Greetings, its been awhile since i have been on here,, ? is, if you can't get rear door open, do you have to take rear seat out to access? for some reason, my rear door will not open, Cold as F here lately! don't know what happened, and if i get it open, it just pops back open, will not latch! anyone know what i need to fix this?

 

Hey Triton. Try going through a hot car wash and leaving it in a warm garage overnight, or putting a space heater inside the car ect ect. The idea is the thaw out whatever is frozen. If you've tried that and it doesn't work you will have to open the car door manually. Roll your windows down. Pry the top of the interior panel away. Remove the felt weatherstripping. This gives you an inch to look inside your door from the top down. Make a slim jim and pull up on the latch lever. Your door is now open, with no damage. Takes literally a few minutes.

The latch assembly has 3 cables. Similar to bicycle brake lines, it's a stainless steel wire with a ball at the end, encased in rubber sheathing. There's a lot of space between the sheathing and the actual wire. Water easily runs down this gap and when it gets cold it freezes. When it does, the cable seizes. Pulling the handle you should feel crazy resistance. When the cables can't retract, sometimes you will feel like there's no resistance at all. Completely limp handles.

Sometimes a ball will pop out and you simply need to reattach it. Sometimes a cable will kink and you need to run a pair of pliers over and over the bent wire to straighten it. You will definitely have to disassemble your door to see what's going on inside and you must lubricate every moving part including inside the cables.


Because the moving parts of the latch are at the lowest point of the latch assembly, water will run down and end up on the moving parts. Over time it can rust. When it gets cold it freezes and seizes. Sometimes the latch worn out so bad you will have to replace it all together. The stupid part is none of these parts are serviceable and you'll have to buy the entire assembly as a whole which is expensive AF.

Lastly you may want to check your door to see if it's sagging. Sometimes, if the wind catches the door at the wrong time, or someone leans on the door repeatedly while the door is wide open, or just overall rough abuse, it will cause the door to sag over time. A misaligned saggy door puts extra stress on the latch and will cause it to fail prematurely. You can put a piece of wood on the sill near the hinge and gently close the door little by little. As it's crushing the wood, it will bend the hinge slightly forcing the door up.

 

Thank you for all this info!!! i have not had a chance to work on it yet, ( my beloved 2000 Taurus, blew a spark plug out) so this is getting priority right now, but yes, i did not know you could roll window down, and pop of the felt liner and have a look see, thats prolly what i'll do, since ive had it in warm garage, and door latch still will not open. Thank you 909! regards....