Been having intermittent problems with passenger sliding door since we bought the van used, the inside button would stick in but was always able to open from the outside, now on our current road trip it's finally broke to the point where it won't open at all. Planning to take it to the dealer upon our return but was wondering if anyone else had this experience.
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There were quite a few complaints about rattles and sticking sliding doors on early Siennas equipped with power sliding doors, but very few with manual sliding doors.
If you have manual sliding doors, the problem is probably a disconnected or bent link rod. This can happen when someone tries to slim jim the door or is something sticky spilled inside the door.
"Patrick C"...
I have this exact problem intermittently on my 98 Sienna. We have never taken it in to have it fixed, we just have done this and the problem goes away for a while. It seems to happen when someone does not push the inside button in far enough (so is the theory of the kids) when opening the door, but I am not completely convinced of that as I sit in the front and have never been the one to make it happen.
What we do to fix it is mess with the child lock by flipping it the other way from what it was, then slamming the door. This pops the button out usually, and we go for another 20K miles until it mysteriously happens again. The door will sometimes not close (bounce back open) until we move the child lock. Sometimes the door closes with the button still pushed in but pops out after a few miles. Rarely does it stay pushed in for a couple of door opening cycles.
Otherwise the door operates normally 'all the time'. The Sienna has
194160ish miles on it now.Now that your door does not open at all I suppose you will need to take it in and pay a lot. Maybe drive on a really bumpy dirt road a few times to see if it will shake it out again, open it and try the child lock trick.
Good luck and tell us what you do and find out. Tomes
Friend just suggested using WD40, I sprayed some in the button and the locking latch (using the little tube), seems to be working now.
I would NEVER use WD 40 as a lubricant.
WD 40 is NOT a lubricant.
"Jeff Strickland" ...
*snip*According to the bubbas around here, WD-40 is an excellent substitute for Ben-Gay! I was stunned when I first heard that one, but apparently it's well known for that.
Go figure.
Natalie
Cool, thanks for the update. You sprayed it right there in between the button and the handle, eh? Maybe I will try that. I plan to use something else, like my current favorite stuff - lithium grease which seems to last forever. I agree with RI in that WD 40 is more of a contact cleaner and water displacement tool than a lubricant that one wants to stay put for a while. If it is all I have I will use it tho.
Keep the child lock thought in your pocket if this happens again and let us know if that helps you later on. Tomes
I think lithium grease will make a mess of the button and eventually thicken enough to make things worse. Try silicone spray or bicycle chain lubricant.
I'd use a teflon spray rather than WD-40.
"Ray O" ...
OK thanks! Tomes
The WD40 did seem to help for just a little while, I too will try silicone spray or bicycle chain lubricant.
You're welcome!
The advantage of bicycle chain lubricant is that they are designed to not pick up a lot of dirt, which tends to gum things up.
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