Weird issue with locking mechanism, car won't stay locked

I was going to say maybe you should take her to see a psychologist or an exorcist. Sorry, I don't know what could be causing this. A firmware glitch maybe?? Dirt lodged into the area of one of the door handles that senses your are trying to open the door?? Don't know - just guessing here. Did you try disabling the locking option in the Car Setup? Does the passenger door exhibit the same symptoms?

 

Door lock actuators are a major point of failure across the entire Toyota/Lexus line. I replaced both front actuators already.

If your car is unlocked and you move it from park to reverse/drive, it is most likely attempting to lock itself. But since the motors don't have the power to do that anymore, they just make a weird click noise.
Sometimes the actuator gets the oomph and does lock, but it's rare.

Do a search for door lock actuators, you'll find a ton, one of which, I provide part numbers and links for aftermarket actuators that come with a 10 year warranty.

 

Just change the front locking actuators.

the motor will reverse direction if it did not meet the instruction to go forward till locking point.

No exorcism needed. Hahaha

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I had a similar experience in my Gen 1 when one of the lock actuators had grown weak. I would press the lock button on the fob and all of the doors would try to lock, but one of them would not quite make it. In my case it was the driver's door (stands to reason, gets the most use, after all).

I was able to confirm it by looking in through the passenger window when pressing the fob lock button; I could see the driver's door lock move only part of the way.

Because the actuators did not all complete the motion far enough to make their locked-position switches, the next thing the car did was unlock them all. My guess is it does that as a way to let you know something isn't right, though it isn't really the way I would have chosen.

 

(I'm the girlfriend of the poster) What are the chances that a key fob might be hidden in the car? Could that be causing it by any chance? Also it will lock sometimes but its like the car freaks out wanting it unlocked.

How is the DIY for the lock actuators? Is it fairly simple to replace yourself? Do you know about what price they run?

Also completely random but were you in Buford yesterday? We both noticed a very orange prius c and we noticed you live in Cumming lol

 

Highly likely that one, or more, of your electric door lock actuators is failing.
Those are some of the symptoms.
You won't like the dealers price to fix them.

There are some good threads on here about it......including DIY information.

 

I did it myself. Took me about 45 mins the first one and then 20 mins for the second one (once I knew what I was doing, 6 months later even).
I paid ~$35 each for mine. The dealer wanted $200 per lock actuator for the OEM installed. I paid $70 and 2 hours time all said. But the one's that I bought have a ten year warranty, so if they go out in the next 10 years, full replacement for free.

 

Lol, I was not. But I do get close to there from time to time. It really does sound like your lock actuator is done. Where in Atlanta are you? I regularly drive up and down 400.
I'd be willing to meet you guys and help you change out the actuators if you need some help, since I've done this before.

 

Wow thank you! And I would SUPER appreciate any help I can get! We are actually in Buford (I just say Atlanta because everyone knows Atlanta lol) I just ordered the ones I've seen you suggest. How long do they take to get here usually?

 

I don't recall how long they took, but I want to say less than a week.

 

actually amazingly, they are coming in today! That was incredibly fast.

 

what other parts do I need? Anything special? Would you like to meet up?

 

Sent you a PM.