Door Problems!

[matty205xs 1 1 Cars]

hi iv recently bought a 1.8 xld 205, it has numerous niggles but the thing that im trying to sort out first are the door locks, the first thing is that the passenger door simply just wont open from the outside or the inside iv taken off the door card to have a look but cant see anything wrong really, iv noticed the lock button wont go up as far as the drivers side one and the key wont turn as far as it should, iv oiled the lock but still nothing.

the other problem is the drivers door lock wont turn at all even after oiling it aswell and the outside door handle doesn't spring back as it should. any suggestions for any of the the problem would be great.

thanks matt.

[welshpug 1,657]

wiggle the lever on the back of the handle up and down after applying liberal amounts of penetrating oil (proper stuff, not WD40)

[matty205xs 1 1 Cars]

Right ok I'll give that a go, what oil do u recommend thats better than wd40?

Thanks Matt.

[deathbringer929 49 1 Cars]

Right ok I'll give that a go, what oil do u recommend thats better than wd40?

Thanks Matt.

gt85 is very good

[matty205xs 1 1 Cars]

Right ok Thanks, what if this approach does work, wants the next thing to try?

Thanks Matt.

[hoodygoodwood 70 3 Cars]

As Welshpug says , its the hinged metal lever that pivots on a rivet on the door handle mechanism .It seizes up and stops the door opening correctly , you may be able to get some penetrating oil onto it if you have the thin plastic tube to get into a confined area .

Mine was seized so solid I had to replace the handle , its a right performance to get it off as all the linkages need to be disconnected and then the mechanism carefully eased out through the hole .

[matty205xs 1 1 Cars]

Ahhh right I get u, I did look at that bit and it was seized But i just thought that it was something else jamming it, ill have a look again tomorrow and with any luck I might have the passenger door back again.

Thanks Matt.

[S@m 156]

Just managed (literally 2 minutes ago) to free up one of the rear doors on by 5door by repeatedly working the metal pivot on the back of the exterior handle back and forth whilst spraying it with some penetrating oil, worked a treat.

 

Didn't even need to remove the handle from the door, just took the doorcard off and used a long flat head screwdriver to work the pivot downwards then the ext handle itself to work it back up, and repeat, spray, repeat, then a bit of spray grease to finish it off.

Edited January 31, 2015 by S@m

[matty205xs 1 1 Cars]

i managed to get the door open and the handle off to get to the metal pivot and as you all said it was seized solid, I managed to get it moving fairly free and greased it up but it still doesn't spring back up like it should do, how free does it have to be or is it something in the actual locking mechanism because if I shut the door the latch clicks and once iv opened the door once I have to push the metal pivot up again for the door to open again, do I need a new handle or will it eventually sort itself out with use?

thanks matt.

[hoodygoodwood 70 3 Cars]

The metal arm has to spring back to its normal position for the lock to operate correctly as you have found . I have also found that the black plastic handle often stiffens up on the long pivot pin which it hinges on ,this can be pushed out and any rust rubbed off then greased and refitted with its spring . When the handle is released it should spring down tight to the door , if it stands off the door something is still binding .

If you can keep the handle off the car give it a regular spray of penetrating oil and keep cycling the mechanism to free it .

[S@m 156]

Yep, just done the same job again! This time on the drivers door of my gti which hasn't worked for a little while, forcing me to open it from the passenger side.

 

Space is a lot tighter on a 3door since the window runner is directly in the way so i removed the handle and just kept using penetrating oil and cycling the mechanism, after some considerable time it eventually started to return on its own, kept going until it sprang back well, greased up all the relevant points and refitted it to the door.

 

Then the annoyingly tricky part! Getting the small rod attached back on to it and the lock mech itself. What a nightmare, my hands are just a little too big to fit in there but after lots of scrapes, swearing and repeatedly dropping the rod i managed to get it home and voila, all is now well - i now have two 205's with all functioning doors.

[RossD 44]

How weird - I had to do the exact same job with mine yesterday.

After realising that the pivot on the door handle was just sticking rather than seized, a couple of sprays of penetrating oil and some wiggling and jiggling, it started to behave itself again... Lets see how long it lasts!