Topic

Another good luck!

OK, here's how the afternoon went:

Firstly I noticed that if i wanted to be able to lever the door panel off safely I'd have to somehow be able to get down behind it. So I levered the silver/rubber trim off the top of the card (pic is after the card came away but you have to EASE it out of the very small gap by the glass channel to start with!):



I took out the passenger seat and sat it outside the car (the seatbelt is long enough to stay connected!). Then I got inside the car and eased the door rubber seal away to give me some space:



Next I used a small toffee hammer to get the rear 'lugs' to pop. Put the rear part of the hammer against the screw and simply lever it!



You can then easily get the door panel to come away form the door at the rear (leave the front screw IN PLACE and DO NOT try to remove the panel yet!). Now you can begin to peel the door plastic liner back (annoyingly I had only just put it back and sealed it up!):



You can now get into the interior of the door:



Circled is the offending little sod!



You need to disconnect the power to the lock and you may just be lucky enough (I was after an hour of fiddling and tapping and squirting with WD40) that the bugger unlocks. Below is the connector you need to pull apart:



As I said above after fiddling for an hour this happened:



Once it had opened I immediately took off the lock, and also undid the front door panel screw and put the panel to one side. Its easy enough so I didn't take pics. But basically you undo the 3 star bolts on the door end, then unclip the outside handle rod, and then ease it out past the window channel (you MAY need to undo the TOP two window channel nuts and move it forwards slightly to get some space. Then you can get the interior door handle cable off the lock too.

As it happens Meg's orginal lock went faulty just after I refitted it (unbelievable I know!). So I then spent another hour making up a good lock from 3 I had in the shed! One had a grey set of stepper motors and another had a lovely smooth mechanism - so I combined the two and voila! I refitted as a reverse of the above. All was working well!

So I refitted the chrome/rubber top strip to the door card and then began to pop it all back together. I was so happy until I noticed this:



I managed to chip the door pocket that I had only just resprayed (after chipping it last year)...... GRRRRR. Anyway at least she now opens and closes properly!!!

That's a really useful how to Adam.

There are a number of people who have ended up in your position, but have destroyed the door card.

Was there much/any damage to the card/fittings using this method?

Absolutely none to the card.. the two rear blue clip fittings lost a tag and so I popped some glue on them where they go into the holes in the door itself.. other than that it's a completely damage free method.

You need to extract the How to out of this thread, Adam, and stick it in the How tos!

Ooh so i do!

Well Done Adam!
Now you won't have to drive alone.

Nothing like a bit of thought and perseverence to solve a problem!

Absolutely amazing job there

You must have the patience of a saint

nice one

where thers a will thers a way

dont forget to put it into the how to and what about doing the door lock repair how to

Result, well done