joeshannon

Hello again. I made a post a little over a month ago about an LS that I was considering purchasing. Ended up pulling the trigger last week and love it so far. It needs some TLC here and there, and there is rust because Midwest, but otherwise I've driven near 1,000 miles flawlessly. Did not want to resurrect an old thread so I did not make an update. On to what I need some help with.

The biggest issue I have right now is the driver's door not locking. I just assumed it was the door lock actuator motor that had failed. I know this is a common issue so I bought a replacement motor and got to work last night. Have to throw this in the conversation real quick. I'll preface this with saying that I am far from an expert, but I couldn't help but be impressed with the build quality of this car. Even just pulling the door panel apart, you realize that the people over at Lexus thought literally EVERYTHING out. Anyway, the first thing that threw me was the fact that, since this is an '05 UL, the door actuator is different than the ones in the tutorials I had seen. I was a bit intimidated at first but I was surprisingly easy. I popped the new motor in, reassembled, and hoped for the best. Annnnddd it did not remedy the situation. All three passenger doors lock and unlock with the remote but the driver's door does not. Considering it was 2:30 am at that point I called it quits and now here I am. On the way to work this morning I decided to his the driver's side LOCK/UNLOCK button and it worked. It locked and unlocked all four doors with no issue. I am beginning to think that it is not the actuator motor. I'll list the symptoms here and hope someone has seen this before:

-Driver's door does not respond the keyfob at all. The three others do, though I do at times have to push LOCK/UNLOCK twice.
-Dome light is in "DOOR" position. Does not come on when driver's door is open. Comes on when passenger's side door is open.
-Keyless entry does not work on driver's door. Works on passenger doors. Car is also recognizing the key as I can start the car without inserting the fob.
-Headlights are in "AUTO" position. When turning the car off after the lights being on, they do not turn off. I know there may be a delay but as the driver's door does not like by the key, does that mean the car thinks it's still in use?
-The driver's door LOCK/UNLOCK does not function when the car is off and the ignition is not on. The passenger's side does.
-Now this is what throws me. When the ignition is turned on, and when the motor has been turned on, the LOCK/UNLOCK button works. In fact it works flawlessly every time including the driver's side door lock.

I am leaning towards a key issue at this point. The actuator seems to be working perfectly under certain conditions and not at all when the car is not on. I guess its a relatively minor issue, but I would love to have the keyless work properly. Please help. Thank you.

jayclapp

Since it's a UL, you don't actually even have to use the keyfob. As long as it' in your pocket you can unlock the doors by just grabbing the external door handle. This only requires that your fingers hit the back side of the handle. The car will start up with the keyfob in your pocket. You can lock the car externally by just pushing the button on the external door handle. This will work for all four doors.

Do you have a problem with this method, or is it just when you use the keyfob manually?

joeshannon

Thank you for the reply. Love this feature but it does not work for the driver's door. It will work on all three passenger's doors, but not the driver's.

Bsavage

I would take the door panel off make sure the plugs inside of the door for the door handle is connected than go around the door to make sure everything is connected past owners maybe went through and for got to plug something back but forsure there is a plug for that door handle. If that doesn’t work check fuses maybe unplug the battery
PS make sure you leave one window down just in case

joeshannon

I undid the battery last night in hopes that it would help but no luck. I will check behind the handle and the fuses tonight. Such a strange problem.

Bsavage

Also right when you take off the door panel there should be 2 electrical boxes attached to the door that all the cables plug into make sure those are all plugged in as well and you can use a multi meter to narrow it down

joeshannon

I'll be sure to check those tonight. Thanks for the feedback. If you or anyone else has any other suggestions let me know.

Wheelyneat

I too assumed my driver’s door lock actuator was bad, but maybe something else is going on? I just recently purchased my 430 with 53k miles and the door lock issue is the only thing still bugging me. Is there some way to perform a system reset that would resynchronize the locking system? Not knowing what the previous owner might have done really adds to the mystery of the problem.

Update: I replaced my driver’s door lock actuator with a rebuilt unit and everything works as intended, my car is a Premium with Smartkey but not soft close.

joeshannon

Shame that something like that fails. But it is a 14 year old car so I can cut it some slack. I'm going to keep digging. If you find anything out please let me know. I'll be sure to do the same. I am going to do my best to avoid the dealer.

Bocatrip

I’m really not trying to be a downer but there are still 3 additional doors left! I’m sure things will work out. As you already know the key here is to steer clear of the dealer at all costs ( no pun intended) Good luck.

AJT123

Mine's been out for a couple years now. The dealer wants over $700.

I figure buy a used door actuator and take it to a body/collision shop to save some money, but I haven't gotten around to it.

I just use the key for now.

Hilarious, on such an old and complex and expensive car the only thing wrong is a lousy door lock actuator.

weldthedif

its the motor inside your door lock actuator. the door needs to come apart, but the motor is about $7 to replace.

Bocatrip

You really don't want a used actuator (or any used LS430 part) as the used part will most likely be failing shortly anyway.

joeshannon

I'm still not sure its the actuator. In my original post I stated that I replaced the motor and that the actuator must be, at least mechanically, functioning properly. When the the key is turned on the driver's door lock works. The past few days I have noticed that, I will leave the driver's door open purposely and when I return to the car the door has locked itself. I'm going to try and replace the batter for the key fob today.

Diplocar

I had this problem on my 2004 Custom Luxury and had to bite the bullet on the $600 Lexus part. All better now.