[Blwn88GT]

I bought a roller from a guy here who owns a wrecking service. The car has power doors and windows, and I cannot get into the car because the doors will not unlock. It sounds like both handles are not doing anything on both the passenger and driver's sides. We used a slim jim on both doors and the doors still won't open.

Need some help with this one. I'm stumped. The only way I can think of opening it is to cut the doors or break the glass. On breaking the glass, I spoke with a friend of mine who works at Ford and he said that wouldn't help because the mechanical parts are probably rusted shut inside the door.

 

[Calypso Ike]

is it a coupe or hatch?

Dave could tell you how to get in easy, very easy to pick the lock with a coat hanger

 

[frankiesaysrelax]

If you feel like no resistance when you pull up on the handle, then the handles have become disconnected from the linkage rods. This happens sometimes when someone goes at it with a slim jim inside the door. The inside handles should still work. If the car is a hatchback you should still be able to get in through the hatch. Look under the bottom lip of the hatch under the lock and you will see a black metal clip held in place with a rivit. Drill out the rivit and pop out the clip. The hatch lock will then be able to be pulled out without damage. Then unlock the hatch with a long standard screwdriver. Crawl inside and open the car using the inside handles. Then strip down the doors and reconnect the outside handles unless they are totally broken.

 

[frankiesaysrelax]

You could also call a locksmith. We get calls like this all the time.

 

[Blwn88GT]

I took the car to the chassis builder and he broke the glass out and we pulled on the inside handles and unlocked the doors. Neither door will open. So it looks like my friend was right about the mechanical stuff being rusted or damaged. There are no rubber weatherstripping on the doors, so it's possible that water got in the doors.

I pulled the covers off the doors and tried to pry the doors open with the levers and nothing would budge. Something fell off inside there and I pulled out a rod with a plastic piece on the end. The chassis shop said they will cut the doors off, but I'd like to salvage them. Is there some special technique to getting the doors open once you have your hand inside the door? The handles don't do anything (inside or outside). The door is unlocked, but it won't open.

 

[Ray III]

How long did the car sit? It's possible the latch mechanism seized up. First, find the rod that attaches to the door handle and follow it down to the door open lever on the mechanism. If both rods fell off you can still figure out which one it is by looking/feeling around there as it sticks towards the front a bit and has a hole for the rod. Try to push it down. If it moves down with almost no resitance, the door is still locked.

Assuming that the door open lever won't move, next follow the rod down from the lock button or find the power lock solenoid and verify that the mechanism is unlocked by making sure it moves up and down, and leave it in the up (unlocked) position. Then soak the thing in PB and fit an air hammer in there such that you can hammer on the door open lever. (Either work the hammer into the door cavity, or use a long bit that will hit the lever.) With the air hammer on its lightest setting, hammer that thing down till the door pops open, at which point you can remove the mechanism for restoration to proper opration.

If the door open lever is moving freely, indicating that the door is locked, then it could be a seized lock solenoid. Or if the open lever won't move and you can't verify that it's unlocked because the lock also won't move, then the best thing would be to hammer on the lever that the inside door is connected to because that one both unlocks and opens the door, but I don't know that you can easily reach it with an air hammer.

 

[frankiesaysrelax]

look at the latch inside the door with a flashlight. When you pull on the inside handle does a rod pull on the latch or is that disconnected? If it is connected, hose the latch down good with PB blaster or liquid wrench and let it set up a while. Then grab the linkage rod itself and pull on it while kicking the door. This might jar it loose. As a last resort you could pull the rear seat out and then pull of the plastic covering the quarter panel. You can then get at the back of the door latch post. It screws into a metal block held in place by a few sheet metal fingers. You might be able to undo it from the back and then force the door open that way. This is just a guess though, I've never tried it.

 

[89stk5.0]

Pull a dukes of hazzards and weld them shut