How to Replace Rear Door Lock Actuator 2000-07 Toyota Highlander

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

To remove the grab handle pocket, take our plastic prying tool. You can get these from 1AAuto.com. Go underneath gently and then kind of push it in. Catch the metal tab and push it in and up, and it should pull right out. You might need to do the same thing on this side, but sometimes it'll pop right up. Those two metal tabs there. It comes right out. Remove the Phillips head screw that's inside here, using a Phillips head screwdriver. Take that right out.

Open up this little cover here to get to the screw that's behind it using a small flat bladed screwdriver. Just pop it open. There's a Phillips head screw in here. Remove that. Pop this cover off so you can actually go up here with the plastic prying tool and kind of pry it up. It's going to pry off the bottom in the same way. And then it's going to pull out this way, unhook. Open this lever so you're unhooking it from there too. The door trim is clipped into the metal part of the door, so I'm going to need to get in here and pull it from the clips. If you can't get your fingers underneath here, use a plastic prying tool. You can wedge the plastic prying tool in between the plastic and the metal. Kind of find your way in here. Slide it down. I like to start at the bottom.

Use a plastic prying tool, a bigger one. Find your way underneath like that and then just pry out. Go on the edge, and then once you can get your hands in there you can start to pull out the rest of the clips. What's going to happen is it's going to lift up like this and the top of the door clips over the metal part and lift it straight up. Then you need to unplug. This is the power window switch. We're going to have to reach under here, unlock. It's on this side. Push it in. Pull it out. The door panel can be removed and put aside.

Push this back. It’ll unhook from the door panel as these two hooks here. Now we can unclip. This is the lock cable, the white one and the door pull handle is the green one. Start with the lock one. Put your finger and thumb like that and just pop it straight up. Then unhook it. With the green one do the same thing. Pop it up and then unhook it and take the handle out.

To remove the vapor barrier, it's stuck on with this Butyl tape, here. It's sort of this black, gluey substance that's forever sticky. So you can peel it and then take a razor blade. And so you don't tear the plastic, you can cut the black Butyl tape, and then pull the plastic away. And this stuff is so sticky, that if you're careful, you can re-use this vapor barrier without a problem. You can stick it right back to this stuff. So just go along the whole edge and do this. Just need to unplug the speaker, push in the lock, pull it out, and feed it through the opening in the tape. Feed it through the opening in the vapor barrier, and then continue peeling it. Down to the end. Doing my best to peel it off without totally destroying it. If it rips or tears a little bit, not really a big deal. It will re-stick to this stuff. And so just carefully put this aside somewhere where you can reuse it.

The door lock actuator is located up inside here. You don't have to un-clip the door handle from the door lock actuator, it just kind of slides over it. So when we unbolt and remove the door lock actuator, it will slide out from underneath the door handle. Use a T30 Torx bit to remove the three T30 Torx screws that are holding in the door lock actuator, and remove this 10mm bolt here that's holding the door lock actuator. Using a 10mm socket racket extension, the door lock actuator is loose, but I can see a clip here that's connected too. So we're going to push in on the two tabs and help push the clip through the door opening. Then slide the door lock actuator out of the door. I got it caught around the window run channel. Now that I can get to it, it's easier to unplug it. So unplug the door lock actuator. Take a small or narrow flat-bladed screwdriver, push it into this opening here, and then gently pry outwards. And at the same time, pull up on the plug to unplug it. This is going to sit inside the door panel like this. There is a white fork piece that's on the door handle somewhere that's going to slide over this. So as you maneuver this into place—I have to go this way—you have to maneuver it past the window channel. It's a little tricky to get in there, but once you get it, you're fine.

So there's this clip here. This push clip—I'm going to put it up into place. I'm also going to try and make sure it goes right into the white fork piece. And I'll bring this back. There's the push clip. That will hold it in place for me, temporarily, over that lever. So make sure that the child lock comes out of this little grommet here, and you'll just have to double check that it's not engaged, or engaged if you want it. Get this screw started. Hold it in place where I want it.

Start the T30 Torx screws. So install the three of those. Tighten them up. Once you feel them get tight, just stop. Tighten the 10mm bolt here. Plug the electrical connector back in, and it will click when it locks in place.

To re-use your vapor barrier, you can see that these two holes match up with these two holes here, and then these two holes here match up with these here. Don't worry about it if it's a little torn up. We can still use it. We're going to guide these wires through this opening, so we get to them afterwards. And then these will go on the outside of it. I'm going to start it right here. I'll stick it right back into that Butyl tape and just push it right in, all the way around. It should re-stick. This stuff's super sticky. Those go on this side, just like that. Goes on much easier than taking it off.

Reconnect the door handle. This white cable will go on the top, so these grooves that match these grooves over here, and we'll just hook this up. This is for the door lock. Then push it in place. The one for the pull handle, get in that part, and you can push it through and that hooks in. Then push the green into there to lock it so it won't come out. Get this lined up. These two hooks here are going to hook into the panel, just like that. Reinstall that self-tapping 10 millimeter screw. Get it lined up, just like it's tight. There's our door handle.

If one of your door clips stays stuck in the door, you can take your clip puller tool and just put it in here. Pop it out. We'll push that back into the door panel and reuse it. These clips sit in here just like this so just find the one that's missing and put it back in place. Just slide it in and you can reinstall the door panel.

Plug in our window switch. Just goes up from the bottom. It's keyed. It only goes in one way. The lock is kind of facing the outside. It goes in. It'll click when it locks in place. Lift up our door panel. At the tops it's curved. It's going to hang on the door panel just like that. Start it up top. This doesn't matter if the window's up or down for this. Sits all the way down because that should go over the pull handle freely. Get it lined up. Start to push it back in on the clips. Reinstall the Phillips head screw. Reinstall this trim cover. It does have a hook here. You have to lift out this handle and slide it in and then kind of hook it. And then it's got these tabs on both top and bottom that will push in and over the plastic. Reinstall the screw. There we go. Push the door back in. Reinstall the pull handle. There's an arrow. Points outwards so when we flip it this way the arrow would be pointing this way. Just push it right back into place.

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