Im in hell - driver door wont open: SOLVED

[Grant Lenahan]

If anyone needs the PDF from bentley - let me know. Just 2 pages with 
teh lock mechanism.

I wont (cant?) send it to the list anyway.

Grant
On Oct 26, 2006, at 5:49 PM, Tyson Varosyan wrote:

> 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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