rkonfire

Hey guys, I've got a '94 Lude and something interesting happened while I was at the university the other day. I went to my car after class to leave and I unlocked the doors but when I went to open my driver side door it wouldn't open, even after the locks unlocked. I then had to go through the passenger side door and went to open the driver side door from the inside handle and it wouldn't open the door either! So both the driver side door's inside handle and the outside handle don't recognize that the car is unlocked. Thus, it seems my driver side door latch is basically stuck in lock AND I can't open the door to even get the door panel off to see what's going on in there. Is there a way to pop open that latch or anything? Or else how am I going to get this door panel off with the door closed? Any ideas/suggestions guys?

**I have electric door locks and the window seems to be able to go up and down fine

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Chad

 

kellyk75

Did you try any of the advise in the other thread you posted in?

Before you answer this, try the other methods. Is there any tension from the inner and outer handles? Sounds like it could just be frozen. Jiggle the locking mechanism manually (open/close/open/close) and see if you can get it to unlock....... or park in a heated garage for a couple of hours.

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95greenlude

^like he said, is there tension on the inside or outside, and the lock?

imy problem was the rod going to the outside handle had broken off....and it got caught, so i couldnt open the door....

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Jared
95 SE

rkonfire

Thanks for the response guys. Okay, it's been really cold lately so I thought that might have something to do with the problem as well. Usually the car is parked outside so I brought it into the garage overnight last night to let it "thaw" and see if that would fix the problem. Unfortunately, it didn't. Nothing has changed.

As far as the tension on the handles... the handles feel the exact same way as if the car was locked. Meaning, the tension (or lack thereof) is what it normally is when I try to open the car door when it's locked. There's no little catch (or click) when I pull on the handles like there should be when the car is unlocked. Because of this the latch is not disengaging because the handles are not telling it to, basically.

Now, as far as the info given in the other thread, I don't think the slim jim is going to help me. The car's locks unlock and lock perfectly fine. The problem is getting the handles to recognize that the car is unlocked and to catch (or click) when I pull on them to disengage the latch.

Any ideas? I appreciate all the responses, and feel free to keep asking me questions if you need clarification or anything because this is a huge pain in the butt!!!!

**95greenlude - So how did you get to the rod though? Use a wedge and fish for it? Or did you somehow get that panel off? Also, I was doing some more research on here and it sounds like there's two rods that connect to the latch, one for the inside and one for the outside handle. Thus, it seems both of these had to of broke at the same time or else the problem has something to do with the latch itself.

**kellyk75 - I'm not sure what you mean with the open/close/open/close. Are you saying to try to unlock/lock manually with the key from the outside and then pull on the handle? I've tried that to no avail unfortunately

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Chad

95greenlude

mine just one day opened up after wiggling the inside handle....there really isnt a way to get the panel off with the door shut.

your right, there is a rod going from the outside handle to the latch, the inside handle to the latch, and one going from the inside lock to the latch.

one of the 2 handle rods is probably caught on something.....its tricky

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Jared
95 SE

rkonfire

Thanks for the response. So let's say for instance that one of the handle rods is caught on something, shouldn't the other handle rod still work?

Also, the rod going to the inside handle and the rod going to the inside lock both connect to the lock crank according to the my Helms (or so it looks like). With that known, my locks unlock and lock perfectly fine (I can see the inside lock rod moving correctly when I take the trim panel out), so why isn't the inner handle rod moving correctly since they're both attached to that lock crank?

I'm going to have to keep fiddling with it I guess.

**One thing to note, it seems like people with the rod problems aren't able to move their window up/down correctly. I don't have this problem... the window goes up/down perfectly fine. I'm starting to get scared that it could possibly be the latch itself that is screwed!

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Chad

rkonfire

Well, after weeks of trying to figure this thing out we've concluded at least one thing: it's the door lock latch assembly that is the problem. I ordered a new latch assembly from Manchester Honda for $185 shipped and I'm going to have to bust out the old one (through the big hole in the panel we had to cut out) and install this new one. I'm not sure whether I want to do this myself or just take it to a body shop for peace of mind.

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Chad

ChicagoRSX

My advice to you is take it to a dealership, this is a truly pain in the ass job to do. And if they damage the body on you, they might take care of the repairs.

rkonfire

Yeah, I ended up taking it to a body shop and they cut me a break since I was recommended to them. They didn't do a great job, but for the door correctly functioning only $75 later, especially for a huge pain in the butt job, I'm not really going to complain.

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Chad