Tl* the contact owns a 1991 toyota corolla. The contact stated that during the cold weather, she was unable to unlock her door from the inside. The contact stated due to the cold, and that the door lock did not have ridges, she was unable to pull the lock in the upward position and exit the vehicle. The contact was trapped inside of the vehicle until law enforcement arrived and unlocked the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for inspection. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure . The failure mileage was 200,000. The VIN was unavailable.
1991 Toyota Corolla: doors won't lock, open or latch
12 of the 71 complaints about the 1991 Toyota Corolla describe doors won't lock, open or latch.
- owner complaints
- 12
- of this car's complaints
- 17%
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
Doors won't lock, open or latch by model year
What owners say
The door structure mechanisms have persistently failed on this car. I have had to replace five exterior door handles. I also have had the door mechanism fail twice in such as way that the door cannot be opened from the outside and when the window is put down, the door automatically opens. This seems to be a safety hazard that could result in injury. Luckily, I have not been driving on the highway when the door has unexpectedly popped open. The repairs to the vehicle are quite expensive and toyota seems unwilling to address these concerns with the creation of higher quality door parts.
Five outside door handles and one inside door handle had broken off. Dealer was notified, and unwilling to assist. Vehicle was out of warranty. Not covered under a manufacturer's recall. Provide any further information on this matter.
The plastic door handles w/springs need to be recalled. At $25 a door handle, it's obvious toyota made them that way to make money! I love this car and have gotten my monies worth, but the manifold and door handles need to be investigated. The spring in the door handles do not hold up. The handles break if the person doesn't grab & grasp the handle together. It's not wear & tear either. My back doors of my 4 door are rarely used by anyone,. Yet , I have the same problem with them braking like the front handles. To date and since I bought this car brand new, I have gone through a good 12 door handles. And, most importantly, the manifold cracked while under the warranty, once under the extended warranty. Now I find that it's been cracked again for some time and that the noise I hear is once again from a cracked manifold!!!!!!!! The federal safety agency please investigate. This manifold replacing is costly. The defroster and inside roof light has never worked properly but I just thought something electrical was off. Again, my concern now is the manifold and door handles that quite a few people have complained to the federal safety agency.
Three of my door handles on my 1991 corolla sedan are no longer functioning. They cracked when passengers attempted to open the doors from the inside. No force or abuse was ever applied to the mechanism. I feel that this is an extreme danger to my life and those of my passengers, since they would be trapped in the event of an accident. I have noticed that there were a number of other complaints involving the door handle mechanism in you "problems" section.
My car was well maintained. It was parked in the sun on a warm (80 degree) day as usual. I got in my car and even before I put my key in the ignition I heard a static/crackling sound coming from the rear speakers. It didn't occur to me right away that the car engine was off so I should not have heard the radio at all. As I started the car I hit the radio button thinking the radio was on but had lost the station. The noise did not go away when I hit the button and I realized the car was filling with smoke, coming from inside the upper dash (area of radio) in the front of the car. I immediately pulled over and shut the engine off and got out of the car. Smoke continued to come from the air vents. It seemed to have a electrical burning smell (I've worked in labs and started a few myself...) versus a gas or oil or other burning smell. When the smoke cleared, I checked the rest of the electrical system and the lights and air conditioning and digital clock worked fine. The car really doesn't have any much else I could check, no electric door locks, etc. I pulled the radio fuse. It was not blown. I started the car with friends watching and the engine appeared to be fine. I was able to drive home a 5 mile ride with no apparent problem. The radio/cassette player were installed when I bought the car. I use it all the time and never had problems before. My concern here is could the car have caught fire just sitting in the parking lot or at any other time from this electrical (?) problem? This could have been dangerous had I been on a main road with my young child strapped in the car seat. The radio was crackling without the key even in the ignition, so something was going on even before I got in the car. Thank you for taking this report.
Inside door handle pulling mechanism, made of plastic, is a ring, ring goes down and pushes on a medal rod that goes through the ring, and rod makes door open. The plastic ring will break, the rod is free to move in toward the door. When this happens, it moves into the window mechanism, and when window is lowered the door will pop open. Dealer cannot duplicate the problem.
Interior door handles crack causing the handle to disengage from the door latch.
The vehicle's passenger side door handle on the inside has cracked and came off, making it impossible exit on that side. Dealer offered to fix it.
Inside door handle failed.
The rear inside door handles snapped off; passenger attempted to open rear door & handles snapped off in hand; took to dealership; was not under warranty; gave estimate.
Inside door handles keep breaking off, with plastic handles. Both front and onr rear door handle. Tt
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 1991 Toyota Corolla door locks
Is doors won't lock, open or latch a common problem on the 1991 Toyota Corolla?
12 of 71 owner complaints about the 1991 Toyota Corolla (17%) mention doors won't lock, open or latch. The model year with the most reports is 1991.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 1991 Toyota Corolla?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
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