That's ok, I don't need that door to open anyway

[ColonelPanic]

Time for an exorcist. Yet again, the Vibe freaks out and then turns around shortly thereafter and tries to pretend like nothing ever happened. This time I have a witness though. Yesterday, the passenger's side rear door was opening just fine. About an hour later, I went to open the door back up and it wouldn't budge. Pulling back on the handle did nothing. I was able to open the other doors just fine, and hit lock and unlock on the remote a couple times. Still couldn't open the door from the outside or inside. Kari saw this happen, so I know I'm not smoking crack. The door lock was in the unlocked position. She moved it from unlocked to locked and back but it still wouldn't open from inside or out. It was acting just like it was locked... I declared it dead and gave up on trying to get it to open when later in the evening, I found it would open again.What the? At least it's working again for the time being...

[damronjr]

Your Vibe doesn't like you. Did you perhaps ever mistreat it or give it the feeling that you had something against it? This has to be your fault somehow!

[ArcsVibe]

Boy is it ever time for you to trade that car in !

[kostby]

Hmmm. 1) "Exorcist" needed2) Significant other's first name sounds like "Carrie"!Does pea soup ever come from the speakers?Do the headlights ever swivel around a full 360 degrees?Demonic possession is 9/10th of the law! You indeed may own the Vibe from Hades!

[cohocarl]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Time for an exorcist.Or some urea fertilizer and fuel oil......

Attached files

[Atomb]

Hey CP,i used to have the same issues on my old VW. Simple (?) fix.Once you have the door open...if you can't, this gets tricky.Essentially the handle that you pull from the outside has a plastic piece that goes into the door. On the end of that plastic piece is a loop. The door latch mechanism has a steel arm that goes up through this loop. SO that when you pull the handle, the loop pulls the steel arm which unlatches the door.What has happened (what happened to me) is that plastic loop has deformed. For me, this happened after repeated door openings (i won't say by who... ) where the person yanks on the door handle to open the door instead of pulling the door handle and letting the latch mechanism 'open the door' ...hard to explain but hopefully you get the picture. As a result, the plastic loop 'stretches', so that eventually, when you pull the handle, the loop has to travel a bit further before it actually starts pulling the steel arm. As a result, you're not pulling that steel arm far enough to unlatch the door. So don't worry, you're literally fractions of an inch from opening the door.The reason why it may work all of a sudden is due to the fact that you have the plastic handle at a slight angle...and this is how you can open it if it's stuck right now. Carefully/slowly, pull the handle but try pulling up and out at the same time, this will effectively make the streched plastic loop a little smaller (pulling the steel arm a littel lower, effectively reducing the distance you need to pull it) and may buy you the fraction of an inch further pulling distance you require to open the door.Regardless, once you have opened the door, remove the inner door panel so that you can see this whole 'plastic loop/steel arm' assembly.In the VW, this required some contorsion with my arm, but it was possible.From there, you have to do 2 things.1. bend the steel arm "SLIGHTLY" so that it is bending towards the inside of the car. This will force the metal arm to engage sooner. you won't have to pull the arm as far now to open the door either!2. there will be a thin, long steel rod from the inside door handle to the latch mechanism. you need to put a bend into this to effectively shorten its length. This will give you a 'power door handle' feel from the inside.Finally, i think the reason why this may have happened (to me at least) in the first place is due to a sticky latch. I noticed that the latch in my door was not moving freely, as a result, this 'person' had to yank harder than usual on the door a couple of times to get it open...thus stretching the plastic loop.Lube the door latch so that it rotates freely...that way the slight modifications you made above will work better too....i hope this was clear. i don't have any pictures from the VW 'operation' but once you look in the door, it should all make sense.Good luck and let me know if i should clarify any details.we'll get you through it, bud!

[mcgusto82]

You should just weld your doors shut and practice your Dukes' of hazzard techniqe.

[Pick]

That's assuming his windows work lol