[psgreenroom]

Originally Posted by Heaterswa

I finished my rear latch handle replacement last night. The tab on the handle that pushes the mechanism down to unlatch broke on mine. The wife called Saturday afternoon that the rear door wouldn't open. I started taking it apart Sunday afternoon and picked up the handle yesterday from a local Toyota dealer, he charged me $63 at the counter. Sounds like it would be $70 part if the service dept was doing the job.

First, take off the license plate.
Since the hatch wouldn't open, I started from the inside and took down the top trim piece. After that the two side pieces come down, then the main trim piece which covers the bulk of the door comes out. These are all popped in with the white tabs.
There are 3 access hole covers to pop out (don't forget to install them back in when done) and through the left hole you can see the mechanism to unlatch, press it down with a screwdriver and open the door. If anytime you close the door you will have to do this to unlatch, up until you disconnect the cable and pull out the handle, then you have to locate the cable and pull that directly.
Behind the large trim piece you will find a metal access cover, remove the 7 or 8 10mm bolts holding that on and pop the 3 white tabs and let it hang off to the side. Disconnect the cable from the handle assembly by reaching in from the right hand side and popping of the cable from the handle assembly.
From the left and right access holes, locate the two 10mm nuts which hold the license plate assembly to the door and remove them. Then there are 4 plastic tabs that come in from the outside that hold the license plate assembly on in each corner, try and locate those and using some pliers squeeze them together and push it through. Next locate the license plate lamps wire connector and release that from the left side, it’s the simple push in and pull out square white connector.
After these are out, put back in 1 or 2 bolts into the large metal access cover so the hatch can be lowered (don’t close it).
Here is where I had fun, begin to pop out the assembly that it was bolted to. I ended up breaking 3 of the 4 plastic tabs in each corner because I did not use pliers from the other side to pull them out, however it remained somewhat useable (hindsight 20/20).
Now the license plate assembly can be taken to a bench to replace the handle assembly (Toyota doesn't sell just the handle, it is a small assembly). Two screws out and the assembly is replaced.
Before pressing the license plate assembly back onto the truck, make certain all the plastic tabs are in the assembly and not in the truck. Reverse the process to re-install.

-Bryan

Bryan, Thanks for your detailed info on this fix. It appears to be quite common as well as quite expensive to have the dealer repair. I was quoted $400.00. I finished the repair in about an hour and a half. I did want to mention that I was able to open the rear latch from the outside once I saw the new part and how it worked. I used an allen wrench supplied by my garbage disposal company that had a 45" angle and it popped the rear latch. I also found not 2 but 3 10mm bolts that hold on the frame assembly. 2 are accessible by pulling 2 rubber plugs and using a long extension. The last one holds the key lock mechanism. I was also able to find the part from an auto parts supplier in Texas for $45.00 made of metal not plastic. They were on ebay. Thanks again for the info you saved me over $ 300.00 - Mark