driver's door will not open (unlocked)

[DeWitt Harrison]

A day late and a dollar short. Sorry.

But in case it could come in handy somehow in someone's
future, here is what I saw in terms of unlocking the car with
a slim jim type of tool. I understand that if the latch assembly
is knackered, this may not help; the assembly has multiple
control inputs for latching and locking. Plenty to go wrong.

A stiff piece of material about 1/8" thick and 1/2" - 5/8" wide or
so will slide neatly down into the door just in front of the window
frame at the b-pillar and parallel to the window glass. At 6 1/2"
penetration, it will just graze the top of a "U" bend in the latch
linkage. The rear section of this "U" is parallel to the plane of
the outer door panel to which the latch/lock assembly is bolted
at about 1/8" from the sheet metal. If the stick had a little half-round
notch in the bottom, near the rear edge, it would be pretty easy to
push down on that rod and unlatch the door. This might help in
the case when the latch linkage was broken somehow or the door
handle trigger was cracked and the inside latch release was also fubar.

The operating rod for the door lock can be found at a depth of 7 1/2"
below the window trim. It is also a "U" and is also routed about
1/8" forward of the door skin upon which the latch assembly is mounted.
In this case, the rod must be lifted so the slim jim would need a small
notch on its trailing edge near the tip to capture and lift the rod.

There are surely ways that other plastic bits in the latch/lock assembly
could break so as to jam up the works. Best luck.

DeWitt (The, dark, curmudgeonly DeWitt has been locked back into his cave,)
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Kase
  To: DeWitt Harrison
  Cc: Quattro List
  Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:53 AM
  Subject: Re: driver's door will not open (unlocked)


  I'm already in there DeWitt.  I have a hole cut in the door panel.  I also
have an extra door on the garage floor for reference.  It looks like it is
going to get ugly...

  Thanks,
  Dave



  DeWitt Harrison wrote:
I have the interior trim panels off. I will try to figure
out how to best apply a slim jim and report this evening.
Maybe I can come up with something you will
find useful.

DeWitt
'88 5000CS

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Kase" <davekase at pdqlocks.com>
To: "DeWitt Harrison" <six-rs at comcast.net>
Cc: "Quattro List" <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: driver's door will not open (unlocked)


  I'll be damned, I'm set at 72 characters...

Hang in there DW, just get in shape as soon all older Audi owners will
have to do the Bo & Luke Duke to get into their cars...

DeWitt Harrison wrote:

    On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:49:35 +0000 (GMT)
            getur at optonline.net wrote:



First off, it's a total pain in the rear to respond to those who
don't bother to wrap their email lines at 60-80 characters. Half the
reply effort then involves reformatting those lazy-ass, infinite line
length posts. I'd attempt to offer a helpful reply 800% more often
if not for these nuisance posts. Whatever.



DeWitt Harrison
'88 5000CS


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