My 87 gxl driver side door wont open. I know this is a common problem but its not the common one. I cannot open the driver door from the outside or the INSIDE. So me and BKLYNRX-7 took off as much of the door panel while the door is closed. We can only see a small portion of it. The inner door handle to open the door is working fine (LOWER ROD INSIDE THE DOOR), its the locking/unlocking mechanism that is stuck(UPPER ROD INSIDE THE DOOR).



We took off the door panel from the passenger side to compare and contrast. And after investigation i figured out the direction the rods have to move for closing and opening of the door. With this knowledge i tried it on the driver side and it will not budge. There is something up with the rotating mechanism, its just stuck. So the door wont open because its stuck between the OPEN and CLOSING stage. What could be stopping the mechanism from rotating freely. Tommy said that in his rx-7 a spring came off and got jammed somewhere so he couldnt open the door.



My door is not the manual type its power windows and all taht gadetry.



So if you guys have any suggestions on how to better access or release this stuck mechanism.



Thanks





Jason aka JAZERX-7, NYC

..My driver door isn't opening either (outside) The key goes in only half way too.

I have the same problem whenever someone locks my driver side door. Take the door panel off, theres a rod running vertically down, to the doors opening/closing mechanism or whatever the hell you wanna call it, the latch itself. Theres the rod, and a small metal circular peice attached to it on the end, play with the rod and the cirular peice a bit, ill try and get a pic later, its dark out now and starting to rain so ill get it tomorrow to show you exactly what i mean. Usually i move it around a little and itll pop open for me. Good luck! Btw, i use a small screwdriver to move the peices around, its easiser for me.

Damn posted before i read the part of your post about it being all electrical. ****... im an idiot XD mines an 87 SE so its all manual =( But hell, see if its any the same, might work out for ya!

try having some one push on the door while u move the rods maybe that will help

had that issue on my buddies.... ended up cutting the door open like a tin can... :(

yeah i had to pull out the sawzaw after i had my accident ...lol

Thanks for the replies guys. I revisited the problem today after work.

I played with the passenger side door and practiced what i will do to the driver door. I closed the door and locked it. THen i openeed it using the rod, it OPENED. THen i opened the door again buy pulling on the vertical rod, boom the dooor opened. Then i pressed on the pivot area where the vertical and horizontal rod meet, and pressed it to rotate it and the door openeend. I tried all this on the driver side door and it does not open.



I learned a few more things though. The lock is not stuck in the closed position, its totally fine. Its when you try to unlock the car that its gets jammed. Kinda looks like something is stopping it from rotating, like something stuck not letting it fully rotate and hence open.



I hope someone else has dealt with this. If not ima just remove the whole ******* dooor and **** cuase working on it with the panel only partially removed ******* hurts my big fat forearms lol



Jason NYC

there is a spring on the actual door latch that is off which is causing your problem.



I wont have time until Saturday to go out to a parts car and take a pic of what is causing your problem

Hey thankz banzai for looking into it. I can wait for the pic, cause i tried it for 2 days straight and cant get it off in my current situation. So if you could take that pic i would so love it. Thanks



Jason NYC

My '86 GXL driver's side door won't open from the outside. I took off the door panel on the passenger side off and played with the inner and outer handles to see how things worked. Pulled off the driver's side panel and pulled the inside handle, saw the correct movement of the arms. Pulled it from the outside and...nothing.



On another site, that I won't mention because they went on a ******* Gay-bashing binge, some guy had the same problem and found out that it is the clip that connects to the arm that controls the door.



It's a gold arm. When you pull the inside handle, it gets pulled down. When you pull the outside handle, it gets pushed down. So whatever was holding the gold arm to that clip, is broken or has become disconnected. The problem is that I cannot seem to get the outer handle off because of my window glass and a slew of little electrical connections and control arms. Oy vey, I wish things would just be very very simple and straight forward like my old '93 Eclipse RS. No power anything, except steering!

How do you fix this problem? It seems like I have the same problem now. The door handle moves up and down and I can see it working on the latch on the inside but the door won't open. The latch on the inside (looking down the window hole from the top) stays in the up position, how it is if you pull on the door handle. It doesn't spring back down as I guess it's meant to.

As the door's stuck closed I can't pull the trim off to look inside.

Suggestions please. I'm gettin tired of climbing into my car from the passenger's side!

your door handle can break in 2 ways the clips or the actual handle itself also holy ******* necro post batman

I'm not talking about the door handle being broken.

The inside handle is working on the latch but the door won't open. It looks like banzaitoyota knows what is wrong but hasn't posted the pic of what it is.

It seems to be a problem witht the latch, not the door handles.



And yeah, old thread but it was relevant and hadn't been resolved so I was hoping someone would know what to do.

im talking about the outside door handle breaking there are clips that can just fall off and there is a plastic piece that likes to break as well

Ok, so I fixed the problem. It was nothing to do witht the door handles. The door was stuck closed and neither handle would open it.

It ended up being a broken spring which returns the latch to the correct position.

Here's how to fix it:



1. Opened the window and pulled the weather strip off of the outside.



2. Use a coat hanger or hook to hook onto and pull onto the lever shown in the following pic (note: This is from looking down the window slit from above) [attachment=48018:P1010513 mod.JPG]



3. This should allow the door to open. Then remove the door trim and the window glass.



4. Undo the 3 bolts holding the latch (shown with blue arrows) and the nut holding the window track (green arrow). [attachment=48020:P1010516 mod.JPG]



5. There will be 4 or 5 rods going to the latch that need to be unclipped from it and one thicker one which goes to the outside door handle.



6. Remove the latch from the door.



Most likely the spring will have snapped which is meant to return the latch to the correct postion. This will have to be replaced, and if the latch is all gummed up like mine was, used WD40 or degreaser to clean it up and get it moving smooth.

Shown in the photo below is the latch reinstalled in the door with the new spring installed.

The lever shown with the lower arrow is the one that needs to be hooked and pulled upwards to open the stuck door. [attachment=48019:P1010514 mod.JPG]



Hopefully this will help anyone with the same problem.

Re: Driver side door wont open
 

Hi!!

I recently had the same problem,

Take as much hwrd from the door panel (don't break it) slide your driver seat fwd, lift the door panel (just a little) that will give you some room to work in it. You will need the tools to open the door or use a cold hanger to get it to work but it will behoove you to replace the door mechanism.

good luck

Ivan

Re: Driver side door wont open
 

I have the same problem too, whenever someone to lock my driver side door. Taken to close the door, where a vertical downward run, door open / close mechanism, regardless of hell you want to call, the latch itself. Where the rods, and a small round metal peice the end of the playing rods and cirular peice ill try and obtain informed consent, the dark, and now it began to rain, they become ill, to tell you exactly what I mean tomorrow. I usually open a little bit and itll pop up walking around. Good luck!