A friend at work can't get her driver door to unlock with se/ss. I thought it might be a fob programming issue, but she took it in to the dealer, and they took the door apart and have to replace a part. They told her it would take four days (wishful thinking I think) to get the part, and she could take it home and drive it 'till then. She said no thanks, I don't want to crawl in through the other side door for a week...they gave her a rental. Anybody else heard of this door lock issue?
Never heard of that...if it's accurate. I guess what I don't understand for certain is if the lock mechanism in the door was completely broken....could she use the lock/unlock button on the FOB to unlock the door or not? If so, she wouldn't need to crawl in through the passenger door and it would narrow the problem down to the SS/E system. If neither worked then I'd think it was a problem with the lock itself and nothing to do with SS/E as you suggest. Could you try to clarify a bit. Also, just to be sure, the SS part worked once she did get in the car, right? --evan
The ss did work when she got in the car. To be honest, I don't know if she was able to unlock the door manually. I'm relatively sure she couldn't open it with the fob...seems like the dealer would have talked her out of the rental if she could use the fob. (The dealership she bought it from doesn't have TRAC, so she ended up with a Civc...she says it doesn't handle nearly as well as the Prius.)
I had a slightly different problem recently. A couple of weeks ago, I got to work when it was in the low-mid 50's. By lunch time, it was easily in the low-mid 80's (SoCal). The temperature change had caused something to shift or warp. Even though my door had unlocked, I had to crawl in through the back to get in as the door "felt" locked. The door was barely latched, and the temp change had caused increased tension on the latch. I figured out that by pulling hard enough, it was able to open with a slight pop. It hasn't happened since, but I did find it interesting.
There is most certainly a problem with the door actuators on not only Prius, but other Toyota models as well. My 2001 Prius is sitting in the shop right now while we argue about replacing the door actuator for the THIRD time. First it was the passenger, then the driver, now it's the passenger one again. I never thought about the extended warranty plan for something like door locks. What rubs me is that the genuine Toyota replacement parts are only covered for one year. Me thinks that genuine parts should be covered just as if they were new with the car, which would be three years. It's a little ironic that Toyota is know for quality yet the coverage is only for 3 years and 36,000 miles. Which reminds me that my 2001 Prius only has 36,000 miles on it. This, in turn, reminds me that car warranties aren't fair to people who don't drive much. Warranties should only apply to mileage, the wear and tear actually put on the car. These small fixes are actually a big deal n a car like this where the main advantage to owning a Prius is the savings in gas. But that's completely shot out the window if you have to pluck down some $250 to replace something as benign is a door lock actuator (and this is my third time). By comparison the 40 year old door locks on my old 1961 Lincoln Continental still worked when I sold the car in 2000. And the 1987 Toyota Cressida that we sold in 2001 had 180,000 miles on it and ITS door locks still worked too.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dave @ Jan 24 2004, 03:35 PM) [snapback]2438[/snapback]</div> Can't it be locked/unlocked with the little mechanical key?
I've recently experienced this three times. One night, standing near the hatch, the interior light would flash on and off every 1-2 seconds, as if it couldn't decide I was really standing there or not. Holding the hatch open button did nothing, as well as the driver's door. Hitting lock/unlock on the fob had no effect. I was outside. Another day, same thing with all the windows half-down while I was outside. Reached over to flip the SKS button off, and fob lock/unlock still doesn't work. I got in by using the mechanical key to unlock, and THEN everything worked normally. This happened before and after I replaced the FOB battery.
