Window actuator

While traveling in Florida my drivers window actuator failed. The window would go up and down but slowly and it would make some grinding noises. With the window in the up position I made an appointment with Sarasota Toyota. After several hour wait they came out to inform me that I had brought the truck in with the window down (not true at all) and that the glass wouldn’t stay up and that it was loose and just floating inside the door. Then they tried to push the glass up and wedged it with two pieces of cardboard. Well that lasted about two miles and the window glass slipped down. Now the frustrating part is that a new window actuator is needed and that Toyota doesn’t have any and that it could be months before they are available. I was informed that Toyota has come out with a new part number to replace the original. I am going back to Illinois in a couple of days and I have had to tape the window in the up position with some masking tape. Its hard to believe that in the third year of production their is still part supply to shortages. I would think that Toyota would try to make their exiting customers happy and would pull the parts out of the production line. I guess they are more interested in making and selling new cars and trucks than making owners happy.

 

First let me state that I do not work for Toyota or a Toyota dealership. I do however work in the automotive field and can tell you that all manufacturers are dealing with issues such as what you are experiencing. I deal with parts on back order for cars everyday. It's not a Toyota issue, it's an issue with the part supplier. One supplier will have an issue, resulting in a part change, resulting in a supplier change, resulting in a shortage. It sucks. As to your question of pulling one off of the assembly line, it has nothing to do with selling new cars and everything to do with the cost of a line down just to pull one part. Chances are, they might not even have parts for the line or the line part is not the superseded part. Who knows. In the meantime, tape up the window and roll with it.