yaris hatch not unlocking

[dasnake]

its a 2008 yaris 2dr hatchback. all locks are manual. i was able to lock and unlock the hatch yesterday with the key, but it will not unlock today.

any ideas?

[WeeYari]

Was it subject to sub-freezing temps last night? Mine will freeze up. Sometimes it also just requires a little wiggling with the key to find the sweet spot in the tumblers.

[dasnake]

no lowest it hit was 45 last night.

i will play with it, but if its giving me problems now, its prolly not going to be reliable over the long haul. i'll see if toyota will fix it under warranty.

[SAV912]

i will play with it, but if its giving me problems now, its prolly not going to be reliable over the long haul.

:laugh: Sure.

If I remember correctly, when you use the key to unlock the hatch, you turn the key one way to unlock and another way to lock, but you have to push the lock in to actually pop it. It doesn't just unlock and open with a turn of the key.

-C

[Betrivent]

^ I'm sure they'd opened their hatch before. If you're up for it, you could try to fix it yourself but taking apart the hatch trim on the inside. You can get access to the lock mechanism and may perhaps be able to easily fix it.

Disclaimer: You MAY lose of damage clips. The plastic clips that hold the trim on are really, really finicky. And take a LOT of strength to remove via prying/pulling

[WeeYari]

:laugh: Sure.

If I remember correctly, when you use the key to unlock the hatch, you turn the key one way to unlock and another way to lock, but you have to push the lock in to actually pop it. It doesn't just unlock and open with a turn of the key.

-C

^ ummm, yeah. He did state he was able to open it last night. For all you post skimmers out there....

[Tardis]

If it is winter driven in salted areas it will be getting corroded internally. Cleaned up my 07's and lubed it 2 years ago and it's starting to do it again. It's not too hard to remove and dismantle clean and lube. I used lithium grease but I may find silicone grease and use it for better water repelling.

You might be able to get it unstuck for now with some graphite spray or even WD40 until you can get to fixing it.

I've also found the one key I use all the time is starting to wear poorly and using the less used spare key helps too but I have 302K km on my car so it's ALL worn. LOL!

Good Luck

[dasnake]

Thanks tardis. I'll try wd40 and report back.

Is there a lever in the car to pop the hatch? If not has anyone been able to rig something?

[tomato]

Glad there is a thread for this. Mine has become real "sticky" too, to the point that I leave it unlocked most of the time. I even was wondering if someone tried to force it because it's not that cold out here and "they" love breaking into cars in the city.

[Tardis]

Okay after I posted this I went out and fixed mine. It's sunny and unseasonably warm right now!

First thing you do is remove the plastic trim on the hatch. You need a decently wide flat screwdriver for that.

First pop the hatch then look up into the hand hole on the right side. There is a slot in the plastic piece at the back. Put the screwdriver in and lever the plastic piece towards the front of the car. It will slide and you can pull it out. Then use the screwdriver to CAREFULLY pry the trim panel off the hatch by going around the outside. It is held by plastic prongs. carefull as you don't want to damage them.

Panel off.

Take a 10mm socket and remove the 3 bolts holding the latch to the hatch bottom pull the latch into the inside of the hatch. The reason you need to take this off is there is a bar that stops you removing the lock assembly no getting around it.
The latch has a wire for the courtesy light switch but you can just let it hang so no prob.

Take the 10mm socket and you'll need an extension ( about 6") to get up to the bolt holding the lock assy to the hatch. remove the bolt. Now you need to rotate the assy (clockwise IIRC) about 20 degrees and it should drop out. You can also remove the handle assy from the back of the hatch.

At this point took it inside the house and cleaned the general winter scunge off all of it.

Now the lock cylinder and plunger assembly is held together by a snap ring so a snap ring plier would be good here but if you're dexterous you could do it with a small screwdriver or even needlenose pliers.

Remove the ring and draw the plunger assy out. Clean it all up and set it aside.

Pull the lock cylinder out. You'll notice it will probably be all scored and gunky.

It seems to be a sealed unit. What I did is boil it in an old saucepan for a while then dried and packed it with grease. It may be neccessary to get it loosened with WD or similar.

Okay now look at the diecast part of the assy. It will probably be scored and cruddy inside. I simply got an SOS type pad and "honed" the inside till it was clean and smooth.

Reassemble after greasing with lithium or silicone etc. put the snap ring in.

Installation is reverse of removal.

Good luck kids!


Stu AKA Tardis

[Tardis]

Thanks tardis. I'll try wd40 and report back.

Is there a lever in the car to pop the hatch? If not has anyone been able to rig something?

You might be able to pry the rear trim off carefully and reach in and pull the lever inside on the latch to release. I'd work on lubing and turn with the key first.

The famous "just jiggle it" rule may apply here. I do find Toyota did not make the button spring with enough preload so a bit of corrosion wedges the button really easily making it hard to lock and unlock once its sticky.

[dasnake]

hit it with wd40 and it works. i'll put some silicon grease in there this weekend.

i am going to save these instructions for the future. thanks a lot for the detailed instructions!

[tomato]

i am going to save these instructions for the future. thanks a lot for the detailed instructions!

+1 :clap:

[watersoilair]

Mine has done the same thing. Lubed it...but now it's ceased right up. I can't lock it at all. Thank you for posting the DYI!!! I am going to try it this week!

Cheers!

[watersoilair]

Update! I took the car into a locksmith, who took the lock out, repaired the cylinder (by scraping rust and oxidation crud out of every crevice) and lubed it up. The cylinder was full of rust and one of the tabs was broken inside...one that fits to the key shape. He replaced that. It took him a solid 1/2 hour to do the work and he only charged $50 CAD plus tax. Will be very diligent about lubing the lock now. Once a month at least.

[Frank the Tank]

Im having the same problem with my lock aswell.

$50 at the locksmith is cheaper than the $150 Toyota wants for a new cylinder and key. Separate key for my trunk? No thanks. $150?! HA!