It this little thing (marked in black) that suppose to retract to push the lock up (marked in red) but it doesn't when the handle is pulled while it is locked. I have to take apart the door every time someone pulls on it (while it is locked) in order to unlock it. Is there a way to get it to retract properly? it doesn't help that its right behind the window elevator (marked it yellow where the window slides up and down) too.

btw this is inside the passenger side door.

 

I had same thing. Mine had a busted spring. Couldn't find another spring that was the same. Ended up replacing the whole thing with one from a parts car. You could try a junk yard. Swapping it out is pretty simple, but spaces are cramped so you may have to roll your window up and down at the right times to be able to work on different parts.

 

did you get the whole thing out through the door handle or?

 

ok my fix was buying one from a junkyard.
-i unscrewed the lock from the door, unscrewed the bolt below the three screws.
-we proceeded to remove the handle from the door by removing the bolt with the window up, and down.
-then we removed all the connecting pieces in which there are three. not including two coming from the door handle.
- the piece comes out and I found out i was missing a spring
-installing the new one by reverse engineering. Its a lot harder to get pieces back in than it was to just pull them out. But I'm almost there!