sliding door handle broke

[kkf]

The outside handle on one of the sliding doors on our '98 Sienna just broke! Is this an "easy" one to fix yourself? What kind of charge are we looking at from the dealer? This is since so annoying especially since we were at the locksmith just last week to get the drivers door open. At least that was only a $60 repair bill. Toyota is NOT on my Christmas list this year!

[Joltin]

Just stumbled across this site in search of a fix for same issue -- 98 Sienna, rear drivers side door handle broke off in my wife's hand a few weeks ago...and to top it off, the safety switch is activated, so we can't open the door from the inside either. Hopefully one of us can find out about a solution and share the info.

Our rear hatch handle also broke within a few days of the other, so we got a double wammy! There were many postings on this site though for a fix for that, so I'm encouraged.

[deweyrocio]

Just wondering if anyone found a solution to replacing the door handles--i.e. a good place to order a replacement part and whether it is a diy project....thanks....both of our handles are broken now....quite a pain!

[drummerbayer]

I have had the same problem, one week later the rear hatch handle broke, I found the Toyota phone number in my owners manual and filed a compaint, as I have found this is a growing problem.
Toyota had suggested that I erge everyone having this problem to contact them and file a complaint, the more complaints they receive the better the chance they will recall this defect.

[beetlebailey2003]

One sliding door handle broke off then the other sliding handle broke off. Local Toyota dealer wants $500.00 a handle to repair. Something about having to paint the handle and match the surrounding body work.

I also spoke with a Toyota rep in California with the same "we will file a complaint for you" and that was all they did.

I have searched the internet and I can't find a Sienna handle, new or used, for sell. I wish you luck.

NOW SOME GRIPE TIME.

It is my humble opinion Toyota created this problem. They wanted to market us a mini-van with more cup holders than any other mini-van manufacturer. They designed us a heavy (for safety purposes) moving door, added a cup holder to it and then provided us an inexpensive plastic handle to operate it.

Pulling OUT ON THE HANDLE to unlatch this heavy door, then pulling BACK ON THE HANDLE to slide open this heavy door and doing it numerous times in a day puts some kind of stress on the plastic connections within the handle's mechanism.

And then one day the handle unlatches the door, but the handle won't slide the door back. Is the handle still latched? You pull out on it again, thinking it's unlatched then pull back to open. It won't move. And now that handle is REALLY stressing.

Why won't the door slide back? Must be stuck. Why is it stuck? Because the rubber door seal is stuck to the frame. Well.. why is the seal sticky? Because of the soda syrup sloshed from containers set in the cup holders. Sloshed out? How? When the moving door slams open or shut, the fluid in the cup holder keeps moving and sloshes out onto the rubber seal, sticking to the frame, keeping the door from moving, and stressing the person trying to open the door and REALLY REALLY stressing that poor little plastic door handle till it snaps in it's own frustration for having Toyota put it in such a difficult situation just because they wanted more cup holders to sell more mini-vans.

I hope you didn't have to go thru that slugged engine debacle with Toyota. What a long frustrating mess. Peace.

[app123]

I have the same problem. I send an email to customer support. http://www.toyota.com/about/contact/index.html