Im in hell - driver door wont open: SOLVED

[Tyson Varosyan]

Thanks to everyone that responded! I just now finally got the SOB open. In
my native language there is a saying that roughly translates to, "Morning is
smarter than evening." Meaning that sometimes we just need to sleep on a
problem to see a different solution.

This morning I found that unless I was willing to take a cutting disk to the
door pillar, I was not going to get at the back of the latch. I made a wedge
out of wood and forced the side of the door away from the glass on the
outside, as suggested by another poster. This gave some access and I could
see some of the rods and locking mechanism - our cars are VERY easy to break
into BTW - had the locking mechanism been properly working, I think that I
could get in within 30 seconds. All this being said, I could not see the
lock levers at all and after 45 minutes of blindly fishing around with a
coat hanger I gave up.

After looking at the door some more, I realized that with the rear door
removed, I would have pretty good access to a 1/4" gap in the latch
mechanism. The rear door is held on by 4 bolts, 2 of which I easily removed.
The other 2 unfortunately would not budge as the access is very slim and
they are designed to come out with the front door open.

However, while messing with this, I realized that with the rear door open, I
still have a peep hole to the latch wide enough to squeeze a saws-all and
cut the latch pin if needed. However, the access gave me another idea.
Coming at the lock with a hooked coat hanger from the bottom and targeting
the lever on the far side (closer to the interior of the car) of the latch,
I was able to half way pop the door within 5 minutes. After re-making my
hook to have a longer U-shape, I was able to completely open the door within
10 minutes.

I have removed the lock - to my shock the plastic lock lever attachment was
still connected. I have no idea why the lock malfunctioned. I have been
playing with it for about 30 minutes now trying to figure out WTF went
wrong. With the interior door panel removed, it's pretty safe (safer) to try
the mechanism again. Will give it a try tomorrow and see if I can reproduce
the problem.

Again, thanks to all for your posts - if nothing else, it's good to know
that others are trying to help and gives confidence to keep trying.

Tyson Varosyan
Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
tyson at up-times.com
www.up-times.com
206-715-TECH (8324)
UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime 

-----Original Message-----
From: Huw Powell [mailto:audi at humanspeakers.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 11:18 AM
To: Audi 20V
Subject: [audi20v] RE: Im in hell - driver door wont open


> I cant even see the bolts... I took the trim around the pillar apart in
> hopes of seeing them and nothing - the pillar is solid aside form small
> holes for the wires and vacuum lines that run through it and the bolts
must
> be inside.

You can't get to the "ends" of the latch bolts on a sedan, they are 
"inside" the door jamb.

If many combinations of locking and unlocking with handles pulled and 
not pulled does not work, you may have to start out like David did and 
do a little door panel surgery to get to the latch inside the drivers 
door panel.

But again, be patient before being destructive, call AAA, if you use 
them, a "lock person" might be able to release things with a tool made 
for the job.  Unless your latch is broken on the inside like Dave's was....

> oh boy, sounds like what I had...
> 
> The only thing I can think of so far is drill the latch bolts from behind
> (inside the door).  That was one of my early ideas but found space was a
bit
> tight.  It can be done but it will be a bit tricky.

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/

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