2001 Mitsubishi Galant passenger door won't completely unlo

SCALEMECHANIC

MEMBER
2001 MITSUBISHI GALANT
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
97,000 MILES

HELP. My front passenger door won't completely unlock and open. I have power door locks on this vehicle.

what started as a hard to close and latch door resulted in not being able to open that door at all. All other doors and locks work fine. Whether you try to unlock that door using power or manually push the button next to the handle on the door, it doesn't move all the way and you can't push it any further manually. It seems as if the linkage mechanism is jammed inside the door.

if I could open the door I could probably take the inside panel off and attempt to repair it. Any advice on what to do would be appreciated.

4 Replies

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

If you can spray some lube into the latch somehow it may help free it up enough to get the door open. Sometimes you have to remove the door panel regardless of the damage to it to gain access to the latch to get the door open.

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Monday, April 5th, 2010 AT 7:49 AM

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

If you can spray some lube into the latch somehow it may help free it up enough to get the door open. Sometimes you have to remove the door panel regardless of the damage to it to gain access to the latch to get the door open. If you can get the window down, sometimes you can look down into the door and see what is wrong and use a long screwdriver to get the door to open

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Monday, April 5th, 2010 AT 7:50 AM

SCALEMECHANIC

MEMBER
10 POSTS

I tried your suggestions by spraying some WD-40 into the latch area and also using a wire down thru the window channel area. Neither worked for me.

And I would only cut a hole into the interior panel as a very last resort.

A friend of mine suggested taking a ride on a very bumpy road, the twisting and bouncing might help.
And fortunately that worked. The door and latch work fine now. Maybe this will help someone else.

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Friday, April 16th, 2010 AT 7:37 PM

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

LOL. Bumpy road as a fix? There is something loose/broken in there for it to do that, you may want to address it now that the door opens before it gets stuck again

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Saturday, April 17th, 2010 AT 12:22 PM