Driver Side Locks Not Working

[walker.627]

The electronic locking of the driver side doors (both front and back) in my 2006 Prius is not working. They do not work either from the keychain device or by pressing the automatic unlock buttons on either driver or passenger side front doors. The only way I can lock/unlock either door is manually by pressing the lock itself. To enter the driver side front door, I have to use the actual key (which you can unhook from the keychain device using the quick release) to unlock the door, or go in through the passenger side front door and reach across. Both are getting really irritating!

So, my question: what could possibly be causing this? The Toyota dealer wanted to charge me like $179 just to open the door panel to see what might be wrong. That seems pretty darn steep, as I imagine there will also be additional charges once inside to actually fix the problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Some additional clues:
[1] I also have intermittent outages in the driver side headlight, which now appears to be a common problem on the 2006 Prius. I wonder if they are related.
[2] Sometimes it looks like the locks are trying to open, but there is just not enough juice behind whatever mechanism is trying to flip them into place. For example, the front door lock might move a quarter of the way and then just fall back into the locked/unlocked position, depending where it started. The back door looks pretty much dead (no lock movement) at this point, and it was the first to fail. At one point in time, the front but not back driver side door worked, but later (and at this time) the front door also failed.

Would appreciate any insight into this. Thank you!

[Bobsprius]

I am really not sure what the issue may be but because you state "Both Doors on 1 side" tend to make me believe it could be electrical. Had it been one door only, I would take a guess at a lock motor, but the odds of 2 going out at the same time ??? seems unusual. It could be related to something electrical and I would have it checked by the dealer. Ask them if they find something will they deduct the Diagnostic fee from the repair?? It never hurts to pressure them a little more...

[RickJ]

I have a driver's door only - not working with remote - I can use the key to get in and to lock the door.
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Dealer quoted $380 to fix - I said no....and began to look for an independent shop to do the fix. One said they couldn't as the dealer had to program the actuator/solenoid. Another said the part would cost $112 and it would take 1.5 hours to install BUT they had no source for the part (their normal Toyota parts supplier wouldn't provide it)....
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for $380 I'll keep using the key.
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BUT.......it's a bit frustrating that what seems like a simple fix has no cheap answer -
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any thoughts? - used part available? or ????
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RickJ