I'm going to go to our nissan dealer this weekend and see if they can at least give me a quote for the work.

I'm pretty sure there is no way around issue that is gonna be cheap. I looked at removing the panel with the door closed and I don't think its gonna happen. I'm pretty sure you have to lift up on the panel once you release all of the clips around the perimeter, and seeing as I can't get at any of those clips I'm thinking this is pretty hopeless. Heck even if I get the panel off, i still have to figure out how to remove the latch from the inside or just break it, then I gotta buy a new latch.

Prices from wholesale infiniti dealer online were like
Door panel: 500+
Latch: 300+

At those prices I might be best off just letting the dealer do it. And I was starting to like this car so much...

 

How about using a whole roll of masking tape around where the door latches in to protect things, and using a long metal sawzall blade to cut the striker bolt?

 

Well I was very excited at the thought of that idea, but looking at the other side of the car it seems the striker is kinda stepped in about 2 inches. I would have to bend the saw blade in two places which would make cutting almost impossible, and it would scratch the hell outta the door jam by the striker where I couldn't get tape in to protect. Who knows, maybe I could get the tape in there, or just coat the blade in some sort of liquid rubber, bend it and go to town for like a day cutting with 2-3mm strokes.

Might work, at least its an idea. I'm gonna attempt something this weekend regardless.

EDIT: I'll take pictures if this is the way I choose to go ha.

 

Hey, I had another couple of Great Ideas.

1) Remove all the trim from the door jam area and if necessary, use a dremel to cut a window so you can get to the ends of the bolts holding the door striker in place. Cut off as much of those bolts as you can. Using a right-angle drill or right-angle attachment for the dremel, remove what's left. You'll have to replace the bolts holding the striker in place and put good lock washers and nuts on them, but the trim should cover up the little window you had to cut.

2) Maybe one of those wire survival saws fished around the striker bolt, and all the appropriate tape to keep from scratching anything else.

 

Just in case anyone is still wondering, the door panel CAN come off with the door closed. I took off the two screws in the arm, popped out the window switch and detached it, removed the screw at the door handle. Then rolled down the window, went outside and used a door panel tool to pry the door upward from around where the window goes down. started at the back of the door and made it about 3/4 way forward, got frustrated and yanked really hard shearing two of the top back panel retainers off. That pretty much opened up enough room to pry the door away and saw the other ones off along the bottom. Then I could get at the courtesy light harness down at the bottom to unplug it as well as take out the 3 screws from the other side of the interior door handle assembly. After all of that was removed I set the seat as low as possible and tilted it back all the way and lifted the back part of the door onto it and just pulled it straight back a bunch of times until the front panel retainers broke off. Viola! panel is now in my living room and not broken anywhere!

Anyone in a similar situation, well I did mine in winter so plastic was pretty brittle. Might be why it worked so good for me. But I'm sure if you took more time and didn't get frustrated you could saw all of the retainers and not risk breaking anything.

Now its just the simple process of finding what happened to the latch, and/or completely destroying it from the inside of the door and replacing it. But thats the easy part in my mind.

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

So I guess my first suggestion was the best. Definitely required a lot of work though. Glad it worked out and that you posted the experience.

 

thanks for the tip ! I am wondering ify ou ever did figure out what happened to cause this and what the fix was. Thanks

 

Trying to revive this thread. Same situation just happened in my 08 sedan. I am in the process of removing the interior door panel but once i get it off I'm wondering how you get the door open? Once the door is open this seems like a pretty simple fix. Think I'm going to remove that metal panel in the interior of the door to get at the actuator. Any suggestions very welcome. Anyone actually fixed this?

 

I’m dealing with the same problem. From what I can find it’s the actuator.
please let me know if that was it.

 

I don't know what good it's going to do with fixing YOUR broken door that may or may not be the same problem as this post.

I just helped a friend get his driver door open that had a broken actuator (Different car, Mitsubishi), unfortunately his vehicle the door panel is thoroughly sandwiched into the door frame, dash, and A pillar so I just used a holesaw and cut a big hole in it then ripped the thing out in chunks and he bought a new one for $100 on eBay.

The G35 you can just remove the inner panel with the door closed, helps to unbolt the front seat and roll it into the back seat area to give yourself more room to work. Then you can remove the metal inner cover and reach in to work the actuator by hand.

If you do end up thrashing the panel just get another used one on eBay, they're usually less than $100.