My passenger door got stuck shut out of the blue.

The handle on the exterior wouldn't open the door, I was able to get it open by tugging up really hard on the interior handle a good 5-6 times and the door opened. I pulled the panel off and didn't find anything broken or missing.

So I replicated the problem with the door still open.. Locked the door and pushed the button on the exterior handle as if I was trying to open the door, then tried pulling the interior handle to open the door and also use the power door lock and again, I had to pull the interior handle really hard to get the door to unlock.

When the door gets stuck locked the lock/unlock rod that comes up through the door panel seems like it gets stuck in the locked position and will not travel all the way up.

My door lock key cylinder is new and so was the door lock actuator. I did a search and found someone had a faulty solenoid in the actuator causing a problem similar to mine so I removed my actuator to see and there was no change.

I'm starting to think it might be to latch mechanism? Has anyone else had a problem like this?

 

Yes, new latch time.

 

Maybe try spraying some wd or pb on the latch assembly. Maybe it's just cruded up a little bit.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I did try to spray wd in the latch and worked it around a few times and no change.

Guess I will go to the junkyard to look for a new latch mechanism.

 

May sound far-fetched, but check your hinges: if they are worn enough, they may be binding the door lock mechanism...
Scott

 

There is a problem where the cable going to the interior handle gets stretched, ad the door won't open easily anymore, but I don't think that would affect the outside handle.

Probably a latch problem.

 

It's not the cable stretched or the door metal cracked because the door opens and closes fine once I tug up on the handle, the problem must be in the latch mechanism.

thanks for the responses guys, going to hit the junkyard and look for a replacement latch.

Will re-update once I try another door latch, I'm getting tired of not being able to lock my door.

 

Okay, this is ridiculous. The culprit of my problem is the window track..

so to recap, the passenger door lock gets jammed when the door is locked and you try to open the door with the EXTERIOR handle. Now come to find out, this only happens when the window is rolled down. So yesterday after I installed my new junkyard latch I found my problem recurred. I rolled up the window and could unlock my door...

THE ISSUE- when the window gets rolled down(by the way I have power windows) the window track stretches toward the door latch and squishes the rod+yellow clip that run up from the latch to the exterior handle. It places so much pressure against the clip and rod that when you push the exterior door handle button the rod+yellow clip do not retract like they are suppose to and thus causes my jam.

So I'm not really sure what to do in order to fix it. I guess I don't really care I will just make sure my window is rolled up every time I lock and unlock the passenger door.

 

Sounds like you had some bolts fall out or loosen up you should never have so much flex that the track can touch the linkage. You'll have to pull the door panel and recheck all the mount points for the track and window regulator.

 

I checked all the bolts for the window track mounts and looked to see if maybe there were cracks around the bolts on the door and everything was fine, I don't know why the track stretches out the way it does.

my window is canted a little bit when it rolls up and down, maybe that has something to do with it?