Wornears
Age & Treachery
Have a car conundrum for you car mechanics; any suggestions / tactics appreciated. I've been doing my own car repair since the '70s and not experienced this.
Our 2000 Honda Accord's 2-door driver's side door was closed and locked. It has an electronic locking mechanism -- turn the key counter-clockwise on the driver's side and both doors lock. Turn it clockwise and they both unlock -- but now only the passenger-side unlocks and you can open it with inside or outside levers. Uh oh.
Interestingly, the driver's door and passenger door inside locking buttons go up and down, but the outside handle of the driver's door has no unlatching effect, nor does the inside door latch on the driver's door. You can hear the electronic latching mechanism working inside the driver's door, but something / rod / gear must have come detached from it.
So, the typical path would be to remove the inner door panel and troubleshoot / repair the locking mechanism. Big problem -- with the door locked shut how do you get the inner panel off? You don't without some serious intervention of prying tools and likely destroying the panel in the process. One estimate from a very reputable independent Honda shop was about $600 -- at least 5--6 hours of labor.
I talked to one of my Honda service manager friends (about 30 years of BMW and Honda experience). He said that 90--93 Honda Accords could exhibit this problem. The factory-authorized fix was to drill a hole in the outside door skin big enough to go inside and destroy the locking mechanism and get the door unlatched. (!!) Do the lock repair/replacement and then take to a body shop and have them fix the door. Fairly ham-fisted if you want my opinion, and cost $1000 back then.
My service manager friend said he'd take the inside lever mechanism out and see if he could fish around with something to get the door to unlatch. Next line of attack would be to cut the inner door panel near the lock and see if I can get inside and get the latch to give up.
I can get an inner door panel from a local Honda boneyard for around $50 ($300 from dealer) and brand new locking mechanism for about $100 from the dealer. If someone is going to take metal shears or Sawzall to the inner door it's going to be me.
Thanks for your ideas.
Wornears
Our 2000 Honda Accord's 2-door driver's side door was closed and locked. It has an electronic locking mechanism -- turn the key counter-clockwise on the driver's side and both doors lock. Turn it clockwise and they both unlock -- but now only the passenger-side unlocks and you can open it with inside or outside levers. Uh oh.
Interestingly, the driver's door and passenger door inside locking buttons go up and down, but the outside handle of the driver's door has no unlatching effect, nor does the inside door latch on the driver's door. You can hear the electronic latching mechanism working inside the driver's door, but something / rod / gear must have come detached from it.
So, the typical path would be to remove the inner door panel and troubleshoot / repair the locking mechanism. Big problem -- with the door locked shut how do you get the inner panel off? You don't without some serious intervention of prying tools and likely destroying the panel in the process. One estimate from a very reputable independent Honda shop was about $600 -- at least 5--6 hours of labor.
I talked to one of my Honda service manager friends (about 30 years of BMW and Honda experience). He said that 90--93 Honda Accords could exhibit this problem. The factory-authorized fix was to drill a hole in the outside door skin big enough to go inside and destroy the locking mechanism and get the door unlatched. (!!) Do the lock repair/replacement and then take to a body shop and have them fix the door. Fairly ham-fisted if you want my opinion, and cost $1000 back then.
My service manager friend said he'd take the inside lever mechanism out and see if he could fish around with something to get the door to unlatch. Next line of attack would be to cut the inner door panel near the lock and see if I can get inside and get the latch to give up.
I can get an inner door panel from a local Honda boneyard for around $50 ($300 from dealer) and brand new locking mechanism for about $100 from the dealer. If someone is going to take metal shears or Sawzall to the inner door it's going to be me.
Thanks for your ideas.
Wornears