Door locked!!

[wingnut]

Hi, having a problem with my doors. Went to my car and couldn't open either door. wouldn't unlock with fob or with key. the fob works as the alarm de-set, but both pins appeared stuck.

Got into the boot though, and managed to get the passenger door open by pulling the pin and turning the key on the door. Could not do this with drivers door, felt like key was going to snap.

Problem now is that:-
a) i have to climb in the passenger door,
b) i have to force the pin up on the passengers door to get out
c) when the door is unlocked, it is constantly trying to lock itself for about 10 seconds, but of course it cant til the door is shut
d) i cant lock it with the key fob, have to wait until it decides to try locking itself again, and then set alarm with the keyfob!

i did have a problem with unlocking the passenger door previous to this, but WD40 sorted it, as i could get the door open, but i cant get drivers door open this time. and it appears something is wrong with the central locking now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Cheers Pete - '98 VTS

[St_James]

had the same prob on mine! turned out to be the central door locking mechanism is the drivers door, i was lucky in the fact i knew it was on its way out so already had the panel off the door so i could open it by forcing the lever up from inside.

[wingnut]

how did you know it was that? did you take to a garage? as if its the passenger door i might be able to sort it on mine

[St_James]

everytime i went to unlock the car with the buttons its used to lock itself straight away, so had to unlock it, open the door quickly and it used to keep trying to lock and unlock for a bit. the mechanism in the central locking unit was sticking. it was on the drivers door on my one, my dad and me are both mechanics so got another unit and worked fine afterwards.

[wingnut]

Cheers, sounds like the same thing. Any hints with getting the drivers door open if it's not the passenger door at fault? cant get it open using the key and pin pull method....

[St_James]

hmm, not sure tbh m8, cause i know theres a screw at the top of the door on the left that you cant get to without the panel off, I was just really lucky to of already had the panel off when it broke :S not sure what to suggest really m8 bar actually breaking the panel, which I'm sure you dont want to do!

[wingnut]

yeah exactly, i had the other door apart last week, so i know i need to open it just don't know how. don't know if the old coat hangar thing might work, wanted some advice b4 i start scratching the door or anything :)

[St_James]

you could try getting a hook down and trying to latch onto the lever onthe top of the motor but it would be very hard to do without seeing it :S dunno what else to suggest m8.

[wingnut]

Had a go at fixing it myself on the passenger door. Anyway i made it worse, and the passenger door locked when it was open and wouldn't unlock, so now i can't even shut the door.

Succumbed to pressure and called the garage who've taken it away, will let you know what was wrong with it, in case any1 gets the same problem.

Cheers for help anyway.Pete

[wingnut]

Well, basically, garage said the door had been locked when it was half shut...and when the locking mechanism tried to lock it struggled to lock around the door and forced itself too much and jammed. made sense to me anyway.

He had to get the door card off without having the door open which put a 1cm crack in the card, but as soon as he had it off, he released the locking mechanism manually, and sprayed the mechanism with lube. and problem sorted!!

wish it was as easy to fix as it sounds, but at least its done, and didnt cost too much, just some labour for the garage.

Pete