[Alex55]

Originally Posted by youngr69

This solution fixed my 1999 Sienna. Things I wish I had known up front:

1. You'll need a 10mm socket and a 10mm wrench
2. When in the van facing the back hatch, the plastic cover on the strap slides up. The covers over the handle bolts (lower left hand corner) open from the top down.
3. Remove all three before attempting to remove the back cover
4. The window trim is in three pieces. You must remove the top center part first, then the sides.
5. Pry evenly on the top center piece. There are about 6 or 7 plastic tabs holding it in place. It will sound like gunshots and/or you broke it when it comes free.
6. The side trim has metal clips holding it in place, and is hard to remove. Pull hard and evenly.
7. Once the back trim is off, open the door as described elsewhere.
8. There are three 10 mm bolts in the middle center of the door, two on the handle, one to the left holding the license plate lights. All must come off, ideally with the door open.
9. There is a plastic tab to the right that holds the license plate lights. Try to push that through from the back, it breaks if you try to pry it from the front.
10. Be sure to unhook the cable (used to open the door) from the broken handle before trying to remove the handle
11. There are two small phillips screws holding the broken handle in place. Unscrew them (with everything else done) and the broken handle falls off.
12. Reverse the steps, it all goes back togethe pretty easily.
14. Line up the plastic tabs with the holes in the bottom of the door, peaking in with a flash light. Get two or three in, the door will be lined up, go around the open door pushing the tabs back into the holes.
15. In my opinion it was easier to put the side and top window trim back on with the door open.

As of July 17, 2008, the handle now costs $90 USD.

Thanks to everyone for their posts, it took me about 45 minutes to get the job done start to finish.

Thank you SO much. I just completed the fix although I know very little about cars. I contacted Toyota of Dallas for the part and got it for less than the 90 bucks someone else listed as the current price. Just found this site by googling "my latch on my Sienna hatch broke". This is a great site and your directions were perfect!