refilling my transmission oil [2 qts low]. Luckily they called me to bring the car back before I drove more than 5 miles in that condition.
I listened to a 911 call before the crash of one of the Lexus brand new rental vehicle. One of the passenger on the car was the chief of car safety inspection. His wife and son and another friend were killed in the crash.
Really hate to see a good company turned horrible due to greed and arrogance. It took them a long time to build up, and just blew it in a very short time. Pride goes before the fall, like the good book says.
To release the latch, pull the wire inside the cable, may need to remove the handle for that.
If I had to go thru this all again, I would certainly have flied a complaint under the Lemon Law. If something does not work on your vehicle, no matter what brand, insist that it is fixed completely and immediately. Make sure that you write a personal letter to the head of the dealer service department and also the warranty department at Toyota headquarters or whatever, and carefully outline the exact problem you are/were having and also what the dealer has done or not done to remedy the situation. Carefully record everything the dealer service dept tells you.
Get a copy of the Lemon Law in your state and make sure you send that with your letters. And of course, keep copies of all correspondence for your records. Be as complete as possible and if there is no solution, get an attorney on it before the warranty ends.
I never abused this vehicle in any way. I live in the desert with no snow or heavy rain. My Sequoia is always garaged and NEVER driven off road. It is regularly serviced. I am most certainly NOT an aggressive driver and I take very good care of my vehicles.
I paid a premium because I believed the advertising from Toyota. I never anticipated the incredibly crooked types at the dealership however. They look you straight in the face and LIE about repairs under warranty. They keep the vehicle for several days and return it to you with the same problem. Don't be a dummy, do what I didn't do. I trusted them to do the right thing. Don't do that!
If the rear latch and the driver's side door handle had been "tested for evaluation" as you state, then it would have been overwhelmingly obvious that these are early failure points and in need of further engineering to prevent a very expensive repair shortly after the warranty has ended.
A proper design would probably cost just a few pennies to execute for a much better product given the economy of scale you get with mass production. This is either incompetence, greed or just plain negligence. Or likely, all of these.
How would YOU like to be in an accident and find that the driver's side door latch has broken, you are hanging in your vehicle is upside down with fuel leaking into the cabin and you can't open the door. Or your vehicle is on fire and you can't get the rear latch open to get the grandkids out of the back seat.
The facts are that you get punished with ridiculous repair bills while trying to keep your vehicle running beyond the warranty period. Now that's really Green, huh? Cute. Very cute.
This is definitely a safety issue that should trigger a recall.
An old fashioned rod would solve the problem and would not be subject of elongation failures.
I can manually make the piece go into the locking position and unlock with the latch handle but it will not engage into the locked position just by closing the hatch.
What do you think?
BTW: MY 2003, the brake light has been going on and off since I bought the thing new. I have had it repaired three times and the entire electronic system rebooted. A friend has a 2004 and the entire warning system keeps going out on her Toyota.
The electric mirrors have also gone out. The motor is $750. I can live without them unless there is a less expensive alternative
Your pictures and advice helped immensely and I had the whole thing replaced in about an hour. I initially lowered the rear window and did everything from outside the car. I finally had to climb in the back to tug on the cable and release the latch for the door to open but then I was back outside the car and working from the rear with the tailgate open.
It wasn't tough at all and with a $30 handle and $115 part from the toyota dealer, my 2002 Sequoia is working again.
Thanks.
I've had to do replace this latch twice already (250K miles) another trick is to compensate for stretching is small washers epoxied on the ball end the cable that fits into the latch. Or, if your in a hurry, squeeze a small lead fishing weight if it truly stretched 3/16". Mine wasn't stretched.