[scriabin]

I have read a lot of posts about having a door stuck shut when it freezes and what not. That's not my problem. The rear RH passenger door on my '97 4-door simply won't open, ever, using the inner and/or outer door handles. (It was like that when I bought it). I'd like to fix it by opening up the inner door panel and looking around but because the plastic on the inside of the vehicle extends slightly beyond the edges of the door panel I can't figure out how I could take the panel off with the door stuck shut.

Are there any suggestions as to how I might either be able to A) somehow get the door open so I could proceed to get the door panel off, or B) get the door panel off with the door shut. Any suggestions other than "Take the car to a dealer" would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ccaddy]

Have you tried (from the inside) lifting the door handle and nudging the door with your shoulder ?

 

[ian g]

Yes, lift the handle and nudge the door. It could just be that the latch needs some grease (but obviously you will have to open the door to get to this). I had a boot stuck once because of this.

 

[scriabin]

I have tried to pull up on the handle and push it quite heftily with my shoulder (and feet too): it's not budging. I thought it might just need some grease too so I wiggled the nozzle of a WD-40 bottle through a small space on the inside and blasted away. No help. Any further suggestions?

 

[ccaddy]

It would seem that maybe the mechanism that releases the door latch is not doing it's job (broken) .

I had this happen off and on with an old Grand Prix .
Some days you would slam the door and the door would bounce off of the latch pin .
I just pried the latch open and it would work again .

Sounds like you have the opposite problem of this .
Your best bet is to drop into any body shop and them what the problem might be .
Picking their brain for a minute will not cost you anything .