D22 front LH door stuck shut

hayden00072 · Dec 15, 2014

Hi
My locking mechanism is stuffed. I've got one arriving in a couple of days.
Problem is the door wont open.
Luckily I already have the inside panel off. This also gives me a little bit of access to the u-bolt the door latches onto, but only enough to jam in a screw driver at 45 degrees, which wont unlatch it.
I've tried fiddling around with everything inside the door but no luck. Any tips on how I could get it open would be greatly appreciated.
If I knew a jimmy bar would only damage the locking mechanism I'd roll with that.
Cheers

Rumpig · Dec 18, 2014

Pretty sure someone else had similar problems yonks ago and it was the plastic knuckle that connected the rods inside the door had failed. The other one was the the nuts behind the backing plate on the b pillar came loose.

abouttogobush · Dec 18, 2014

easy one boy locate the control arm through the panel lock a set of vice grip on it and pull 2wards the front that is the arm goin to the latch or slide a bent hacksaw blade between the u bolt and the latch that will pop it

hayden00072 · Dec 19, 2014

Cheers mate. I'll give it a go tomorrow. I'll let you know how I go.

hayden00072 · Dec 23, 2014

I've had a couple of cracks, so far with no success. I've got the new second hand door latch. I've looked at how it works and it doesn't seem like inserting a bent hacksaw blade or screw driver will work. Once the latch is in the closed position it's impossible to jimmy it open and that's with the new latch out of the door.
As for pulling on the control arm. Are they the rods that go from the latch to the door handles? I can only get vice grips to the one that goes to the inside door handle and it doesn't help. I'm fairly certain the inside of the latch has fallen to bits so pulling on the rods does nothing. None of the shops that can help will be open until the 5th. Any more help would be awesome.
Merry Christmas :santaclaus: