Faulty Central Locking Door (Avensis 2010)

[DH-Avensis 2010]

My first post, any advice would be appreciated

Car: Toyota Avensis T4 D-4D Estate

 

I have experienced the same fault twice now relating to the central locking of the Avensis.

Normally (when the car is working correctly), the Central Locking is operated by either the Key fob or the touch sensitive door handles. 

However, in 2013 I experience the first instance of a fault where when trying to access the car using either the key fob or door handles the central locking system wouldn’t open the car.  The car was registering the signal, with the indicator lights and a clicking noise within the door trying to activate the central locking but none of the doors would open. The only door that would open normally is the boot. Trying to access by the front passenger door handles made no difference.  The batteries in the key fobs were new.  This fault would present itself at random, with about 8 instances within a two week window, sometimes when the car was cold (first thing in the morning) but also after use.

The only way to access the car was via the manual key into the drivers door.  The Car would start normally, although it still was not possible to activate the central locking to unlock the other doors (by either using the door lock/unlock switch on the driver door, key fob or door handles).

I took the car to the Preston Toyota dealer and they stated that they had no other experiences of this fault.  Through investigation they opted to 1) replace the door actuator and 2) I believe insert fuse block (sorry not clear what they meant by this).  This was done under warranty as it was year 3 of the 5 year warranty.

However, the exact same fault has again presented itself July 2016.  

I return the car to the same Toyota Dealership and again they stated that this was an unknown issue. Their advice was again to replace the lock actuator, however, they have stated that this is beyond the Warranty period and I will be liable for the full cost of repair.  Toyota UK Customer Service also stated the same.

It grieves me that this may be a recurring fault (every3 years) as the cost of repair is significant.

I welcome any advice to the above, on any similar experiences with the central locking systems, any suggested solutions other than having the actuator replaced and finally, any experiences of warranty claims recognising that this is a repeat fault of an issue that occurred during the original warranty term.

 

Thank you in advance of any advice provided.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello David - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

As regards the warranty, the fault that occurred in 2013 was fixed under warranty. So Toyota met their obligation.

Three years later you have a similar fault, but this is clearly outside the warranty period. 

If you had purchased an extended warranty when the 5 year/100,000 mile warranty expired, then I would have thought you would be covered for another warranty repair. 

If not, then the repair will be down to you to fund.

However, you haven't said whether the car has a full Toyota service history. If you have a full Toyota service history, you could approach Toyota for a goodwill contribution towards the repair cost. Bear in mind this will probably be a contribution, not necessarily the full cost.

If the car doesn't have a full Toyota service history, you can still approach Toyota as regards a goodwill contribution, but the chance of a positive response will be greatly reduced due to not having a full Toyota service history. Goodwill works both ways.

[DH-Avensis 2010]

Thank you for your reply.  In answer your question, yes full Toyota dealership service history.

 

Update since my post:

 

The Preston dealership replaced the lock actuator (FOC) and returned the car for me to test.  After 5 days of perfect working, the fault presented itself again, although still intermittent.

 

The only advice they gave was to change the computer, which will be significant cost & (on the basis that this was replaced in 2013) doesn’t give me confidence that it will fix the problem)

 

Also, the car has now presented me with another issue (Not sure if it’s linked).

 

Whilst driving on the motorway, the dashboard lit up with warning message ‘check parking brake system / check VSC system’.  The Car was then sluggish to drive until I could find place to pull over.  I re-started engine but the message returned, although I did drive a little further and when I re-started the engine a second time the error messages cleared. 

 

I took the car to another dealership and they have cleared the error codes and left me to take the car again to see if the fault presents itself again.  It has on one occasion but yet driving on further occasions appears to be fine now!  I’ll be taking the car back to see if they can diagnose anything further.  The car is also sluggish when cruising in 3/4^th gear at around 30/40mph.

 

Not sure if the Parking Brake/VSC errors is linked to the door locking issues or just becoming unlucky!

[Konrad C]

If you have searched the forum regarding the Parking Brake /VSC you will see this:- 

 

[Duttyrock]

Hi David

I have the exact same problem as your car now, and my car is also an Avensis Estate 60 Reg. It just happened out of nowhere :(

The only way I can open the door is pressing the unlock button on the fob and either 1. open the boot to climb in or 2. insert the key into the driver's door and unlock this door and then start the car.. All the other doors have to be unlocked from the inside. The button on the driver door also doesnt work, even tho I can hear the clicking noise that the central locking is trying to unlock the doors.

Got my car into the dealer with morning, they reckon it is an ECU problem and recommended that need to be replaced.

 

[DH-Avensis 2010]

Hi Tien,

I'm interested in what your outcome was. As a result of the error messages in my note above w.r.t 'parking Brake / VSC' the Blackpool dealer cleared all previous error codes.  So far I've not has a repeat lock out yet but time will tell.  

[DH-Avensis 2010]

On ‎30‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 9:00 PM, Konrad C said:

If you have searched the forum regarding the Parking Brake /VSC you will see this:- 

 

Good evening Konrad,

Thanks for the link w.r.t Parking Brake / VSC.

I've had the car back to the dealership and they have looked at the error codes.  The assessment is a fault on the Injector (No.1) Error code  P063D.  The car was noticeably sluggish when cruising at 30mph in 3rd gear.

I don't recall seeing this error code within the linked posting but now faced with a £1600 bill to have all four Injectors replaced I welcome any technical advice on this fault and any other options available.  With this and the door locking which may/may not require replacement ECU its looking like trading in is the best option.

Thanks in advance

[WendyLG]

I also have this central locking problem on my 2011 Avensis. Just so I can add weight to the "it happens"

[Brian Furlong]

Hi

I have an Avensis estate 2010 with the same intermittent central locking fault and got no joy from my local Toyota dealer.

Can anybody help?

Brian 

[Michael Hogan]

Hi I also have the same two problems central locking and vac breaking I found that I had a left back caliper sticking got second hand one sorted    Central locking problem I have narried it down to fuse box inside glove box or that General area if you put a blow heater on floor blowing hot air up under fuse box and after a hour central locking works perfect  but only for a while all connections look good but there are a few more boxes up there , Sorry that all I can add but has nothing to do with locks or actuator

[Anonymous1]

I've had the same problem with my Avensis 2010 for past 3 weeks, car would lock with the key fob and also lock with the central locking button from inside the car, but would not unlock with the fob or with button inside the car, when i pressed unlock button on the fob car was receiving the signal by flashing the hazard lights and could also hear the car trying to unlock the doors but none of the doors would unlock apart from the boot/trunk. which always opened by pressing the unlock button on the boot itself. have been using the manual key to get inside the car for past few weeks which only opens the drivers door and have to open rest of the doors manually once inside the car.

have been to the local mechanic he could not work it out, then went to key guys they said the key was fine and that it could be internal problem, then went to Toyota yesterday they charged me £120 just to diagnose the problem, they still could not be 100% sure of the problem they said most likely one of the computers in the car is not working properly ''Junction Block Receiver Assembly '' which they quoted me for £940, that is a lot of money.

Then last night i was searching online for every possible solution, one method i tried was (Open drivers door, and keep it open, now turn the ignition on but do not start the car, wait for 10 seconds, then press the unlock button on the car)  this method was meant to make some sort of unlocking/locking sound and was spouse to reset the key but it didn't work for me.

However after 2-3 hours i went to get something out the boot, and while i had the boot open i pressed the unlock button on the boot few times and also pressed unlock button on the fob few times to see if that would work and guess what, IT DID the car is now back to normal. maybe something stuck in the boot locking mechanism was preventing rest of the doors unlock. not exactly sure what went wrong.

im not sure which out the below 3 worked.

1) the 10 second method.

2) pressing the unlock button on the boot while it was open.

3) or pressing unlock or even lock button on the fob while the boot was open.

 

I WOULD SUGGEST TRYING THE ABOVE 3 IF YOU HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEM AS MINE, IT COULD SAVE YOU £££ IF IT WORKS. 

BEST OF LUCK!

[Hussain113]

On 6/21/2019 at 2:06 AM, Anonymous1 said:

I've had the same problem with my Avensis 2010 for past 3 weeks, car would lock with the key fob and also lock with the central locking button from inside the car, but would not unlock with the fob or with button inside the car, when i pressed unlock button on the fob car was receiving the signal by flashing the hazard lights and could also hear the car trying to unlock the doors but none of the doors would unlock apart from the boot/trunk. which always opened by pressing the unlock button on the boot itself. have been using the manual key to get inside the car for past few weeks which only opens the drivers door and have to open rest of the doors manually once inside the car.

have been to the local mechanic he could not work it out, then went to key guys they said the key was fine and that it could be internal problem, then went to Toyota yesterday they charged me £120 just to diagnose the problem, they still could not be 100% sure of the problem they said most likely one of the computers in the car is not working properly ''Junction Block Receiver Assembly '' which they quoted me for £940, that is a lot of money.

Then last night i was searching online for every possible solution, one method i tried was (Open drivers door, and keep it open, now turn the ignition on but do not start the car, wait for 10 seconds, then press the unlock button on the car)  this method was meant to make some sort of unlocking/locking sound and was spouse to reset the key but it didn't work for me.

However after 2-3 hours i went to get something out the boot, and while i had the boot open i pressed the unlock button on the boot few times and also pressed unlock button on the fob few times to see if that would work and guess what, IT DID the car is now back to normal. maybe something stuck in the boot locking mechanism was preventing rest of the doors unlock. not exactly sure what went wrong.

im not sure which out the below 3 worked.

1) the 10 second method.

2) pressing the unlock button on the boot while it was open.

3) or pressing unlock or even lock button on the fob while the boot was open.

 

I WOULD SUGGEST TRYING THE ABOVE 3 IF YOU HAVE SIMILAR PROBLEM AS MINE, IT COULD SAVE YOU £££ IF IT WORKS. 

BEST OF LUCK!

Thanks mate God bless u that worked for me