GoodRevs

Seems the motor is slowly dying on our 2010 RX. It went from working 100% of the time to 75, 50 and now 25% of the time. I’m seeing them for $350-400 online but will try to find one in a salvage yard from a late 3rd gen first. How hard is it to replace?

Clutchless

There have been prior threads discussing this project. Youtube also has info. There are used ones on eBay but the prices for most are almost similar to what you found for new.

Also check the part number cross reference to see if the 4th gen uses the same motor to expand your used choices.

carguy75

Replacing the rear hatch motor is not that hard. I replaced a bad one on my old 2010 RX350 a few years ago. I replaced it will a used unit i purchased off Ebay for about $80 dollars and it still works since I know the person that has my old RX350.

If remember correctly you just have to remove the rear hatch trim(door and cargo sections) and pull down the headliner rear section slightly to access the motor bolts. The proper way is to completely remove the headliner, but I was able to just carefully pull down a section of the headliner.

carguy75

I wished this video was available when I had to replace the lift-gate motor on my old 2010 years ago.

I performed the repair with a used replacement unit the same exact way in the video and saved hundreds of dollars by avoiding the dealership.

salimshah

Yes OEMs are expensive but they last longer. I feel your pain if you used the dealership to replace them.

Salim

Jksm

Two of us replaced ours on the 2012 RX a second pair of hands is handy holding back the headliner not a bad job and agree stay away from salvage motors. shop around for oem from dealers who oftentimes run specials on parts amazing price differences from various dealers nationwide. our dealer was from Baton Rouge La
wgo had the best price

GoodRevs

Thanks everyone. I’m not finding any for less than $350 that are new. I’m willing to pull one from a salvage car that hasn’t been rear ended for $50-75 and take the risk it burns out after a year or two.

GoodRevs

I just did this using a $100 used motor off of a 2011 RX. Total time start to finish was 45min, this is pretty easy. It really helps to have a good ratchet set with different socket extensions, I used three different 10mm sockets doing this.