Toyota RAV4 Forums banner

Very bad experience with power rear hatch and Toyota road assistance

47K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  Railer 
#1 ·
Date : December 31
RAV4 : new 2014 Ltd. 10 days old.
Outdoor temp : -17 C
Incline : 10 degree

After opening the rear hatch normally and stocked all the baby stuff in it, the door won't close. The car only does a long beep. I have tried with the 3 buttons (on the remote, on the door itself and inside the car). Start and stop the car does nothing. Turning off and on the power door from the glove box does nothing. There is nothing blocking the hatch. No owner manual explanation for this behaviour! We called Toyota road assistance, they said to attach the door with a rope and go home or tow the car to the garage with the hatch open in winter (-17 C)!!! Finally after 30 min of troubleshooting we forced the door to close and drove home. At home the door open and close normally.

Is it normal that we can't open the door when the car is running?
 
G
#2 ·
I've read about that happening if the vehicle was parked on an hill.
And just curious, when you tried the hatch button from inside (left of steering wheel),
did you have your foot on the brake ? I will get a long beep if my foot is not on the brake.
 
#5 ·
I once had a box that was located too far back and the door tried to close but once it hit the box it stopped and made a long beep. Once it did it wouldn't do anything. Wouldn't open, wouldn't close, it just would beep when I pushed the button. I had to physically push it all the way open before the door would reset itself.

I think the computer that controls the door has a monitor that checks to see how much force it takes to close the door. In fact it probably takes little to no force to close the door since gravity should be pulling it down. It's possible that because you were at an angle the system got confused. Maybe the cold weather plus the angle messed it up. If it happens again I would manually move the door (open it if possible) and then try to close it again.
 
#7 ·
Just curious, can you operate the power rear gate manually then, open or close? Is this an optional function that wont damage anything, or only in an emergency like this?

Reading that PDF, how do you operate it when the button is turned off in the glovebox?

I can see the advantage to the 4.3 door in a situation like this.
 
#9 ·
I would guess that one could operate the gate manually if the switch in the glove box is off,...question is then do you have to also manually pop the latch release? I would use caution disabling the gate with it in the up position....the way I read the manual it sounds like it may "free fall" back down as the jack screws will no longer be supplied the power to hold the gate open.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I have a '12 Highlander SE which comes with the electric rear hatch feature. I can open it both automatically and manually without any problem. In fact when I open it automatically I most always close it manually.

To open manually just make sure the doors are unlocked then push the button under the license plate light and then lift the gate.

Edit: Let me add that I can OPEN and CLOSE the rear hatch while the engine is running as well as with it being off!

Sent from AutoGuide.com App
 
#12 ·
The issue occurred again 1st of january. The door worked the first 2 open/close attempts and failed at the third! The door don't move at all and the lights don't flash. We only hear a long beep. We have an appointment with Toyota service monday. The person at the service that we talk to said that this is not normal that we can't open the hatch when the car is running and transmission at park. Can someone can confirm that he is able to open is power rear hatch when is car is running? Our Rav refuse to open the hatch when is running but accept to close if it was open before engine start.
 
#16 ·
I have successfully opened the hatch yesterday while the car was running. Most of the time the RAV refuse to open the hatch while the car is running (always at park). Seems to be a random issue. It should be related with my other issue of not opening at all (running or not). The owner manual tell that the hatch can refuse to work if there is a problem with the battery (low voltage or something like this). There should be a sensor to monitor the battery. Perhaps my RAV has a defect one. The sensor should not detect any battery problem while the car is running.

I have an appointment with my local Toyota service tomorrow. I hope they will find and resolve this issue.
 
#17 ·
Got news from my Toyota dealer service department. They said that there is no error code in memory for the rear hatch malfunction. They say it is possible that the door sensors were frozen. So they did nothing! In short it is a story to follow! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it does not happen again because every time the problem will recur I'll make an appointment for repair time until the problem is solved.
 
#18 ·
hershey bar 58

The wife complained of her 2014 Rav4 lift gate not working properly. I read a few of the posts here, and went in search of the "switch in the glovebox"..found it and proceeded to push it...couldn't tell if it was off or on...the lift gate then started working with the remote, and with the 2 buttons, the one on the LH lower side of dash, and with button on the liftgate. Only thing was it wouldn't latch when closed :crying..once opened again, I discovered a small rock:surprise "pea sized" in the "anchoring area" of the latch, this was stopping the door from closing all the way in order to latch closed. Hope this helps anyone else with the same problem :D
 
#20 ·
The power lift on my Rav4 opens fine but many times when I try to close it, it starts to close but stops after about 5". When I push the button again, it opens up again. I have to fiddle with it to get it to close. I had a dead battery last year. Would that have affected it? I've reset it when it was fully open. No difference.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top