Dash says door open

[wraith73]

My 2016 SR5 is telling me one of the doors is open, but it isn’t. Seems straightforward, but it doesn’t seem to be the door switch. My missus 1st noticed it after coming back from a camping trip. While she was driving, everything was fine. Door closed. No light on and no open door graphic on the dash screen. She went to turn the rear demister on, and it showed the passenger rear door opening on the screen. She turned the demister off, and the door closed. Otherwise, while driving, the door showed as closed, with no issues. However… when the ignition is turned off, the door shows as open again, so I can’t use the remote or handle button to lock it. It shows as closed again as soon as I start the car (and the door shows as open & closed as per normal, while running). I took the button switch thingy out and cleaned it with electrical clean & lube spray, but nothing changed. I didn’t think to check if the demister actually worked. Perhaps I need to open the door for that to turn on. It was very rainy over the weekend, but nothing looked water damaged. I tried Googling and found other people having similar issues (not the demister bit), but no one offered a solution except replacing the switch (which I know mine is OK). Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

[Tony Prodigy]

Hi Steve, sounds like a strange one. Electrical gremlins can be difficult to sort through and what I would do is check as many electrical connectors as possible. Sometimes you can have pins that don't make contact despite the connector appearing to be connected. You may have to pop the head unit out to be able to reach in behind the dash to check everything in there. It is also possible you may have a loose ground wire somewhere, which can cause switching irregularities. 

I wonder if any work has been performed recently that could have induced this problem.

Modern car electrics are very complicated and sometimes best left for a professional who can use an electrical diagram and take readings at various points to be able to flush out the root cause. But in this instance, it looks like you have some DIY ability having cleaned and lubed the switch tells me you are capable of doing what I described earlier. Have a go and see what you find. Disconnect some plugs, inspect the pins and re connect. Stuff like that.

Let us know how you go.

Cheers mate 

[joeallen]

I would be running electrical checks on the defroster grid. Do all  the defroster lines work ? For voltage and continuity? And checking some visible ground wires for cleanliness and tightness.

[wraith73]

Just an update… I approached the Toyota dealer and even they were stumped. Kinda swayed towards an earthing problem, or something that has been added to the car (aftermarket). I recently had a trailer brake controller installed, but that was a plug & play unit, and the issue didn’t start right away. They said that was unlikely, then. They wanted $165 just to diagnose. I told them I’d do a bit of digging myself 1st. Seemed to get slightly better by itself (door open light only coming on sometimes), but still had an issue where alarm would randomly go off. Rather annoying for everyone when it decides to start screaming around midnight. Neighbours love that. I checked all the wires and plugs on the passenger side. A bit dusty but no water ingress. I unplugged each plug and cleaned out with my electrical clean and lube spray, and also sprayed around the fuse area. I figured, while I had a day off, I would also check the trailer plug that was recently installed. Apparently my father in law got fed up trying to direct my missus reversing the caravan so he got in to “do it faster”. Because he thought he was better at it. He ended up jack-knifing the caravan, damaging the newly installed plastic flat plug housing. Lights still worked so didn’t think much more about it. Just how we weren’t going to let him drive the car again. I uncable-tied the plug (temp secured) and let it hang, and water poured out of it. Seemed to be more water than it could possibly hold! I let the plug hang to dry out and didn’t have the door open issue after that. I’ve now installed a metal housing trailer plug. 
 

Basically, to cut a long story short (maybe I should have done that before making you read the whole post), the problem has been gone since then. Not sure if it was the trailer plug, or cleaning/lubing the plugs under the dash, but it seems to have sorted it out. Touch wood.

Oh, and the demister did work fine throughout this whole issue

Edited August 18, 2021 by wraith73

[Tony Prodigy]

Great result Steve. Thanks for the update mate. 

[Ted01]

I’m having an opposite problem with my 2007 SR5. When I open my drivers door, no open door alert or door open light. Problem is the car auto locks after 30 seconds as it hasn’t registered that I’ve opened my door and have ended up leaving my keys on the seat too many times. Does anyone have any suggestions

[Mudcrab]

On 7/10/2021 at 1:03 PM, wraith73 said:

My 2016 SR5 is telling me one of the doors is open, but it isn’t. Seems straightforward, but it doesn’t seem to be the door switch. My missus 1st noticed it after coming back from a camping trip. While she was driving, everything was fine. Door closed. No light on and no open door graphic on the dash screen. She went to turn the rear demister on, and it showed the passenger rear door opening on the screen. She turned the demister off, and the door closed. Otherwise, while driving, the door showed as closed, with no issues. However… when the ignition is turned off, the door shows as open again, so I can’t use the remote or handle button to lock it. It shows as closed again as soon as I start the car (and the door shows as open & closed as per normal, while running). I took the button switch thingy out and cleaned it with electrical clean & lube spray, but nothing changed. I didn’t think to check if the demister actually worked. Perhaps I need to open the door for that to turn on. It was very rainy over the weekend, but nothing looked water damaged. I tried Googling and found other people having similar issues (not the demister bit), but no one offered a solution except replacing the switch (which I know mine is OK). Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[Mudcrab]

I pulled my LH rear switch out yesterday and sprayed it,actioned it a few times then plugged it back in wouldn’t work,checked the switch with the multi meter,seemed to be functional.Plugged the wire back into the switch and it started working,so did the central locking as well.

[joeallen]

Good to hear the switch is now working.