I have a 95 Lexus sc400 and this morning my drivers side door went whacko. First off I got into my car with no problem- just another day headed to work. So I am letting the car warm up a lil bit(it was chilly in WI this morning and had really bad frost over entire car). So anyways defrost is going and I was getting ready to leave. Well I noticed that the light for an open door was on. So I reach over unlock my passengers door, open and close that. Still on. So I went to check my drivers side door and it isnt closed at all, not latching at all. So I get out and look where it should latch and see the weatherstripping is loose. I was thinking oh its just this getting in the way. So I push the stripping back into place and get in. Door latches. I was thinking that was all it was. I get out to finish scraping off the frost and get back in. And it does it again. So I went to lock the door to see if the lock would latch it. It sure did. But now it won't unlock. The lock on the inside wont move. I crawled over to the passenger side and got out. Tried my key in the outside lock and still won't open. Any idea of what could have gone wrong. I am thinking that something is wrong inside of the door-like the connection, but in order to get the panel off wouldnt my door have to be able to open? IDK what to do. Dont want to rip off my panel. I have black/black and i know its hard to come by a new black panel. I'm gonna go home after work and try to open it again. I pray that it will open. Thank goodness my dad is coming down this weekend, he always helps me with my car problems.

 

Getting the interior door panel off with the door closed will not be fun. I don't know how to do it without destroying the door panel... So is something physicaly stopping it from moving (the lock) or is it electrical? More info?

Jonny

 

Honestly I have no idea if its electrical or not. I know that if I insert my key to the outside lock it will turn, but not unlocking. Its making me think that it is more to do with the connection for the locking mechanism inside the door. I was having window problems a while back and took apart my door panel and seen that the parts weren't connecting very good. So I am thinking that it is stuck in lock mode and the only thing to do would be to take off the panel to look. But with the door locked its gonna be a real pain to get it off. I am just hoping that something happens and I can get the door open to look inside the panel. I will be really upset if I have to destroy the panel in order to get into it. Thats my baby.

 

PS when I push on the lock from the inside it wont budge at all. Didnt want to force it and break something else

 

I'm sorry, just trying to get a better feel for what you are saying. Do you think the door is locked, or just that neither of the handles are working?

Jonny

 

I guess I am not the best to explain problems with cars since I know very little about them. lol. I think that the handles arent working cause the connections inside the panel either broke or came loose.

 

There are 2 different connections to the door handles, so it is unlikely they would both break at exactly the same time. They have small plastic clips. Did you slam the door extremely hard to try and knock the ice off or somethign?

When you turn the key in the door, does the key turn but nothing happens? Or will the key not budge?

Jonny

 

I didn't slam the door hard at all, I learned that one when it was 20 degrees outside and was pissed at my boyfriend and slammed my door. Broke the plastic clips on my window regulator. So I treat my doors as if they were made from glass after that. Yeah nothing happens when I turn the key from the outside. It turns but nothing. I just want to be done with work so I can go home and see if I can figure out something. It really sucks cause I just got her back a couple weeks ago from storage over the winter. SO HAPPY to get it back and then this happens and I am stuck driving my winter beater- a 93 Nissan van with 325,000 miles on it- whoo hoo right? lol

 

LOL - that sucks!

OK, this is what I would do personally. Firstly I would try removing the little black cover behind the door handle. Get a flat head screwdriver and pry it off. From there, see if you can feel any of the 2 wires for the handles, although from recollection you can't.

Depending on how many times your door panel has been taken off, you may have gotten lucky and someone not have put all the screws back in. Remove the 2 long screws from under the armrest and then see if you can access any of the bottom or side screws. Doubtful, but worth a try. Then try and pry the top of the door panel out enough to get some needle nose pliers down there and pull on one of the wires that connects to the door handle.



Hopefully that will pop the handle open...
Jonny

 

Thanks so much for the input! I will try when I get home. I hope everything goes well. I know for a fact that all the screws were put back in cause I was the one that did it. Dang if only I were a little more careless. haha I just hope that I can get the door open somehow. Thanks for the tip, maybe I can get in thru the handle I sure hope so I really dont want to have to rip out the panel. I will post again later and let everyone know what I had to do. Pray that my baby is just playing a joke and I can get the door open to fix whatever is doing this.

 

You are welcome... One other thing you could try to do if this doesn't work, and to limit how much you mess up your door panel. Put a flathead underneath your master window switch (window switch/lock etc) and pop it up. It clips in. Should hopefully give you enough room to get to the wires. Also, just in case you didn't know. You need to pull the metal part of the wire that runs inside, not the entire black part (just a cover.)

Good luck,
Jonny

 

Wow, so I get home and it opens up no problem. Maybe it was moisture in the inside of the door that froze something so it wouldnt work. Oh well not taking the chance of it happening again and then me not being able to open the door. So I guess I have a little weekend project. Thanks for all the help!!