Another Case Of A Malfunctioning Passenger Door

[NYCXander]

I read someone else's post about both front doors losing control of the outside handles and having to open the doors from the inside. My case is a little more tempermental, i guess. See if you can make sense of this:

I recently drove my 1991 ES250 cross-country and at certain rest areas, the front passenger-side door would not completely unlock. Whether toggling the lock button manually inside or turning the key back and forth in the door lock, the lock button on the inside panel of the passenger door would move back and forth but when controlled to unlock, it would not go completely to the unlock position, and the door was unopenable. You could not push the button manually fully into the unlock position either. It was simply unable to be opened.

And then, as if by way of a miracle the next time we stopped, I would unlock the doors and it would work perfectly as if there was never a hitch. My passenger and I, although pleased to have the door working again, were baffled by it's inconsistency. This change from functioning properly to utterly unopenable occurred at least 3 times along the ride. When arriving in LA, my alternator completely went out. I am wondering if this is linked to an electrical malfunction. Any ideas??

[bcplumber]

I read someone else's post about both front doors losing control of the outside handles and having to open the doors from the inside. My case is a little more tempermental, i guess. See if you can make sense of this:

I recently drove my 1991 ES250 cross-country and at certain rest areas, the front passenger-side door would not completely unlock. Whether toggling the lock button manually inside or turning the key back and forth in the door lock, the lock button on the inside panel of the passenger door would move back and forth but when controlled to unlock, it would not go completely to the unlock position, and the door was unopenable. You could not push the button manually fully into the unlock position either. It was simply unable to be opened.

And then, as if by way of a miracle the next time we stopped, I would unlock the doors and it would work perfectly as if there was never a hitch. My passenger and I, although pleased to have the door working again, were baffled by it's inconsistency. This change from functioning properly to utterly unopenable occurred at least 3 times along the ride. When arriving in LA, my alternator completely went out. I am wondering if this is linked to an electrical malfunction. Any ideas??

hey im having the same prob with my pasenger door lock. did you ever figure out the prob?

[gbhrps]

I would not be surprised that an alternator having voltage irregularities caused weird electrical problems. It does seem logical, and recently I had an acquaintance of mine have all kinds of electrical system items malfunction and cycle on and off. While not a Lexus, the source of all of his gremlins was a bad alternator. A recent posting on another forum just this week (different make of car) had several respondents say that his electrical gremlins (lights flashing/dash weirdness/auto HVAC intermittent) were all the fault of his alternator. It seems that inconsistent voltages makes for some electrical systems to be infected by strange goings on.

One other thing for you to consider would be a bad power door lock actuator/solenoid in the passenger door, or a partial disconnection of the control rods from the door lock mechanism to the manual lock at the inner door handle, or to the outer door key lock. Good Luck!