So I went to open my car after washing it and now the driver door won't open. Its unlocked but it doesn't do anything. Does this have to do with some stupid electrical situation or did the rod just come off?

Trying to open it from the inside and outside it has no resistance just like the door was locked. Yet I can use the key on the outside and try to unlock it and use the button in the inside and try to unlock it. Still nothing. The passenger door opens when unlocked.

I think this is a mechanical problem but I don't know. I recently brought the car outta storage (removed the battery for like 5 months) and now after installing the battery there seems to be all these weird things happening. Is that related? I mean one day I went to start it and nothing happened. Full batt power just no crank. Seemed like starter had dead spot, but I left it for awhile and then it went.

I don't have an owner manual, so I don't know anything about this car. Do I need a computer re-learn or something? Sometimes when it starts, the rpm will rev to like 1200 then drop to nothing and it stalls. Kinda like it needs an idle relearn.

Anyone know whats going on?

 

The battery may still be bad, and low voltage causes a lot of strange things with our cars, like the things you've described.

 

Well its been on the road now for like 3 weeks. I had the battery inside all winter and kept a charger on it regularly. I'm pretty certain its good.

Is there any procedure I should know about when replacing a battery? In terms of relearn processes I mean.

I'm starting to think the door is actually ****ed. Do these cars use regular style lock rods and pull rods like most cars or is there something weird designed? Anyone seen the inside of these doors? I don't even know how I can begin to take the inner panel off if I can't get the door open at all.

So frustrating.

 

Looks like you'll just have to pull a "Dukes of Hazard" and get in -n- out, through the window

 

Did you try locking it again and the unlocking? Sometimes mine gets stuck in between and doing this fixes it.

 

Oh you better believe I've tried that. Do you have any idea how hard that is in these cars?

Hell getting in on the passenger side is bad enough. Especially when the ebrake handle tried to rape me every time I crawl over to the other side.

 

Sedan or Coupe?

I'm going to go see if you can get sedan door interiors out without opening the door....

Looks like it may be possible on the sedan, if you can pry the weatherstripping from around the door, it may be enough to pull the lower door connector pins free. From there, it may be possible to pull the interior bit up, but it'd be tough.

Oh, and is it the lock that's broken or the door latch?

 

Its a coupe.

Any I don't know whats broken. I think something just came off. You can still turn the key in the outer door lock and make the windows go down, and it seems to turn, but thats where it all ends.

I really wish someone had a picture of the lock mechanism, as I'm trying to diagnose a black box as of now. Let me know if you can get the panel off without opening the door. I don't think thats going to be an option for me though. I might have to roll the window down, wedge something to open where the window goes down into and inspect that way. But is -30 out now so to hell with that for the moment.

 

Ha! That's awesome.

It sounds like something mechanical to me. It doesn't open from the inside or outside?

 

Okay, this might help - Page 82:

http://www.psedog.com/cars/fsm/g35/coupe/2003/bl.pdf

 

Ya, its definitely something mechanical. Now the key won't even turn in the outside lock.

@Wrathernaut Thanks, that should help a lot. Looks like I'm gonna have to perform surgery after all. Ick, I hate working on the inside of doors.

 

You might want to start looking for a replacement interior door panel now... looks like it might have to be sacrificed here.

 

I'm going to roll down the window and pry it open from the top with a door stop wedge thinger and see if I can get to the outer lock cylinder rod. I've done it before with another car, so I hope I will have similar luck.

But ya, new door panel is other option. Not a fan of that option.

Edit: so I left it in under ground parking to thaw out. Turns out the key does turn in the lock cylinder now. So I rolled down my window and looked inside. Looks like the rod for the outer handle is not connected to anything. I'll have to try it out tomorrow, but I think its fixable. Weird that the inner door handle does nothing either though.

 

After further inspection tonight, it seems that there are no rods in this car. There is just cables inside plastic. Kinda like a bicycle brake. Therefore no luck in trying to pull at them to make the latch open. The only one that is a rod is the one that goes from the d/s lock cylinder to the latch and that is about 2 inches long.

The unlock turns and you can hear the latch unlock, I can even see it unlock from the outside. But when you pull either door handle, nothing. I can hear the lock cables pulling at the latch so I would assume the latch is ****'t. So not only does it look like I'll have to destroy the door panel to get at it, I'll also have to destroy the latch somehow from inside the door to get the thing open.

This is seriously one terrible circumstance to find ones self in. Maybe I should just take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. I can see this costing a whole lot of money though.. err. Starting to hate this car.

Anyone know where to get cheap replacement interior parts other than wreckers? car-part.com is all I can think of. There is no G35 in any wreckers in my province.

 

Yea that's rough.

I imagine that panel would be super expensive through infiniti. Maybe you could talk to the service manager about how much BS that is and that should never happen regardless of how old the car is. Maybe he'll cut you a deal. Worth trying before you destroy your interior at least.