Honda Accord Door Lock Hell - long

[Wornears]

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

 

[Drifting]

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

Seens you have all the ideas already.:thmbsp:

 

[EchoWars]

No suggestions here, but ouch! Thread title quite appropriate.

 

[skippy_ps]

Don't know what the door panel looks like on that car but one thing to consider is to take the driver's seat out, if possible with the door shut, and see if you can get the panel off that way. I'm thinking that if you buzz the seat all the way back and then forward you should be able to get to the bolts and then rock the seat into the back.

Just a thought.

Murray

 

[Snow]

Take the battery cables or at least one battery cable loose from your car for 24 hrs if the problem lies in the computer it may reset itself. Or if its possible to open the hood you may be able to take the drivers side front fender off allowing you access to the bolts that hold the door on and removing it that way or it could be as simple as removing the fuse that operates the door locks and reinstalling it.


GOOD LUCK :yes:

 

[sobr1]

Might be able to take the outer belt molding off (with window down)and fish around for the problems.Or jump in like bo n luke duke!!!!!LOL sorry...

 

[pahtcenter77]

Drive to your nearest AAA tow yard and tell them you locked your keys inside the car. See what THEY say.

 

[Wornears]

Thanks for your quick replies. I've already tried disconnecting the battery and replacing the fuse. No joy. That's some novel thinking to come in from the door-mounting bolt side. This may be my next step <G>:

http://www.lockpickshop.com/AT.html

Might find a local automotive locksmith to give it a try -- or some juvie 16 year olds to recruit with the "appropriate" skill sets.

Even though we live in the South, my wife wasn't too keen on the Bo & Luke entry method when I suggested it.

 

[Snow]

Whats the deductibile on your insurance? If its real low or non exisistent and you have full coverage have someone run into the door with something and call your insurance company up Actually most taxicab companies offer lockout service and they charge less than locksmiths.

 

[jimbofish]

If you take the other (passenger) door panel off, maybe you'll be able to see what it will take to open the other one? Then maybe you can drill a hole in the bottom of the bad door to open it. :scratch2:

 

[2526]

Strangely, that happened last week with my 2003 Accord, only with the passenger door. My mechanic says that he has fixed these by taking out the seat from behind and then loosening the door panel enough to get at the mechanism. In my case he didn't have to do anything because he gave me this possible fix (it worked for me!!!!). Put the window down and stand outside the car. Pull up firmly on the lock knob, hold it and work the key back and forth. I jiggled the knob up and down for a while, too. Try the inside door handle also. Don't be gentle. Darned if the lock didn't open. Hasn't happened again. If this doesn't work, do the Dukes of Hazzard in and out the window thing.

 

[Wornears]

2526 -- On my second call, and a bit more research by him, my Honda service tech friend recommended that "window down / lock-knob / twist key" monkey motion plan. Apparently it is some Jedi Honda mechanic/mind trick for this condition.

I've done all that you describe: excluding trying the inside door handle, not jiggling the lock knob up and down, and did treat the mechanicals maybe not as robustly as you. Time for another round with a couple more hands and a bit more brute force than finesse. A couple of beers for priming may help. Don't have much to lose at this point.

Next the front seat comes out and behind the inner panel I go. Will take off the passenger side panel for a map. It's very likely the locking mechanism is shielded by inner door skin sheetmetal, and having a working example will be a help.

I sure appreciate all of your suggestions and empathy. I say this only once more -- the wife has nixed the Dukes of Hazard ingress/egress method. She'll take a sawzall to the door (or me) before doing that.

 

[fotno]

Have you thought of driving the car by the local police station, and asking an officer to try to jimmy the door? It's a long shot, but with the set of slim-jims most departments have, it's pretty rare to see a door they can't open... Least ways, if the door lock isn't completely broken.

On a personal note, and almost completely off topic: All us kids had copies of Mom's car keys, for when the call that "Your Mama has locked her keys up in the car again" inevitably came, we'd be ready. The local cops let my mom into her car, regularly.

 

[Wornears]

Per a request by 2526 above, I'll finish this sordid and expensive tale. The short version: $530 fixed it. The long version is not pretty.

My son and I tried the Jedi Honda Mechanic Mind Trick exploit of applying every sequence of strong-arming the locking button and handles to get the latch to release. No luck after an hour of escalating force -- almost to the point of breaking the key off in the locking cylinder. I went so far as to start to extract the inner door panel -- but came to the rapid conclusion that if I stayed on the DIY course I would end up working for about $1.00 (or less) an hour trying to fix this and didn't have that kind of time. This analysis also didn't ignore how much damage I might do to the door and have to fix, let alone the maximum PITA factor this job would engender.

So off the Honda went to my auto repair shop gurus of choice. I've used these independent guys for over ten years when I am in just such a bind: they're a collection of factory-trained, ex-dealership shop techs who are car guys, honest, and not just parts-replacers.

Impressively, they got the inner panel off without any damage to it. ("The secret is Bill's small hands...") But they had to escalate their intervention on the lock mechanism. The sequence went more or less like this (with time-outs for discussing new tactics):

1) slim jim

2) inner door panel off

3) multiple attempts to get the door latch to activate and unhook from inside with no success

4) taking out a rear interior panel and coming at the receiving bracket of the latch hook from the other side of the jamb -- with no success

5) Bringing out the drills and chisels and hammers to remove the door latch mechanism from inside the door - success after a couple more hours. The latch mechanism (of course) in behind a panel of interior door metal and not visible. Done with some cost -- the door's window cracked from all the intervention -- so they got a mint used one for $65 to install.

6) Off to a body shop to get the door's jamb straightened and painted after all the brute force applied to its interior side at the latch ($100)

7) Install new latch ($100 part cost)

Even though the latch was mutilated beyond recognition (hence no autopsy photos here of it), its plastic internals likely failed to the point that the latch became a "black box" that no inputs would activate. All told they put approx 8 hours in this job over three days, but didn't charge me their regular labor rate ($65/hr) to keep the cost within reason.

If this happens to the passenger-side door, I told my just-college-graduated daughter (who has used the car for seven years and split this cost with us) to prepare to get used to straddling the center console to get to the passenger seat.

 

[chillwolf]

I sure miss the good ole days when most car repairs could be done with some baling wire and pliers. Nowadays cars are too complicated and parts so crammed in that it's almost impossible for shade tree mechanics to do a lot of their own repairs.

 

[Drifting]

I suppose the cheaper option would simply have been to look out for a second-hand door, get it repainted, and just destroy the old door with an angle grinder to get at the lock?

Certainly on my car, that would have been the cheaper option.

 

[Fisherdude]

What a saga!!

Glad you've got that local shop you can trust. Guys like that are worth their weight in gold. And $65/hr??!?! Holy crap, can't touch that around here.

 

[2526]

Glad it (sort-of) worked out. I am waiting for the problem with my '03 Accord (solved by the Jedi method) to re-occur. Got my tools of destruction at the ready.

 

[Mark W.]

I hate electric locks and electric windows with a passion. Everything I have ever had that had them they ended up costing money to fix or replace.

Right now both the 97 SC-2 Saturn Sport coupe and the 98 Dodge Dakota Sport Pickup have manual door locks and window cranks. AND I LIKE IT.

in about a year we will have to replace the Saturn (it currently have 217,000) and with two grand daughters we are quickly outgrowning it as it gets close to the end of it's run. And I'm dreading the next car what ever it is already.

 

[Wornears]

To Drifting: I considered cutting the outside door skin to get to the locking mechanism, and then taking it to a body shop for patching. I didn't consider replacing the entire door with a used one.

To 2526: I sincerely hope the Jedi unlocking method keeps working for you on your 2003 and you don't have to face this.

It might be prudent to take the inner door panel off while you still can easily and get a look/digital pics at the locking mechanism location, etc. Knowing exactly where to apply your tools of destruction if/when they are needed could be an advantage.