I have written the Internet’s only complete step-by-step tutorial on how to replace the power sliding door cables on a 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna and you can read that article here:
How to Replace the Power Sliding Door Cables on a 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna
But people have asked me how they can trim the broken cables off so they can go about their life in the meantime while they wait for the parts to arrive or until they are able to set aside the time to repair their Sienna. Â You can safely and easily cut off the broken power door cables and continue to operate your door manually. Â Here is how to trim broken sliding door cables on 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna…
How to Trim Broken Sliding Door Cables on 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna
Hardware/Parts Needed:
- 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna XLE with at least one power sliding side door
Tools Needed:
The power sliding doors on a 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna are operated by an electric motor that winds in/out two different cables–one that runs toward the front of the van and one that runs toward the back of the van. Â The motor is inside the sliding door and the cables exit the door through the back hinge at the place that lines up with the bottom of the rear window. Â The diagram can be seen below:
Step 1: Clip off the rear cable at the back location.
This is the location where the rear cable connects to the van body below the back side window.  Clip off the cable as closely to the van as possible as seen in the picture below:
Caution: be careful not to accidentally “clip” the edge of your window or the ENTIRE window may shatter.
Step 2: Clip off the rear cable at the front location.
This will be the place where the cable comes out of the door through the hinge and if your door is almost all the way shut this is what it will look like:
Step 3: Clip off the front cable at the back location
This will be where the front cable exits the door at the hinge location. If your door is almost all the way shut this is what you will see:
Step 4: Clip off the front cable at the front location
With your door all the way open this is what you will see right in front of the lower front corner of the rear side window. Â Cut the cable off right above the black clip as seen below:
Step 5: Clip off the cables again if more comes out
The amount of cable that sticks out will depend on how far the door is open and when you move the sliding door, more loose or fraying cable may stick out. Â Clip off any other cable in the same fashion as I showed you in Steps 1-4 above if more fraying cable rears its head.
Step 6: Operate your door manually
If you try to operate the door by using the remote or pushing one of the power door buttons on the van you will hear the popping and cracking sound of the cables turning inside the door and the broken pulley cover moving around.  This probably will not hurt anything but you may consider turning off the power doors to keep this from happening and possibly damaging the electrical wiring inside the door, which would cost you more to repair.  You can turn off the power sliding doors by the button located by the driver’s left knee.  If you CANNOT see the orange at the top of the button, and the button is pushed in, then the doors are OFF as seen below:
The one drawback of turning off the power door button is that it turns off BOTH sliding doors. Â Best to visit my page on how you can repair your sliding door and save a grand by doing it yourself:
How to Replace the Power Sliding Door Cables on a 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna
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I just had my cable snap a few days back when it snowed for the first time this season. I was wondering if the reason the cables might’ve snapped is because the motor got wet and froze or maybe a more progressive leak and just finally rusted shut. I’ve never had the power cut from the motor because of a different issue and it had worked perfectly fine as a manual door.
There’s really no real reason why the motor would be wet. It is sealed on the inside of the door. Unfortunately the cable coating wears away over time and the cables rust and fray. Even with the motor off, the cables must reel in and out for you to open the door.
Well my van is1999 Sienna LE and my sliding door on driver side is jammed closed. It was having problems were it was not closing like a belt was stuck in it and stopping it from closing all the way. This is not electric, no buttons or remote. Well someone decided to try and close it and slam it shut, but now its jammed shut and the back end is open about and inch. So pray for no rain. I personally think it is a latch that was getting sticky and needs greasing, but now that it’s been slammed shut, I can’t get to anything to grease. Please help.
The rear edge of the door is pulled in by a small motorized latch. It appears this has been damaged. I have never worked on that latch before so I cannot advise you on how to proceed.
Hello and thanks for this awesome tutorial!!!
Do you know of a place to check which parts would be compatible to a different year mode? (IE, if the cables of a 2006 Sienna can be used in a 2010?)
Thanks.
Saul
The sliding door parts should be the same from 2004 through 2010.
Thanks a lot! (forgot to say it then) (Well… they say better late than never)… :-))))))
Just an FYI that the latching mechanism is separate from the one that pulls the door open and shut. This guide won’t help with your issue, though Joel may have some wisdom for you. I had a similar issue with a different vehicle (Kia Sedona) and, after trying various lesser fixes and the problem resurfacing months later, replaced the latch motor assembly, which fixed it for good.
I have a 2006 Sienna. My problem is not getting the power sliding doors open…it’s getting them to close and latch fully. When pressing the button or pulling on the handle the power door door will start to slide and close, but then as the door is about to seat into place it reverses and opens back up. When I turn off the power I can get the door to seat but the latch won’t grip and the door is still unlatched. After about the 20th powered attempt on each door I heard some crunching when latching and the doors did finally latch close. Any thoughts?
I tried pulling harder but no luck. When I threw my whole weight into it, I heard a sickening crunch and the door opened. I’d snapped the cable on the other side and a bunch of plastic shards fell out from the door. Hopefully those pieces belonged to the piece I’ll be replacing next week. If my wife wasn’t on “shelter in place” orders, she’d have a working manual door 🙂
Eric, I’m guessing that was the pulley cover, which shatters when the frayed cables are pulled into it (see The Back Story section where I show pictures of my shattered cover). That part comes when you buy the recommended cable assembly.
Hi John,
Thanks for the comprehensive guides. I think I’m in a situation similar to Christine, where the door is solidly stuck right before it fully swings out. I’m barely able to open it enough to remove the trim. The cable that runs along the back window snapped; I trimmed the piece connected to the body, but the cable going into the door is nowhere to be seen. I’ve looked around but haven’t been able to find any trace of it. The cable isn’t visible on the wheel of the cable assembly (step 22 of your replacement guide). Any idea on how to access it or unjam the door? My gut tells me I’m going to have to take the entire door apart, but I hope that I’m wrong! Thank you
Eric, I’ve written a separate article on trimming your cables, which I’m not sure will help, but you can view it here. Just because your cables are broken doesn’t mean your door will open, as you are finding. When you open the door, the system is reeling in one end of the cable and letting out the other end. The cable that would normally run under the back window needs to be pulled in. If that trailing cable is frayed a bunch, it may not be able to pull it in and simultaneously it won’t be able let the other one out since they share the same pulley. You may need to use more force. I don’t think you’ll break anything that isn’t broken already. You can also verify that the track on the bottom doesn’t have something in it that the door is running into. It’s hard to troubleshoot things like this without getting my hands on it but those are my first thoughts. Let us know what you find out and if you can’t unjam it check back in and let us know what you tried and what you found.
I just did this trim and thought I’d share a possible improvement to the process. In Step 3 (“Cut off as much…”) I found that it left just enough cable to scrape along the side of the channel (no bueno). So looking at that same picture, just to the left of the 2 bolts is a pulley/wheel that has a groove in it in which the cable rides. You can get needle nose pliers in there just enough to grab the cable and get enough of a loop to cut it there and pull the remaining length out from where it was exiting the door into the channel. No more scraping along the cable channel!
And thanks so much for your detailed DIYs. At some point I’ll be doing the cable replacement.
Thanks for the tips Craig!
Is there a separate fuse for each power sliding door on 2004 toyota sienna, if yes where is it, under hood or inside vehicle?
Here is my article on all the fuses: https://www.shareyourrepair.com/2017/01/toyota-sienna-fuse-locations.html
Great help. Our door has been unable to open since the cable broke a few weeks ago. After reading this I was confident enough to force the door open and then cut the remaining cable. Door now works great manually. With almost 200k miles this fix is good enough for me. Thanks for posting this article.
I found the solution to the problem, you do not need to reply. I had the windows down and that made it so that the sliding door would not stay open. The latch mechanism does not work when the windows are down. An unexpected feature of the Toyota Sienna 2010. Thanks!!
Glad you figured out your issue. I mention that feature in the main sliding door repair article. I believe it is a safety feature in the case a child puts their head out the window, so the door will not lock open, pinching their head in between the window opening and the doorframe.
Hello!! Thank you for this helpful article. I have cut the cables, but noticed that the sliding door will not stay open in manual mode. This is particularly noticeable when the van is on a slant (back is higher than the front). The door slides back closed. This seems to be a safety issue as my young children get in and out of the car. I do not want it to slide closed on them while it is in manual mode. Is there some way to get the sliding door to stay open? Thank You!!
Hi I am having an issue with my doors neither of them want to open both have cables cut but when I pull either inside or outside handle there is no resistance like the handle is detached from the linkage or something any ideas on to what is going on
Thank you so much for this article. In just a few minutes both doors were functioning manually. This saved our 2009 with 190k miles from the junk yard. God bless!
Would this work on a 2012 Sienna?
John, trying to buy part # 69641-0031 for LH power door repair my 2008 toyota, vin 5TDZK23CS181848 is very difficult dealers (online and local) say this will not fit my van.They give me part #69641-08021 a window regulator, or part #85620-08053 the motor? They do not seem to know what parts it takes to fix my broken power door mechanism. Are you sure this #69641-08031 fit my van?
thanks for the great repair instructions.
Steve
Steve, thanks for the question. The part numbers are correct. There are dealers out there unaware of what has changed. I cannot check this again because the long-time contact I had at a Toyota dealer, who helped me with these part numbers initially is no longer with a Toyota dealer. You aren’t the first person to question it though and I did double-check. The nice thing about this article is that the part numbers have been time-tested by hundreds of readers whose comments show up at the bottom of this article. I would order the part. Check back in and share when you’ve done your repair.
Hi John,
I have a 2004 sienna and the passenger side power door is stuck shut. Considering the fact that it is an old car I am just hoping to use the door as a manual door from now on. When I click the automatic opening button near the door handle you can hear the motor trying to open the door. I tried just turning the power door off by pressing the slide door off button but that also didn’t allow it to open. I want to try clipping the cables like you recommend but can’t get to some becasue the door is shut. I also attempted to do the push with your feet while someone else pulls the handle and didn’t have success with that. Any ideas of what I can do, whether it be just cutting the cables that I can get to and then try pushing it open? Or any other tips and tricks to push it open?
Thanks,
Geoff
You can get it pushed open but it’s just tricky as you need to time when and where you push. If you push before the latch has unlatched the trailing edge of the door then you are just pushing against the latch. I became stuck at times with my doors but I just had to play around with it and finally I was able to get them open. You can trim the cable that comes out and runs toward the rear of the vehicle–look under the window in the black plastic channel and you can pull the cable out and clip it off. This may help you. Check back in and let us all know how it goes with getting your door open.
My cable broke and I have been running it manually. Instead of pushing the button on the dash which turns off the other working door. Can I just unplug the motor in the door that is faulty until I get new cables
Trent, thanks for the question. You sure can unplug the motor until you get your new cables–that will allow you to keep the other door on and not listen to cracking and popping inside your door whenever someone tries to actuate the broken door. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Well, the cable snapped. Door cannot be opened beyond an inch or two. Brought the van to dealership. Almost fainted when I heard the cost to repair, $2900 (it included the motor and cable). The motor was replaced under warranty enhancement in 2012. Second option just replace the power door cable ($1450) still too expensive. Third option, $250 to remove cable and manually opening/closing. Third option is my safe bet. If the right side goes, shall I just push the sliding power door button to off? Thanks.
You can turn off the switch, but as you know, it turns off both doors.
Hi John, thanks for this, it’s exactly what I’m dealing with. I cut the cables per these instructions but noticed that there is another piece with another cable connected to it that appears to be broken. I inspected it and it’s definitely not the same cable but I’m wondering if I can cut it as well. the broken piece rubs along the door when it opens and closes and makes a bunch of noise. Not sure it’s damaging anything but it is annoying.
I took a pic of it but then realized I can’t post it here.
Nicholas, I emailed you at the email address you supplied when you commented so you can email the picture to me and I’ll post it and respond. Thanks!
The pictures don’t seem to display. When I try to load them in a separate tab it says the IP address has been blacklisted.
Odd. No sooner did I post that than the pictures showed up. Weird.
Thanks for these pictures. I was able to snip the forward cable and get the door working manually (it was well jammed) until I can get the parts to fix. Do I need to keep the black end of the cable that attaches to the…..attachment?
That end comes with the new part so you should be fine throwing it away.
Sorry about that Chris. My website had been hosted on a shared IP Address, meaning that my service provider would put other customers on the same IP address and I believe that either one of them was compromised and a hacker was sending out spam via their site or one of them was intentionally spamming. Regardless, my security software alerted me that my IP had been blacklisted, so I paid to have my own dedicated IP address and when you refreshed, your browser must have re-requested the IP for my domain and got the new IP. My site was never compromised, so no worries. I hope you get your van door working again soon.
Thanks for your quick response! Your intuition was right – I checked all the tracks and found the missing cable tensioner clip wedged under the slider in the upper track. I used some pliers to pull the mangled clip out and cut the cable behind it. Then we could just pull out the rest of the cable from inside the door.
Now we have a functional door again! I’m so happy. Thank you so much for making this guide.
That’s great to hear Christine, glad that you were able to figure out what was obstructing the door. Thanks for sharing.
Hi John,
Thanks for the article! I am trying to get the door working manually again but have run into a problem and was wondering if you might have some insight.
I cut the cable like you showed in step 1, but in the other locations there isn’t a cable to cut. The door still feels like there’s something stopping it from moving. I started following your second article about fixing the power door and pulled the motor out, but still the door isn’t working. Do you have any suggestions for what to do next? I’m not sure if there’s somewhere else the cable could be stuck or if there might be another problem on top of the cable breaking.
Thank you!
Christine, if there are no cables running from the door to the body of the van then the next thing you need to check is the lower (below the door opening) and upper (below the back window) tracks of the door. Something could be prohibiting the wheels from rolling down their track. The reason there isn’t a cable to cut on the one end is because that must have been the side end that broke and the motor pulled the loose end of the cable inside the door. Was there a tail of cable attached to the van with a plastic connector on the end of it? Anyway, check your tracks and let us know how it turns out and what you find.
Thanks for your great post. My 2004 Toyota Sienna sliding stuck open. Could not open or close. Cut the cables were you show in the pics and away I go. Open/Close the door manually with ease. I won’t miss the power on a 2004 with 240,000 miles. Thanks to all good people like you helping people out!
I’m glad you were able to get your van door back into service. Thanks for sharing.
Hi John. I checked the controls you mentioned in your reply. it is on position. I also checked the fuses below the driver side instrument panel that you had mentioned in one of your other other sienna posts about fuses and their locations. I haven’t found a fuse that is blown. The only other thing left to be checked is the fuse link assembly in the engine compartment fuse box. How can i tell if one of the fuses in there is blown? Thanks.
How to check the fusible link is covered in that article you mentioned: Toyota Sienna Fuse Locations. I cannot imagine that it is a fuesable link though unless you had someone do some “rigging” of the electrical system in your van. If you want to verify that the fusible link is in tact, in the “Toyota Sienna Fuse Types” section of my Sienna Fuse Locations article it shows the following diagram. You’ll need to be able to see through the clear top plastic window (or carefully remove it) to verify each trace in the fusible link:
John, thanks a bunch. I was looking for a fix on youtube and someone had posted this website in the comments. I have a question about a different issue though. Same Sienna, the rear ac suddenly quit blowing. the front works just fine. I checked the fuse under the hood, Even swapped the fuse labeled R/R ac with a new one. It didn’t work, Any suggestions. thanks
I have an idea–have you checked the rear controls for the AC? They are located on the ceiling behind the driver’s seat. Could it possibly be turned off there?
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but for some reason I kept putting it off. I finally got some wire cutters, which were useless and resorted to my kitchen scissors. Done in just a couple minutes. The pictures were so helpful to reassure me I was on the right path. Thank you!
John, thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve been following this thread for over a year, maybe two, after stumbling on it when our passenger side went kaput. Just saw a comment about how to open it that I hadn’t seen before. Ours had been stuck closed for about two years now. We used the push-from-the-inside technique and it worked perfectly. Then we did the cable clipping you posted to make it manual. So nice to have it opening again!!! It will be a while before we fork out the $500 for parts to try your full repair (if we ever do it), so this will be our fix but I’m concerned about your comment that the motor trying to still work might cause electrical damage. I’m reluctant to use your suggestion of disabling both sliding doors as I really get use out of the still operational side with my two little ones and a dog. Any other way to keep the passenger side from trying to do things electrically, or might it not be bad afterall? Thanks again!
Hey, I’m glad to hear you got your door open–good job. As for disabling a single door, if you follow Steps 1-4, the last part of Step 4 being disconnecting the motor, you can just follow the steps in reverse and put the door back together and the door will no longer attempt to run the motor if you push the button. Then you can leave the doors on and keep using the one that works. You can always go back and repair if you like.
My 2005 Toyota Sienna sliding door cables both frayed and snapped. The driver side went first. Two weeks later the passenger side cable went. I had some other repair work done at the dealership on two occasions. They pulled the cables out for me at no charge. However I do have a issue with opening both sliding doors when the temperature is freezing or below. You cannot open the doors at all. The car has to run at least 15 minutes with the heater at full blast before u can even try to get them open. This has been happening over the last five years. We do not have a garage so the van is constantly exposed to the elements. Any advice as to prepping the sliding doors for freezing weather?
Maria, thanks for your question. That is one I have not heard of before. It will be difficult to diagnose the root of your problem without looking at your van. If I took a look at it I would inspect the upper and lower rails that the doors run along when they open. I would inspect the metal wheels (and oil them). If it is so temperature dependent, something that gets thick or freezes must be in the way of the door opening and you need to find it. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful but without getting my hands on it, it’s hard to tell. If you figure it out, please drop back in and let everyone know what it was.
Awesome, Thank You!
At 220K miles, I just couldn’t see putting $200 in parts and almost a full day of my time into replacing this cable assembly. The other door is manual only anyway so why not have both the same?!
This guidance worked perfectly. At step 4, the black “box” at the end of the wire popped right out so I didn’t have to cut it there. I then used a screwdriver and pliers to pull the tag ends out of the pulley at the top so they weren’t dragging along under the window and that really cleaned up the job.
Thanks again!
Both my doors are know stuck closed. What steps should I take to get them open and make them manual until I can fix them properly?
The easiest way requires two people. Have one person push on the front and rear ends of the door while the other person pulls the internal (or external) handle to open the door. This works if the issue is that the frayed cable is resisting to slide through its conduit. I did this same thing all by myself by removing the middle seat, sitting down on the floor, putting one foot on the front edge and the other on the rear edge of the door and then pushing with my feet while simultaneously pulling the handle with my hand–it takes a little timing and coordination (and flexibility) though 🙂 Do not pull hard on the external handle or you will break the handle and I haven’t written about replacing the handle (yet), so you’d be on your own there!!
Thank you for all these wonderful tips. I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna where the left slide door rail cable under window started fray. After a few opening and closings of the door, the door stopped midway and got stuck. I wish I had known how to handle that situation because my husband and I forced the door to close. Well, the cable snapped. Door cannot be opened beyond an inch or two. Brought the van to dealership. Almost fainted when I heard the cost to repair, $2900 (it included the motor and cable). The motor was replaced under warranty enhancement in 2012. Second option just replace the power door cable ($1450) still too expensive. Third option, $250 to remove cable and manually opening/closing. Third option is my safe bet. If the right side goes, shall I just push the sliding power door button to off? Thanks.
You can definitely operate your door with the power option turned off. I recommend repairing it, yourself, with my help though. Have you seen my article on replacing the cables yourself: How to Replace Power Sliding Door Cables on 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna
Thank you John for getting back to me. Sorry it took so long to reply back. We have 6 kids and at the present time only using one door on our van is NOT fun. I will try and remove the seats and have my husband help me try and (kick) force the door open. When I tried on my own I was inside the van using my key fob button to help with opening the door. The motor would run but no movement from the door on the inside and outside. It’s how Mack explained it. It seems like I’m trying to open a locked door. Any suggestions would help greatly. We are considering selling the van but having the door broken will depreciate the value tremendously. Thank you again John. Also, is there a way I can receive a notification that you replied to my comment. I didn’t know until I checked back here to see if you replied.
Melissa
Melissa, thanks for checking back in. First I’ll say don’t “kick” your door, but just push firmly on the front and back edges simultaneously. The way to get notified of new follow-up comments is to click the check-box below the comment field as shown below:
I have the same problem with the pass side on our 08. The wire is hanging in the back and the door will open but not slide. Toyota wants almost 2000 to fix it so toady I’m going to try cutting the cables and at least get it to slide open. Then I’ll get the cable and try repairing it right. Thanks.
You have come to the right place if you want to save over $1,500. If you can follow instructions you can do this repair and let me know if you run into any issues and I’m here to help. I corrected your typo so I simply deleted your other comment.
John ~
My driver’s side sliding door cable broke and is hanging out by the back window. I want to disable that door for good and use it manually but be able to use the slider on the other side mechanically (if that is possible). The driver’s side won’t open but 12″ in manual mode. The Toyota dealer said I need to clip a second cable in the system. At what point in your replacement tutorial would I get to before I would have access to cut the second cable that is keeping the door from being able to open fully, and where exactly can that second cable be located? Thanks so much for sharing your time and talent!
Thanks for your question Kathy. I’m guessing you need to follow Steps 3 and 4 if your door will only open a little bit. The other main steps are 1 and 2, which it sounds like you have already done.
John, thanks for your posts on the Toyota sliding door issues. After studying the cable replacement and cable removal posts, I decided to at least remove the main side panel to see what was causing the passenger side door on our 2007 Sienna to not open. Hopefully you don’t drown in my details but I hope to clearly explain what i did and what issue I ran into. Pulling off the main side panel I found that the perfect circle part of the pulley housing had broken off and was ‘attached’ to what I assume is sound deadening material on the side panel. However the pulley and cables were still nestled with the motor but not tight enough for the splines of the motor to activate the pulley. I found that if I put a little pressure on the pulley while pressing the open button it would engage and open the door but as soon as I let go it would it would stop. Since the cables were losing their coating and fraying, I removed the pulley and cables and hoped to use it as a manual door for a while until I buy the new assembly. After removing the cables the door slid much easier and I shut it. That’s where I became stumped, hopefully your expertise can shed some light on what’s going on. The doors have a feature that when closed manually if the door is pushed until it clicks just before fully closed it will pull the door tight . If the door is pushed to this point and allowed to finish closing itself, the door will stay closed and reopen normally with the inner or outer handles. If the door is closed quickly and not allowed to finish itself (i.e. slammed shut) the handles won’t open the door. Only the rear portion of the door will release about half an inch and I can’t force the door to open anymore. It can be pressed back into closed position and if you really help it when you press the auto open button it will pop open and slide freely along its full ‘range of motion’. Then sequence starts over again. Pull it to the point that it closes itself, all is fine. Slam it closed and it has to be forced open. I can’t get it opened in manual mode after slamming it. I have to turn on auto and help it open while pressing the auto open button. Allow it to close itself and it will open with the handles fine while its in either manual or auto mode. Thanks for pondering, let me know if anything isn’t clear enough.
Thanks for the question and all the details CB. First of all, this door is not designed to be “slammed” shut. You can damage the door by doing that. You can turn off the power function of the door but that still assumes that the cables are connected and offer resistance to the force created if you were to slam the door against the mechanism that retracts the back edge of the door as the final step of the automated door-closing process. When you cut the cables you are outside the scope of the door’s design. I have not ever been in the scenario you are in so I can’t be sure what is going on. If you repair the sliding doors per my instructions I believe you will have a fully functioning door. Otherwise, I think you are rolling the dice and may end up with more serious issues. I have not studied the mechanism that closes the rear edge of the door as the last step in the door closing process so I’m not at all familiar with that. Sorry I couldn’t be more help but you’re outside the experience range I’ve had. Let me know if you learn anything else though.
Hello John,
We seem to be having the same problem as Mack. Have you or Mack figured out how to open the door? If so could you share? Thank you.
Melissa, thanks for the question. When I was dealing with our fraying/broken sliding door cables I ran into problems getting the door open more than once. What I ended up doing is removing the middle seat by the sliding door I was working on, I sat on the floor, put one foot on the front of the door and one foot on the back and then used my hand to pull the handle while pushing gently but forcefully out with my feet. This could be accomplished with two people (and you could avoid having to use your feet!) but I tend to be working on my vehicle by myself. By pushing on the front edge and back edge, I was able to get my door open. I don’t know if you have tried something like this–please let me know and give me your exact symptoms. Do you have fraying or broken cables? Are the symptoms the same when you physically pull the handle (try both the inside and outside handles), when you push the button on the front door post, and when you use the remote. Let me know and I’ll see if I can help. Thanks! John.
John,
I really want to cut the cables as showed in this tutorial, but my issue is that my rear doors are both stuck in the closed position and I’m having issues with accessing the wires. Will I be able to open the door if I cut the cables inside door where they connect to the motor pulley?
Thank you!
Mack
You cannot get to the motor pulley unless you get the door open. In order to remove the inner panel of the sliding door you need to remove the screws on the leading edge of the door. Did both of your doors stop working simultaneously?
John, they stopped working about a month apart. I’ve removed the inner panel and cut the two wires to the motor, but I’m still not able to get the door open from inside or out. Any ideas?
A couple more notes:
When I pull on the handle to open the doors, it just seems like it’s locked. It does, however, cause the mechanism inside the door to move, so it’s not something simple like the latch being broken. I don’t think it’s the actuator because even if I unlock all the doors from the driver’s side, it doesn’t unlock it. I read somewhere that if the EDM stops working, there’s some kind of emergency brake which prevents the door from opening. Anyway, I’ve cut the cable from the EDM outside the rear passenger window, but I can’t cut the other side since I can’t open the door. Thanks in advance for your help — any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I just want to clarify… When you say “I cut the two wires to the motor” you mean the cables that run to the spool? You are not referring to electrical wires, correct? Did you cut the wires according to this article? So you have tried the inside and outside handles, both? If it was just the inside, there’s a child safety switch on the leading edge of the door that disables the inner door handle. If you have the door panel off on the inside you can watch the latch mechanism work and study what is going on there. See this article for the door latch mechanism: How to Replace the Slide Door Lock Release Motor Assy I’m not familiar with what the EDM is to be honest. What is that?
Thank you very much! Huge help. The door was not closing and had several important chores to take care of. Just bought a wire cutter. Turned the door into a mechanical one. And life is back to normal!
Appreciate.
Thanks for your comment. Life must go on but please do come back for the repair–the automatic door sure is nice when you have a handful of groceries or kids. Like a lot of other people, you can repair your van door with my help: How to Replace Power Sliding Door Cables on 2004-2010 Toyota Sienna
Hi John, We have a 2009 Sienna, and we got the kids out of the car tonight, and the driver’s side sliding door would not close. We switched to manual and it still wouldn’t work, after inspecting closer we noticed the cable, it does not look broken or frayed, but it is loose, and the door seems stuck. Maybe it is broken on the inside…we finally turned off the interior lights and just left it open. I came inside and googled the issue and ended up here. Have you heard of this issue before? Do you think at this point cutting the cable is our best option? Obviously we can’t even drive the van if the door won’t shut, I would love to hear what you think. Thanks!
Mindy, thank you for the question. If the cable is loose then you definitely have an issue. The cable is likely frayed inside the spool mechanism. Did you happen to hear any popping noise inside the door when you were trying to open/close the door? You can use moderate force to try to get your door to open and I found myself in a position of not being able to open/close my door at one time or another during the window of failure of either of my doors that I repaired. There isn’t any room for the frayed cables to fit through the conduit they run through on their way in and out of the door. You must be able to use your van obviously so it is ok to cut the cables and I have written an article on how to do that here: How to Trim Broken Sliding Door Cables on Toyota Sienna
Laugh Out Loud– I didn’t realize you had written this comment on the very page I was referring you to!?! I assumed incorrectly that you were on the article where I show how to repair the sliding door. Anyway, yes you can trim the cables to get back to normal life and make due till you can repair your door. Hopefully you can do it yourself with my article’s help. Many people already have!
Hi John…Do you recommend using Toyota parts only ? I have seen less expensive aftermarket parts. I would like your input on this.
I want to thank you for your attention to detail and the great pictures you post.
I own a 2009 Sienna and the RH cable snapped recently. I read all your instructions and they gave me the confidence to try (with a friend) to repair this myself. Wish me luck !
Thanks again John !
Please excuse me as I may have posted this twice…
Hi, I have a 2009 Sienna that started having issues with the automatic passenger door. The funny thing is, when I removed the interior panel to have a look at things, the door worked fine. When I put the panel back on, it worked a couple of times and then went back to not fully closing. The motor cable housing on the interior is still intact. When I switch to manual mode, there is definitely resistance and it takes a little force to push the door closed but I don’t see anything obstructing the tracks. Under the rear window I can see much of the cable housing has flaked away but the cable itself is not frayed and is taut. Do you think just lubing the moving parts might be enough to solve my problem?
The cable can possibly be frayed in an area that doesn’t come all the way out of the door. The cable is not meant to require lubrication but you could put some oil on it and give it a try–it should not damage anything. The fact that the cable coating is worn away is a sign that there is likely some fraying of the cable going on. It is this fraying inside the cable sheathing that feeds the cable down to the motor where the friction is likely causing your door to bind up and not shut. I have to say that it is difficult to diagnose without being there to see it with my own eyes though.
Hello great write up. I put the door on my Sienna 2006 LE on manual and it was hard to open. I used some W40 spray and it made it a lot easier to open. The only problem now is that it still does not open from the inside. The outside works manually and auto. Any ideas?
Elisabeth, thanks for the question. The door can be unlatched by any of the remote buttons/switches, the inner door handle, or the outer door handle. The remote and buttons operate a motor that unlatches the door, the inner and outer handles pull cables that unlatch the door. The cables or their fittings could be broken. BUT the most likely thing that could be causing your issue is that the child protector switch is locked, which disables the inside door handle. You should check to see if that accidentally became activated. The switch should be in the down position. The switch is located on the leading edge of the sliding door and can be seen here:
Great write up, John. When I was researching minivans to buy for our family, I knew the Sienna was the best in the engine/tranny department. But I was a bit concerned about the vast power sliding door issues. But after reading this post, I felt a bit more confident purchasing one, knowing that if it broke, I could fix it.
We ended up buying a used 2010 Sienna with 80K. It’s a great van. And no power door problems…yet:) I did a whole write up on my site about why I believe it’s the best van you can buy for under 15K. Thanks again!
Found it, Stuck switch………….
2009 toyota sienna sliding door cables have broken.
Cut the cable so we could operate the doors manually.
Removed power to both doors by opening up the two 30 amp fuses under the hood.
Now the door open alarm is always on, ideals?
If you want to disable BOTH doors it is unnecessary to pull fuses–you can just turn them off with the push-button switch by the driver’s left knee:
Then they will operate in manual mode.