Rear Driver's Side Door Latch Stuck - Door Permanently Closed

[campilobaxter]

A while back the rear driver's side door lock actuator went out so I ordered a replacement. I removed the door panel and installed it, but it wasn't working properly (it was a cheap part taken from a scrap vehicle). I could still open and close the door, just the lock wouldn't engage. I left it for a week or so, but then it somehow engaged but now will not disengage and is stuck locked. I removed the door panel from the inside and tried to manually pull the latch cables to get it open, but that does nothing.

Sooo.... I'm stuck with a door that is stuck closed/latched with no idea how to disengage it. Has anyone seen this issue before? Any ideas how to get it open?

[campilobaxter]

Crap, so maybe my situation IS as dire as it looks. :(

[rcprato]

Hopefully you don’t have to cut a hole in the door skin like I did many years ago on my Olds Cutlass winter rat to get the door open when both handles did nothing

[campilobaxter]

Hopefully you don’t have to cut a hole in the door skin like I did many years ago on my Olds Cutlass winter rat to get the door open when both handles did nothing

Starting to look that way. Nothing I have tried has worked and I haven't had any suggestions from other sources better than cutting a hole in the door.

[campilobaxter]

BIIIIIIG Bump to this thread. The car door is still stuck shut. The door panel was removed prior to it getting stuck, so at least I have that going for me. I'm open to any ideas!

[Smac770]

https://youtu.be/H6SKtVtMSUs

[campilobaxter]

https://youtu.be/H6SKtVtMSUs

Thank you! I was wondering if I would have to do something like this.

I wish the guy would talk through the video - I'm not sure what he's doing when he takes the door handle off.

[Smac770]

To disassemble the door handle, you pop the back cover off using a trim tool. Then normally you would had backed out the bolt on the backside of the door so the plastic insert comes out. You see he's just ripping the hell out of it to yank it out. Then he can get to the pull handle. There are other youtube vids on removing the door handles.

But this assumes his problem is the same as your problem. If you have the inside door panel off, I imagine you should be able to access the inside pull cable. But if you have the child "safety" lock engaged, that will accomplish nothing for you. I assume his problem was the door lock was not reengaging the door handle to pull cable connection when unlocking. So he ripped an access to the pull cable and manually actuated the external latch release.

https://youtu.be/LsZgLo15EhE
Here we see a video where the guy had a problem that the external pull handle would not unlatch the catch. But his inside pull handle still functioned. If you have a similar problem but your inside pull handle is disabled because you activated the child "safety" lock, then I can't see how you will be able to do anything short of drilling out the old latch assembly until you can get a finger on the latch to manually pull it aside.

But it looks like you should be able to get at that without messing with the door handle if you have the interior panel off:
https://youtu.be/MCFaWlO6bUY?t=160

[Novarider]

Description of the video says

"Actuator malfunctioned on my Audi A4 and the door also had the child safety lock on so I could not get the door open from the inside or the outside."