self destructing $900 door actuator/ toyota sienna

turbocad6 · 09-24-2005, 03:28 PM

Ah, my first bs post in ot, I just really need to vent....

so this customer of mine goes to pick up his child from school.... double parks & opens his electric sliding side door on his brand new sienna minivan........ before the kid comes out the car in front of him pulls out & he trys to pull around the parked car into the spot with the sliding door open & hooks the door on the parked car, ripping it clean off the truck........

car comes to my shop with the side door in the rear seat....needless to say, mangled.... crushed into the qtr.... qtr window blown out...

insurance is down, repairs negotiated.... order a new door shell, all new rollers, tracks, etc...

now the mechanisim that opens & closes the door is a motor in the door, along with a clutch cable/roller assy.... it lists for over $900 & it is damaged too, new one also ordered.....

qtr panel repaired, new door installed with new tracks, everything goes back togeather.....painted, polished, new glass,..... looking good....

press the electric button..... door opens fine.....stops where is should...... were almost there. press the button again..... door proceeds to close.... where there now...... the door fully closes but the motor doesn't stop!..... it continues to wind..... wrecking cables & pulleys.... basically it self destructs!!!!

to end this long boring story, after further investigation it turns out that the door has a computer.... it comunicates with trouble codes & the whole nine yards.... only toyota scanners can communicate..... so here we have this brand new mangled motor assy staring up at me, with this little ****in annoying round sticker on it that says "tested ok

"..... I doubt they'll cover it under warentee, the insurance company is not going to want to pay for two motors......and there is no way for me to even know what the hell happened short of taking the truck into toyota>>>.... & there goes my reason for venting!!!!! looks like I may wind up eating this motor......

thought you'd get a kick out of this........., another day in the life of a bodyshop guy

HHdesign · 09-24-2005, 04:07 PM

I hear ya, I work in a body shop occasionally, and I take body class in school. My horror stories are not near as bad as yours, but this one comes to mind.

Some kid in my body shop class decided to bring his dad mercedes into class, has some key marks, nothing major, just take a DA sander to it and prime, paint yes? No Its never that easy. Kid goes into the paint booth, and must have handled some red paint, and then not knowing its all over his hands, opens his trunk, ah red hand print.

Two weeks later (I said shop class... people are slow hehe) he's getting ready to putt it out of the garage, little does he know he had a screwdriver in his back pocket. Sits in the drivers seat... Benz Leather ain't cheap.

Good Luck getting that fixed, at least you get to work on cars other than wrecked ricers and putting flames on cars hehe.

turbocad6 · 09-24-2005, 08:59 PM

yea.. I get to work on all the new cars that how shall I say, "less than great drivers" get there hands on..... I've got another '05 camry in the shop, same time.... the guy wacks the nose pretty good..... then decides to continue driving it to work after the cops finish & the other guy was towed away ...... it now has 900 something miles.... not even a thousand.....

blew the engine he overheated it so bad... the insurance company at first trys to actually deny coverage of the engine, claiming it is the insureds responsability to protect the vehicle from further damage & he should have towed it, they would have covered that......

I argued back that when a guy goes off road & hits a poll it's there fault, but they still cover it... if he hits a parked car its his fault, but they still cover it, so this may have been his own fault, but that's what insurance is for.... no way should he have a new car fully insured & have to pay for an engine with less than 1,000 miles on the car

there now covering it under a different claim, seperate deductable.....

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