ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Discuss any maintenance you've done to your Vibe & Matrix and ask how to perform maintenance on your vehicle
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Digger02
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:15 pm

ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by Digger02 »

Hey everbody,

2003 base Vibe, with about 205K miles. Driver side front door will not unlock, not with key, not with fob, and not from inside. There is strong resistance if you try to push the unlock lever from inside the vehicle. Removing door panel does not seem possible with the door locked shut. Who has overcome this problem, and how. I read some other posts on here, and people resorted to destroying the door. Could you let me know where to cut or drill to manually unlock the door? Could you take a picture and draw a circle on it? Thanks. My Vibe is now my son's car, and he flexible enough to climb in from the passenger side, but he's 18 years old, and he probably thinks his girlfriend and friends find it "uncool" to enter a vehicle in this manner.

Thanks!

Dave
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vibrologist
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Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 8:24 am
Location: Iowa

Re: ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by vibrologist »

There are only a few screws on the inner panel that are accessible without opening the door. Along the perimeter the panel is held in with plastic fasteners that pop out. You should be able to make a hook to grab the edge of the panel to pull it off on most places. You can compare with the passenger door to see what will work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79PUk7zEL44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkq62UMB5Qs

Once you have created some space you should be able to reach inside to actuate the door lock. I haven't found a video on that yet. There is one on a Toyota Tacoma. I don't think it is matching the vibe's lock.


Good luck!
Vibrologist
'05 Vibe

"It is important to know the difference between 'accurate' and 'precise' even if you are neither!"

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=43476
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joatmon
Posts: 10018
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:19 am
Location: SMC MD

Re: ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by joatmon »

I spent some time looking at my 2003 today.

The plastic interior door panel has a flange or lip that extends past the door frame. Since removing that panel involves pulling it off the door at the bottom, there is no way to do that with the door closed, its sandwiched between the door and door frame.

AS much as I looked, i couldn't really get a good view of what makes it lock and unlock. There is a metal rod from the exterior lock that goes down to the latch. There are two mechanical cables that run from the interior door handle/lock, one for the lock, one to open the latch. Where all these things come together was hidden behind the power door lock activator.

I took a picture of the door with the trim panel attached, and with it removed, resized them to match, and set them up in this looping animation so you can see what the door frame looks like behind the door panel. On the pic of the exposed door frame, I drew a yellow circle showing the location of the power door lock activator. That is NOT where you would want to cut a hole. If it were me, I'd cut a hole to match the open area forward of the yellow circle, so you'd have access to the door guts.
Animation2.gif
Animation2.gif (429.84 KiB) Viewed 1255 times
What you find in there, and why it is not working correctly, I have no idea, but if you figure it out, let us know.
Image
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vibrologist
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Location: Iowa

Re: ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by vibrologist »

Thanks, Joatmon.
I wonder if it is possible to take out the screws and then push/pry the panel up by 1/2" or so while breaking the plastic fasteners. There may be enough flexibility to yank it off. It's a probably a good idea to have a junk yard panel at hand.
Vibrologist
'05 Vibe

"It is important to know the difference between 'accurate' and 'precise' even if you are neither!"

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=43476
Bookworm
Posts: 764
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Houston, TX

Re: ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by Bookworm »

There should be a way to actuate the latch mechanism itself externally, as long as you _can_ unlock it. It's just been long enough since I replaced a door handle that I'm not remembering exactly what you'd have to yank to do it, so as to be able to make a wire reach to the latch.

Interestingly enough, I haven't lost (yet) any of the four painted door handles. On my 2003, I'd gone through at least three of the four door handles (black).

Same with the door panel itself. It may be flexible enough to pull loose the top section, but .. ergh. Might be a 'visit a junkyard for a door panel first' job.
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vibrologist
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Location: Iowa

Re: ANOTHER person with a stuck drivers door

Post by vibrologist »

Vibrologist
'05 Vibe

"It is important to know the difference between 'accurate' and 'precise' even if you are neither!"

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=43476
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