Thread: Door Won't Open

wow, that sucks, either way you look at it, the door has to be open so you can take the inside door panel off to see what is not working.

not sure how you get the door open if both in and out side handles quit. other then sacrificing the door panel aka cutting it ripping it off. then reaching in to find the rods to push and pull on to open the door up.

Sounds like that's what's got to happen. Time start looking for a door panel

oh boy i had this happen on a 74 corvette it took me 2 hrs to unlock it i would suggest that you roll down the window and get a hook to pull the latch up so it unlocks

If I were familiar with sedans maybe I could help more but I'm a coupe guy. I say remove the screws under the armrest, and the rear seat bottom for more clearance... then yep find a spot and pull the panel loose starting at the bottom. Chances of getting it open with the trim panel only partially removed might qualify as torture, so go ahead and try to get it out of the way.

Originally Posted by ericspecullaas

oh boy i had this happen on a 74 corvette it took me 2 hrs to unlock it i would suggest that you roll down the window and get a hook to pull the latch up so it unlocks

if you do try this way i suggest taking the pass side back inside trim off and seeing how stuff works, then make a tool, aka wire hanger to hook that you need to hook on the pass side, then take what you learned to the driver side door.

I would try my hardest to use a hanger before i ruined my door panel, but that may have to be what happens. I have always been lucky and one of the handles will open the door, and only have expeirence on the front doors. Have never taken my rear panels off, but I assume its similar to the front ones. I have had to put a new regulator and motor in the front passenger, and its just a simple metal piece that opens the door up.

its been a while since I had a sedan. do the rear doors have the child safety mechanism that prevents the door from opening from the inside? I wonder if that is making the outer mechanism not work too

At work we had this happen to a '08 Durango, we pried the top of the door panel off enough to get a hand in there and the boss got a wire and touched some stuff together to get it to work, in the process blowing the fuse for all the door latches, lol. But we got it open. I'll ask him tomorrow what exactly was up with it.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to respond. I guess the reason the door didn't work was because of some canine unit wiring that got cut wrong when the PD tried to take apart the car themselves.

The trouble on sedans is that the rear door latches are crammed back in the corner underneath the stationary glass. If the exterior door handle rod clip broke or came loose while the door was child-locked, for example... you'll need good access to reach and manipulate the latch. Scotty's suggestion about taking the other rear door's trim panel off for reference is solid, thats a good idea to help minimize damage. One scratch on the exterior paint isn't worth one salvage sedan rear door trim panel.

Sometimes you can hump the door while you try to open it, it takes the weight off the striker on the door and might allow it to release.

I however just had the opposite issue, my door doesn't/didn't close, the latch no longer wants to grab the striker bolt and stay latched and thats dangerous.