coastn

Recently purchased a 2015 RX350, 128K miles, 2 prior owners (at least). The liftgate worked properly VERY rarely, Added new struts, no difference. Took it to Toyota dealer and tech saiid motor is shot. I bought a used one from a salvage yard and got to work. I got as far as removing the original motor and was losing my light (working outdoors) so I closed the liftgate until tomorrow. MISTAKE! I cannot open the liftgate. It seems like there is no power to the electric lock if the wire harness is not plugged into the liftgate motor. It does not respond to any signal (fob, button on dash or button on liftgate). I also pushed the button at the glove box to disable the motor, no help there either. I am now thinking I am going to have to drop lots of the headliner so I can re-attach the wire harness to the motor to get the liftgate up. Anyone have any other ideas?
As Ollie would say to Stan, "Well Stanley, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into" Thanks in advance.

pgeremia

So if you can get a computer connect to it you may find the communication bus is not working. Do you have any other items in the car not working such as the telescoping wheel and the seat adjustments?

If so, this is a bus issue. There is a junction block under the dash that I believe gets corroded because of the wetness from where you place your feet.

Let me know if that was it or not.

-Pete

Ps. I bought the dongle on Amazon and that is how I figured it out on my car.

carguy75

It seems like you will have to find a way to reattach the lift gate wire harness like you mentioned. Mistakes happen when working on cars and lessons are learned. I made a few myself over the years.

The issue hopefully is not that bad since most of the rear hatch trim should already be removed and the roof liner should be partially removed in the rear area already. Hopefully you can just reach in with your hands to just reconnect the wiring harness and open the lift gate.

coastn

Oh Happy Day!!! When the sun came up I was examining the rear liftgate to see if I could energize (hotwire) the lock motor when I noticed a small rectangular cutout in the interior fabric of the liftgate. I popped it out and under it I found a shiny lever that, when pushed to the right, unlocks the liftgate! Hope this helps some others!

Thanks, pgeremia for the tip on the junction box. That is not my problem but I will check for corrosion just the same.

coastn

My problem was there was no motor under the headliner to plug the harness into. I had removed the old motor and stopped there when I closed the liftgate and locked myself out. Thanks for your help

coastn

Just wanted to post a final update. My liftgate would open and close properly on very rare occasions. Usually it would unlock, not lift and then re-lock. I assumed the motor was bad but wasn't certain because when it did work the liftgate opened and closed smoothly and the motor made no telltale sounds of laboring. I purchased a "tested works" liftgate motor from a salvage yard online. Initially I used the little t shaped mounting tab on the top of the motor assembly to hold the new motor in position, plugged in the wiring clip and hit the close button. Nothing happened and I momentarily thought the problem was not with the motor but somewhere else. I then installed a couple of the 5 mounting bolts and it worked. I believe the motor needs to be bolted to the body to get a good ground in order to work. It is working correctly now, just have to program the fob button to the car. Thanks to everyone who took time to answer