2001 Tundra Door Latch Repair Part 1 

Good tutorial video. It was reliable for my 2001 Tundra and provided me with the mechanical understanding of the mechanisms. I was able to bend the tab on the throw lever, which gave it a longer push for the release. Thanks for the video. I owe you a beer.

You rock Mako. I had the exact same issue with the gap in the pressed on washer. (6:30) Followed your tip and it is now working perfectly. Besides that you did a excellent job explaining how the whole thing worked. Like Russ said, I owe you a beer. 🍺

Great video you saved me $300

Hey man, thanks so much for this tip. That's exactly what was wrong with my tundra driver side latch. Mine was just sticking bad, so I was able to open door by jerking hard, and didn't have to cut off bolts. I found a small remnant of the disintegrated white plastic washer still in mechanism. Followed your guidance and it seems to be working. Took me about 3 hours, but this is the first time I've taken a door apart. If it happens to my passenger side I think it will only take me about an hour or so next time. You have tremendous diagnostic skills!!! I don't think I would have ever figured it out on my own. THANKS!!!

made repair on 2003 but used a washer used dremel to cut opening an d also bent tabs up!! worked !!

Very informative video. You explained very well all the mechanisms of the door latch.

A very key bit is at 2:24. Getting the powered lock rod white clip out of the rotating white arm is EXTREMELY difficult without breaking it, since my Tundra is 20 years old, that plastic is really brittle. It snapped in three pieces when I used your comment "it will take some prying on the inside to remove". Wish you had shown this step in more detail. I do appreciate the video, I repaired the part "with so much play" using your solution, made a 1/32nd thick piece of sheet metal as a spacer to eliminate the "play" and the latch works fine now. But the lock rod clip being broken means I cannot power lock until fixed. I was able to get the lock rod plastic clip at a pick a part yard from a burned out 2000 Tundra yesterday but from the passenger side door latch. I hope it does not break when I try to remove the lock rod clip from the passenger side assembly so I can use it where my driver's side lock rod white clip broke. Do you have any white clip lock rod removal tips beyond "prying it on the inside"? Thanks for the great two latch repair videos, I would have had to buy a $291 refurb without your help.

Thanks so much for putting this out there. Honestly, getting a cutoff wheel in that space in the rear door was the hardest part of this job. If I hadn't known about your fix, troubleshooting that latch would certainly have been a pain.

Dude thank you, this helped so much.

Thank You! The part is ridiculously expensive if even available right now. I'm going to take mine out and try this fix.

This is absolute gold. Do you also peel off the rest of the degraded / ripped black plastic coating on the rotating disc and latch cog? I notice that once the plastic wears off those two, the edges of the worn plastic will cause them to catch and causes additional issues with closing/opening in addition to the lever mechanisms you're showing in this video. So in other words I think there is two parts to this issue, the two latch cogs which rotate and then the armature bar and rotating lever that the latch cog attaches to.

I had exactly the same problem. I fixed it by bending the metal a little and worked just fine for over a year until it did it again. Now I need to find out if I can open the door by reaching out to that little mechanism and help pushing it to release the door without breaking into the other one.

IMPORTANT NOTE.. If your doors are stuck closed, just remove the drivers (or passenger door) panel and gain access to the latch mechanism. You can carefully unscrew part of the plastic dust shroud at the bottom, then pry open the side of the shroud enough (about 1") to insert a 10" long flathead screwdriver (with about a 1/4" width head) looking downward about 50-60% down the latch assembly and then push down on the release cog lever (as seen in this video). It's towards the bottom side of the latch, and boom... door opens!!!! We already had the panel off and it took me only 10 seconds. No cutting, no removal of the access cab door panel.. just a screw driver. And then,... Secondly, for the final fix / mod of the latch lever detailed in this video, I instead used a 5/16" plastic nylon washer from Home Depot (about 3/4" in diameter x 1/16" thick with 5/16" hole), but then carefully sanded it down with 220 grit on a very flat surface for 10 minutes to ~.050" (checked with micrometer in several places) and then made a notch cut out that's 1/8" wide to essentially make it into a circlip (like he does in video with the metal tab). Depending on how much slop you have you may only need a washer that's about 1/32" thick. After this you then bend the small metal armature tab which engages the locking lever and dog/cam outward about 30-40 degrees (from a squared 90)... and that's it. Done. The power lock replacements are $250 on Amazon (per door) so this is a fantastic fix. It does however require full disassembly and cleaning of the mechanisms and springs which can be easy to lose. I used an aluminum cookie sheet and paper towels to keep track of everything. From pullout, cleaning, modding, reassembly, and then reinstall in the vehicle you're looking at about 3-4 hours per door. But to do both in a day and save $500.. it's well worth it!

Thank you Sir !

Such a complicated piece for what it does.

I bought mine refurbished for the driver and the passenger side for my 05 tundra I saved about $100 per side but still it was a stupid amount of money to just fix the doors.

Your about to save me $200+ im going to try this on my day off. I brute force the door open by using my body weight from the inside.

Thank you for the video! How did you end up getting you door open when the handles weren’t working?

Hey man I'm having the same issue but I can't find forums where it shows the exact process of taking off the latch I really don't want to break anything in doing so I got the panel off already I just need help knowing how to take off this part in the video if you could get back to me I'd really appreciate it!

Link to how I got the stuck door to open: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-phBckvBuz40.html