I accidentally let a backpack strap get caught under the back door of my 2013 Toyota Venza. It has an electric door open/close, but no obvious mechanical handle to open it.
Now the back door won’t open.
I can’t pull out the strap - it is wedged under there too well.
If I try to open it, using either the button on the dash (and yes, I tried locking an unlocking the ability for that to work using the other button) or the button under the handle on the back of the back door, it doesn’t work. In particular, it starts to make a noise like it might be opening it, but it immediately reverses.
I tried disconnecting the battery. Of course it can’t open then, because it needs battery power to open it. But I found a web page that said disconnecting the battery might reset the mechanism. But with the battery reconnected, the problem recurs.
Now another issue arises. The Door Open light on the dash becomes bright, and periodically an ring plays, presumably to warn of the Door Open state.
Is this something that requires a mechanic, or is it a simple fix?
There may be a way to get it to open, maybe removing a panel, from the underside of the car, etc. But without experience good chance something will get broken that currently isn’t, so your best bet is probably is to hire a well-recommended Toyota-experienced mechanic for this job. In the meantime suggest to resist the urge to pry on the door with a screwdriver, or use more force to tug the strap.
The closest I’ve come to this problem myself is a hood latch that got stuck and wouldn’t open. I had to use a pair of long forceps to grab & shift the latch-cable while laying under the car, with a helper diddling the latch open gadget in the passenger compartment.
I am not familiar with your vehicle but, you should have an emergency trunk release handle on the inside of your rear hatch. you can try pulling it while pushing the hatch open. if you still can’t get it open you can try removing the plastic panels from the inside of the hatch to try to get to the latch mechanism. then cut away the backpack strap from the latch.
The owner’s manual has no reference to an emergency release that I could find. This is an open storage area, unlike a trunk. The instruction on how to access the inside of the hatch to change the license plate bulb starts with ‘open the rear door [the hatch]’.
Try pushing the hatch, like you’re trying to close it tighter, while using the open button. Sometimes it will relieve the tension on the latch enough for it to open. If the strap is actually in the latch you might need to push it open from the inside while using the open button.
+1
Kinda like an old out of adjustment hood, sometimes you have to push or bang on the hood to get it to open… Works for trunks also… Just push on the very bottom of the hatch so you don’t dent the hatch… May take a couple/few people to help…
I wish this vehicle had a lot fewer fancy features to go wrong. I wish I’d bought something else - e.g., an old low trim line Ford Explorer or Expedition or Econoline truck, from before they started getting extra fancy features which are trouble prone and expensive to fix too.
Are the Highlanders any less trouble prone?
I wonder how old one would have to go in Toyota trucks to avoid the fancy troubleprone features. I like manual everything possible, but want AWD or 4WD.
There really does not seem to be a release lever, in the front or back.
I tried pushing the door in, pushing out, pulling out, while trying to open. Didn’t fix.
Tried the open on the key fob. Didn’t fix.
Tried the rear door button on the front panel. At first didn’t work, pushed the normal length of time, but maybe I didn’t hold it long enough for dealing with a stuck door? I kept it pressed for a couple seconds, and it finally opened. (I don’t know whether pulling and pushing the door helped with anything.)
I pulled the offending strap away. Opened and closed it a few more times with that button, and eventually the warning light went away too.
So it’s fixed,
But this problem is way too easy to create, if even a thin strap is enough to cause it. Bad design. A simple car wouldn’t have the sensor - or at least wouldn’t cause it to pull the door closed when I’m trying to open it.
I don’t know why the other ways of opening the door didn’t work. Maybe pushing that front panel button long enough overrides something?
I once rented a commercial box truck to move some stuff. It was a simpler and therefore better. Manual windows, mirrors, doors, locks. Simpler heater/defroster controls. Felt sturdier too, inside and out. (But poor visibility, due to no windows in the rear cargo section.) (It did still have power brakes, steering and transmission. But maybe the first two are needed by some on a vehicle the size and weight capacity of a tiny home.)
How can you pull the back door open while holding the switch on the dash? Two people? I understand that it is a power door, but it can’t open automatically when something is jamming it closed. Someone needs to hold the release button while the door is pulled open, no different than a manual door.
Bad design or Bad judgement? Who was it again that closed the door with something in the way? Oh yeah, it was you. Please explain how that was the cars fault.
I tried pushing and pulling the door first. That didn’t work in of itself.
But after doing so, the switch on the dash was sufficient to open it, after holding it extra long. It is possible the pushing and pulling changed something a tiny bit, and somehow made opening it marginally easier.
There is no “release button” that I know of.
Yes PvtPublic, it was my mistake to leave a strap in the way. But I’ve done that with other cars and trucks. The problem here is that it had an electronic sensor that detected that fact, and therefore didn’t let me open it the usual way.
So - I will try to be careful in the future not to have anything near the door when I close it. I could instead have a mechanic disconnect the sensor - though I suppose that is potentially bad too, since it would be possible to accidentally drive away with the door open.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to detect all possible problems with a car before you buy it. E.g., I chose a vehicle with a low roof to make it easier to load kayaks. But it is essentially impossible to mount a full length roof rack because of the curvature of the roof, which in turn means I can’t slide a kayak onto a rack from the back or front. Also no rain gutters, which makes roof racks hard to mount solidly. It has no front or rear tie downs for rooftop boats - how can it be called a (crossover) SUV, and register as a “truck”? (I added a hitch and screwed down straps under the under-the-hood bolts to compensate.)
Also, my test drive was done on a wide open road. If I had done it a narrower road, or tried to pull up to a curb or wall, I would have realized it had extremely poor visibility, so I can’t tell exactly where the side or front (or back, BTW) of the vehicle is, relative to obstacles. Again, I tested it during the day, and therefore did not realize that the low angled windshield made it somewhat difficult to see at night. I should have realized that it came (used) with an uncommon and rather noisy tire type, that had extremely poor wear characteristics (after a flat tire, I literally couldn’t give the other tires away to a used tire store), but I didn’t check that. And I failed to realize that the windows were so close to the cargo area level, that I can’t fit much of anything. It also isn’t tall enough to safely transport a decent flat screen television (which are not designed to be laid horizontal - the glass might crack). I didn’t realize the included battery was near its end of life when I bought it. The transponder keys are ridiculously expensive to duplicate, and aren’t waterproof, so I can’t slip it in a swim suit pocket. I had to deflate a full size spare tire to fit it on a full size wheel, in the place meant to store a compact spare, and that still raised the cargo area a bit. The seats don’t fold flat - less than ideal for car camping. Most controls are not labelled with words, and the manual incredibly long and poorly written. It has multiple power outlets, yet it blew a fuse when I tried to run a small laptop PC. It took me a lot of time to gain access to the relevant fusebox. There is no space under the hood or a seat for a second battery to create a dual battery isolator circuit or an inverter. Too low to be easy to find in parking lots. Too low to see over traffic.
It has some nice features. Smooth ride, AWD works well, reasonably high ground clearance, and when I changed the battery, I didn’t have to pay a Toyota dealership to find the code to re-enable the radio - apparently it can loose power for a few minutes without that happening. But if the battery ever goes completely bad, I will. The fact it has some space for a spare tire makes it far better, in the middle of nowhere, than a car with no spare. Fits in low parking garages better than my previous trucks and vans, even with a big sea kayak on top.
Unfortunately many recent cars have poor visibility. You might check out a Forester, it’s better than most, or a Corolla Cross. Avoid the high end versions, they have loads of technology, another thing that is difficult to avoid.
