Help! My passenger door lock is jammed!

[RichardN]

Hi All,

Help needed!

The lock on my passenger side door has completely jammed in the locked position so I cannot open the door at all ('88 Turbo). The interior handle doesn't work because the outside door lock prevents the internal mechanism moving. I have stripped the interior door handle off and pushed and pulled the wire rods connected to the lock but nothing is working.

The only option I can see is to drill out the lock cylinder but don't want to do that (other than as a last resort) because - 1) I will have to replace all the locks (which I only did last year!) and 2) I don't know if it will actually work and allow the lock to open.

Does anyone have any experience or ideas of what to do?

Any help much appreciated.

Richard

[s2_esprit]

I had this happen on another car. To fix it, I sprayed about half a can of WD in the door (by sticking the nozzle between the glass and the rubber and aiming it at the lock and door latch), while working both the interior lock and the key. After having a few words with it I got it to work again.

Cheers Jim

[slade]

on my car- I usually have to leave the key in while I open the door.

slade

[Curly Jon]

Howdy,

If they are the standard G Car door mechs then the best thing to do is see if you can get a coat hanger down the side of the glass and the interior trim. The handles seem to use bent bits of coat hanger wire and if you are lucking its fallen of and jammed. Doing some fishing might help you, unless the lock itself is really knackered. For a better understanding take the trim panel off the working door to see how its set up and it might give to ideas how to takle it.

Hopefully anything will be better that drilling the lock.

Curly Jon

[RichardN]

Success! I'm in...

I took Curly Jon's advice and tried with a piece of bent wire. Although I couldn't get anything moving it did give me an idea. I lowered the window and pulled out a few inches of the furry trim between the door and the inside of the window. This allowed me to get a look at the lock. What had happened was that the metal plate that is moved by the handle (and moves the plate connected by a wire to the striker plate if the lock is unlocked) had jammed in the up position completely blocking anything from moving. I simply stuck a screwdriver down the gap and pushed the plate back into position with a "pop". That freed up the lock and the door opened.

I will strip the inside of the door off later and take a look at how and why that could have happened and will try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Thanks to all of you who made a suggestion. I am one happy bunny!

Richard