WilsonC

Hi Guys,

I have a 98 GS 300, the driver door actuator went out twice since I bought the car. I called Lexus coporate office to compliant about the bad actuator. I am out of warranty, nothing they will do for me. I am pissed at Lexus for not standing behind the bad actuator. I know for a fact, that there are 1000 of bad actuator out there. Can anyone help? I like every Lexus owner to help me call 800 25 Lexus to compliant about the bad service and them not stand behind the products they put into the car.

AJ

You expect a car 9 years old to never have any problems from day 1 ? Lexus isn't responsible since your car is out of warrenty,however the dealership is responsible if the changed actuator went out within its warrenty time.

eban

my 98 gs300 had the same issue - drivers side only - but i changed to the spare key and put a new battery in it now all is working perfectly

don't know if this will work for you, but worth a try

good luck

rominl

iTrader: (4)

you drive a lexus right? and you drive a 8 yr old gs right? you know the car is old right? the actuator didn't go back in the first 4 yrs / 50k miles right?

pay for it and move on, lexus didn't do anything wrong. if it's under warranty they would have done something. your car is far from having warranty, what can i say

movinquick

iTrader: (1)

i have the same problem, order some from carson's for $208.

e-man

I actually agree with the OP on this point. Sure, the car is 8 years old and things are bound to go wrong. That's true for any car. But when you see the same problem occuring across many model years to numerous people, well, then, that's a little different. I'd be interested to know what percentage of GS's have this problem. I bet it's not as high as CL members would think, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number was somewhere in the 10% range of all 2GS's after a certain number of years/miles.

VM 2

You also have to think about why it goes out. Its your drivers door that breaks down on you. Think of how many times you unlock/lock, open your door in a week.

That has to take some kind of toll on a motor.

benzo555

iTrader: (11)

Couldnt said it any better. This is a moving part.. it will eventually wear out.

e-man

Well, then maybe it should have been engineered better to take into account the fact that it will be used many times. I hear what you guys are saying, but the mere fact that so many people have had the same problem indicates to me that the fault lies, at least in part, with the manufacturer.

IS350jet

So, if Lexus had sold 100,000 GS's and all of them had 0 problems for 10 years and then all of a sudden all 100,000 of them had door lock actuators go bad Lexus would be responsible?

dchen2

I kinda agree with the OP's sentiment here as well. I recently bought a 2001 GS430 (it does have close to 90k mi though) and both front actuators are starting to go out as well. stuff failing on a 10yr old car is one thing, however both actuators failing simutaneously on a ~5 year old lux car puts another spin on things.

Looks like it'll take 1.5 shop hours to swap each actuator and then $200 for each part so I am looking at $600 to fix those... not a huge deal but still unpleasant since its unexpected and I feel really pathetic having to unlock my newly aquired lux car manually while my old 97 F150's remote still works just fine.

However, I would much rather prefer lexus having a problem with a small, relatively inconsequential part than say Acura's horrible transmission reliability for their Tl's or the BMW/Merc/Audi's trend of multiple items all failing in a cassade of repair bills.

e-man

Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. Believe me, I do see the other side here. And, just to add some perspective, my door lock actuators work fine (knock wood), so my opinion is not biased because of my personal situation. But I've owned several cars well into 6-7 years from manufacture, and I've never, ever had a problem with the door locks. Like I said, if it was an isolated case, well then things happen and you just have to deal with it. But I've been around CL for about 2.5 years, and this topic comes up so many times that I have to believe there's something inherently wrong with the design of the actuator. No, these things should not be expected to last forever, but at the same time, people who own 5-6 year old $50k+ luxury cars should not have to deal with this issue on such a widespread basis.

On a related note, because I'm aware of the potential problem, I try to use my electric door locks as little as possible. I'll hit the remote once to unlock the driver's door in the morning, but once in the car if I want to lock the driver's door, I just manually slide the lock button. Also, you know how you can turn off the automatic headlights by hitting the lock button on the remote twice? I figured out a way to hit it only once. When you get out of your car at night, manually slide the driver's door lock into the locked position and then close your door. If you then hit the lock button on the remote, the lights will turn off on the first push of the button.

dchen2

good advice e-man. if my 2001 was just slightly out of the 4yr/50k mark I heard many dealerships (it helps if you do your service with them regularly) would fix the actuator or any other defect as a goodwill gesture. Unfortunately, my has 89k already so I suppose the actuators have been used hard.

I never had any car before this GS have the power locks go bad either and my family owned a 89 towncar, 94 taruose (sic), 97 F150, 99 nissan altima, and 03 expedition, all of whom had power locks that never malfunctioned. I am thinking maybe this weekend when I have time I'll shoot a quick email or phone call to Lexus customer care and depending on how they treat the problem maybe even write a drawn out letter to Lexus (or is that toyota) USA corporate with my complaint and reference the numerous cases listed in CL as evidence.

dle

iTrader: (2)

I have the same problem. My rear passenger actuator is out. Though my car is at 98, I know that door rarely ever gets opened.

I plan to fix it and move on , but I have read about this problem quite frequently on the boards and needs to be addressed. It doesn't seem to be a isolated incident.

On the other hand, the new GS model is out - so I don't see Lexus making this a priority. Our cars are old, I expect maintainance issues.