2010 Prius. Will not auto-lock doors

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Big-w, Mar 29, 2023.

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  1. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    Wife came home from an errand and said the doors would not automatically lock. I tried it. They will all unlock automatically, but will not lock via the fob, putting the car into gear, or operating the toggle on the drivers door.
    Checked all doors and hatch—all seem to be closing properly.
    Any ideas?
     
    #1 Big-w, Mar 29, 2023
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Have you misplaced any of the FOBs or are they all accounted for?
     
    #2 PriusCamper, Mar 29, 2023
  3. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Having a FOB inside the car is one thing that will cause this.

    Having one (or more) of the electric lock actuators fail can also cause it.

    If that is the cause, you might be able to hear the system trying to lock 3 or 4 times before it gives up and leaves them all unlocked.

    What he described really is not "automatic" locking.
     
    #3 sam spade 2, Mar 29, 2023
  4. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    All FOBs are accounted for and outside of the car. The clue I believe is that NONE of the doors will "Auto lock" when prompted via either the FOB, the switch next to the driver, or the change out of park on the trans. For that reason, it does not seem that the actuator had failed as that would mean 4 failing at once??
    I also pulled the fuse (25 amp) just to check and it looks fine. Next stop dealer???
     
    #4 Big-w, Mar 29, 2023
  5. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Disconnect your 12v battery for a few minutes. This is equivalent to to someone telling you to turn off and restart your computer to fix it. If that doesn't work, try inspecting each lock mechanism, as well as cleaning, as well as exercising/overusing them and then reset again.
     
    #5 PriusCamper, Mar 30, 2023
  6. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    NO, while that seems logical it doesn't work that way.

    The system "knows" if one door does not lock after repeated tries and then leaves them all UNlocked......so it will be a bit more obvious that something is not working right.
     
    #6 sam spade 2, Mar 30, 2023
  7. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Just spit-balling here; have you tried to manually toggling each door lock switch; to see if you feel a difference on one door as opposed to the others? That may point you to the door / actuator that's causing the entire system to lock-up.
     
    #7 BiomedO1, Mar 30, 2023
  8. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    Yeah--I tried both front doors, and neither of them respond to the door lock command.

    That was a great idea from Prius Camper. I was hoping that disconnecting/reconnecting was my ticket. Alas--tried that this morning and nada.
     
    #8 Big-w, Mar 30, 2023
  9. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    No, the physical lock itself, Not the electronic lock button. Don't forget to check the rear doors too.
     
    #9 BiomedO1, Mar 30, 2023
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  10. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    The other doors rely on the drivers door actuator switch to work. Replacing the drivers actuator (it controls all for doors) might solve this. I did this to my sons car and it fixed the issue.
     
    #10 Montgomery, Mar 30, 2023
  11. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    That fixed his issue.......but not for the reason that you think.
    ALL of the door locks rely on all of the rest of them to report back a successful lock.
    ANY of them that fails will prevent all of them from staying locked.

    So in your case it WAS the drivers door that was bad........but it does NOT "control" all of the other doors.
    The conclusion you reached is not valid. You just got lucky.
     
    #11 sam spade 2, Mar 30, 2023
  12. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    Conclusion. The dealer diagnosed the drivers door lock actuator as the cause. (Makes sense as I've tried every other possible cause but still fallen short). Bad news is it will cost me $650 for diagnosis, install, OEM part. But ... when I think this is the only non-maintenance issue I've ever had with the car in the last 13+ years I've owned it I figure that's no too bad.
     
    #12 Big-w, Mar 30, 2023
  13. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    $650?????? How much is the part????? $500???
    They are simple to change. And you can find them online for probably about 90% less...
    But, it's your car...

     
    #13 ASRDogman, Mar 30, 2023
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  14. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    I got mine off the internet for my son.
     
    #14 Montgomery, Mar 30, 2023
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  15. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Some things never change.

    Like YOU thinking that everybody has the skill, knowledge or will to do stuff that
    you think is "simple or easy".

    YOU need to get over that.
    People can decide for themselves what is "simple" for them.
     
    #15 sam spade 2, Mar 31, 2023
  16. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    What did you decide to do? Pay them to fix it?

     
    #16 ASRDogman, Mar 31, 2023
  17. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    This is turning out to be a bit unpredictable. I am at the dealer now. They replaced the actuator and it changed nothing. Now the lead tech is trying to figure where the problem is. If it’s an expensive fix—e.g. ECU—I Just might continue to lock the doors by hand until I get tired of doing that. In any event, the tech said if it came to that, they could remove the actuator and I wouldn’t be charged for it. To be continued …
     
    #17 Big-w, Apr 5, 2023
  18. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Of course it could be something else but ANY of the actuators failing will cause the problem.
    Trust me, I've had it happen on 3 different models.
     
    #18 sam spade 2, Apr 5, 2023
  19. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Well, you know it's NOT the actuator... and they should replace the
    original one, and NOT charge you for not fixing the problem...

     
    #19 ASRDogman, Apr 5, 2023
  20. Big-w

    Big-w Junior Member

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    Final note: It unfortunately was the ECU that failed. In the course of failing, the drivers door actuator went down as well.
    I will opt to hand lock the doors for the foreseeable future—as the cost for a full repair would be $1601. Given the mileage (192k), and kbb value, it did not seem cost effective to do the full repair.
     
    #20 Big-w, Apr 5, 2023
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