Ollie

Hi,

First time poster, long time lurker. I just sold my wife's '99 4runner to a friend and bought her a 2004 V8 Limited, it is a great upgrade! Of course, a few weeks after we did the deal the locks have become possessed in the old truck, to the point where the new owners have renamed it "Christine." At any rate the issue seems to be with the driver's door lock. When you unlock the truck from the driver’s lock (providing it will let you) and are just driving down the road the locks will start locking and unlocking at will. You can hear a solenoid type sound in the area of the fuse box under the dash so I had a quick look and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

You can actuate the locks from the switch on the door but the key is next to useless so if you get out of the truck and lock it, chances are you have to use the passenger side lock to enter the vehicle, something the friend's pregnant wife is loath to do. Also the locks can go “off” when the truck is just sitting there.

Also this truck does not have keyless entry and has never had an alarm system. It is a V6 SR-5 with power locks.

They made an appointment at Toyota but can not get in until Jan 5 so if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it very much. I searched and found a few references but nothing which matched his issue. By the way he did purchase a new battery as the existing unit was original to no avail.

Great site & thanks a lot for reading!

blown4runner96

you may have an issue with the LF door lock control itself. Thats truly bizzare, sounds as though something is grounding out sending false signals to the door lock control switch or the relay may have issues, although my guess is a shot in the dark. Post up what the dealer has to say after ya find out

Localmotion

man...i say torch the 4runner!

LOL.....good luck..

Welcome to YT and hopefully someone will chime in with 10000x better reply!

Bob_98SR5

i betcha i know!

look at my writeup here: http://www.4runners.org/articles/doorhandle/index.html

under step 2, there is a little green part (it could be white too) that acts as a lever point for the door mechanism rod to pull/lock. if that is partially broken and stuck in the same way, the rod may cause the locking mechanism to fail to lock---and keep trying until it does.

take a gander at that and if its intact, i dont know. but do let us know what it is when they find out

bob

Ollie

Wow, great responses, guys! Much obliged Bob, I'm going to rip 'er open and will see what I can find. Baring that, I'll post what Toyota responds with.

In the meantime the '04 has a few issues of its own but I'm more then happy to defer to the warranty.

Cheers!

blown4runner96

what problems persay...? If the dealership ever gives you the run around post up here and I'll try and help...

Ollie

Nothing too dramatic; one of the body side panels is seperating from the door, a window seal is inverted somehow where the window meets the frame, one of the silver plastic pieces where the roof rack meets the body needs to be replaced.

Of somewhat more concern is the truck has that sulfur stink after running up hills so I'm guessing the cat needs to be replaced. At times it is so bad my wife feels like she's going to toss her cookies so I'll need to bring this to the dealer's attention.

Also the brake pedal has what feels like an electronic vibration when you initially apply the brakes. I know they'll try and say the rotors are warped or some other BS but certainly there is no issue with the rotors. Maybe "they're" all like that in terms of braking but I would have thought the truck should have a smooth brake pedal given there is no shimmy in the truck itself or the steering wheel which would indicate warped rotors or a bad bushing.

Thanks again. Doubtful but if anyone ever needs help with a BMW E36 M3 I have had one since new in '99 and have tracked it relentlessly so I have a decent amount of knowledge on these cars.

Lysmachia

Too bizzare. As I was locking my runner tonight (using the electronic lock all button in the truck), it kept immediatly unlocking. Hmmm.... Might have to get in there as well

Ollie

Sounds familiar...let me know if you have any luck & I'll do the same. I will take a closer look at the truck tomorrow afternoon and will post back again then.

Lysmachia

Ahhh I have Blown4runner with me for the weekend. Cool huh? So I'll see what she says. It didn't do it again when I got home but...

cimahar

I have a 99 4runner and the door lock switch won't work with the door open or with the key off, and I can not opem the doors with the key. I bought a remote but can't program it because of the lock switch problem, any help GUYS,, PLEASE

Ollie

Update: Friends took the truck to Toyota who kept it for 2 days "testing" it out after I strongly suggested the driver's door lock actuator. In the spirit of lame dealers worldwide they claimed my friends would have to pay for the part even if it did not fix the problem. After some begging they pulled one off another truck on the lot and voila, problem solved. Of course they also wanted to replace the "door control box" but my friend said "no way!"

Any way if your locks go mental and flick off and on just driving around and the driver's lock doesn't work on the key but the passenger side does then dollars to doughnuts it is the door lock actuator....$300 please

90vetteman

Newbie here and my first post but I had a similar occurance this summer. I have a 96 and my locks would unlock by themselves and my back widow would go down without any reason. I am friends with the local stealership service manager, although I've never been to his shop...(We meet at car shows sometimes). He asked if I might have just cleaned my carpets. Seems that when I detailed the inside of the 4Runner, I got water into the computer under the drivers seat. That one controls the window, lock ontrols and theft alarms. I took it out and let it sit in the sun for a day, crossed my fingers and plugged it back in and everything worked fine. So if they just detailed their interior or maybe spilled something on the front seat and got that computer wet, they might try the same trick.

llars275

I have been down as many threads as I can to find an answer and hoping someone might have it here. My 2000 SR5 power locks start actuating in the cold weather. They are not fob controlled, but regardless of whether I use the key or the power button, in the cold weather they start cycling. This was particularly tragic last year when I had $1K in tools pilfered because she unlocked herself overnight.

Now that the temperature is dropping here in Seattle they are going again and it is only a matter of time until I'm robbed again (though I keep very little in her now). At this point I don't want to fix the power locks, I want to disable them. I have called dealers and read threads to no avail. It seems the power locks relay is integrated with windows/lights from what I understand?

Would be grateful for a quick tip on how to kill the power locks and go to a safer manual mode of entry.

Thanks

keywords: power locks, 3rd gen, cycling, automatic unlocking, possessed

endoscott

On my 97 Limited fob acts erratically and then sometimes it won't start either ( turn key and nothing). It seems related. Sometimes fob works but no single or double beep. Today I unlocked manually opened the door and alarm went off. Huh, better not do that. After that happened it wouldn't start. Turned key off and then back to start position 4 or 5 times then it started right up. Dash lights all light up normally whether or not it turns over at start position. Brand new battery. New toyota starter 5000 miles ago. Very intermittent but it makes me nervous. Can I jump directly from battery plus to solenoid terminal if this happens and I can't get it going? As you can tell I know little.

Brock Ethan Reed

Pull the 30 amp fuse that is located in the fuse back just lower left of the steering wheel. it will be the top right large fuse.