RichS

A year or two back, I made the mistake of playing with the rear door child-protector lock on the right rear door of my 2010 RX-350 It worked - it can't be opened from inside - but it also can't be moved back to normal operation. As the car rarely has anyone in the back, I just left it. But when the car was in for other work, I asked the dealership to look at it. From other discussions/videos, I expect in to be maybe 30-60 minutes to remove the door panel and re-align the cables.

However, the service advisor came back quite quickly and told me it was the door release mechanism - ~$300 for the part, $450 total. They would have to order it, so I said I'd think about it.

There's no way they opened the door to check, so I'm curious as to how they diagnosed it.

When I pull any other handle, there's about 1/2 an inch of play, then you can clearly tell it's pulling on a cable to open the door. On the door in question, the handle just pulls freely, with no tension. If anyone else has child safety enabled, can you please check and see if this is the same for you? I'm curious if this is the indicator that the mechanism is defective.

(Please don't enable it just to try it out - that's how I got here)

Ideas also welcome on how to verify the problem without tearing the door open.

dwoods801

So just to simplify things, basically you cannot open the back door from inside the car? The problem started after the child lock was flipped on, and the inside door handle doesn't feel like it's connected to the release latch? Well certainly there are very few possible culprits for your symptoms. And the technician has certainly investigated this same problem many times in the past. Being able to diagnose it quickly is a good indication that they are correct with their diagnosis and will be able to solve it. There is nothing wrong with them being able to identify the problem and recommend a solution quickly. The situation you want to avoid is when the technician needs a long time to find a solution and they don't seem very confident in their diagnosis.

salimshah

The alternative scenario is they only promise you labor to open and see if it is adjustment only or replacement of part. [it could be that they have already determined that after examination].

I would prefer where they give me most likely cost of repair and if they find some simple fix they fix and charge me less.

Also keep in mind, these days it costs more to have the mechanic open up a module and fix the internals. This is best for DIY as the time is for free and redo is for free.

Hope this helps.

Salim