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So, I got home from the grocery store yesterday, parked my car on the street, and attempted to lock the driver's side door from the outside with the key. As I turned the key, I heard a little "tink" sound and the key turned without any resistance. Suspecting something was wrong, I tried unlocking the door with the key and it just turned back and forth freely without doing anything. This morning, I entered the car through the passenger side door and tried unlocking/opening the driver's side door from the inside and nothing happened. I replaced my driver's side door handle and lock cylinder in early 2017. So, it's been only a couple years. BTW, car is a '90 GXL.
In the photo below, I guessing that the orange colored plastic piece broke that holds the linkage to the lock. That plastic piece doesn't come with a new lock cylinder. So, the original plastic piece was reused when I replaced my door handle and lock.
Firstly and most important, how do I unlock my driver's side door so I can fix the lock??? Anyone have any ideas what could have broke?
Secondly, does anyone have the p/n for that orange plastic piece? Like I mentioned earlier, I'm just guessing here and it might not be the plastic piece at all.
Firstly and most important, how do I unlock my driver's side door so I can fix the lock??? Anyone have any ideas what could have broke?
My idea (never had this problem myself):
I would try undoing as many trim screws on the door as you can access (three / four along the bottom, one under the dash that you won't be able to reach, four under the handle / armrest, one on the door handle cup and one under the door handle cup IIRC). Sit behind the driver's seat with the seat all the way forward. Then start from the bottom rear corner and gently tug the door panel until that corner pops free. Don't try to remove the panel, like I said there is at least one screw under the dash that you can't access.
Unplug the connector for the small door light so you don't break it. You'll need to reach up under the panel (carefully) from there towards the door striker and feel around. There is a vapour barrier that you will need to peel away; use a hair dryer to soften the tar holding it on and gently lift it in that corner. You will get the sticky tar on your arm, mineral spirits work to remove it. If you have hairy arms then you're in for a bad time.
There are two metal rods, the springy one is the door handle release and the other is the lock. Push/pull the lock rod to either direction and then try the springy one. Be careful, our door cards are fairly flexible but you still don't want to risk breaking them.
I would try undoing as many trim screws on the door as you can access (three / four along the bottom, one under the dash that you won't be able to reach, four under the handle / armrest, one on the door handle cup and one under the door handle cup IIRC). Sit behind the driver's seat with the seat all the way forward. Then start from the bottom rear corner and gently tug the door panel until that corner pops free. Don't try to remove the panel, like I said there is at least one screw under the dash that you can't access.
Unplug the connector for the small door light so you don't break it. You'll need to reach up under the panel (carefully) from there towards the door striker and feel around. There is a vapour barrier that you will need to peel away; use a hair dryer to soften the tar holding it on and gently lift it in that corner. You will get the sticky tar on your arm, mineral spirits work to remove it. If you have hairy arms then you're in for a bad time.
There are two metal rods, the springy one is the door handle release and the other is the lock. Push/pull the lock rod to either direction and then try the springy one. Be careful, our door cards are fairly flexible but you still don't want to risk breaking them.
Yeah, I know how to remove the door card but with the door shut it would be very difficult. I could easily remove the inside handle. Was curious if there was a way to gain access to the linkage through that hole? Also, with the window down, is there be a way to jimmy the lock?
Yeah, I know how to remove the door card but with the door shut it would be very difficult. I could easily remove the inside handle. Was curious if there was a way to gain access to the linkage through that hole? Also, with the window down, is there be a way to jimmy the lock?
I don't believe you can remove the interior door handle without removing the door card. Not without damaging the door card anyways, since some of the screws for it are under the card and the linkages connect to the rods underneath the card. Also, if the linkage worked at the interior door handle then the lock would unlock using the slider, right? Removing the inner door handle and grabbing the linkage at that point probably won't work, unless the problem occurred simultaneously on the outer handle and at the place where the rod for the lock meets the inner handle. I suspect the problem is closer to the striker or on the striker itself, since both locks stopped working simultaneously.
Hypothetically with the window rolled down you could try and use something long and flat to reach down and push the lock rod (or the mechanism at the striker), but I don't know enough about that myself.
I'll go take a look at mine in a moment and see if the inner door handle provides any access.
I did a bit of investigating. If you remove the door cup you can actually feel the rod for the lock. Reach into the door card underneath the slider for the lock, find the rod, then grab it with a set of angled pliers or maybe needle nose (I wasn't able to reach the rod easily with anything I have on hand, the access is pretty tricky) and try pulling it to see if it moves the mechanism.
The "unlocked" position is when the rod is pulled towards the back of the car.
I did a bit of investigating. If you remove the door cup you can actually feel the rod for the lock. Reach into the door card underneath the slider for the lock, find the rod, then grab it with a set of angled pliers or maybe needle nose (I wasn't able to reach the rod easily with anything I have on hand, the access is pretty tricky) and try pulling it to see if it moves the mechanism.
The "unlocked" position is when the rod is pulled towards the back of the car.
Not sure if this helps but I locked my keys in the car a couple years ago and was able to unlock the door with a hacksaw blade( any thin piece of metal should work) since that rod pushed down to unlock. Unfortunately this probably only works if that orange plastic piece is still intact or if not if the rod is still in it. If not maybe you could get lucky fishing around in there and find the rod and be able to push it down.
Not sure if this helps but I locked my keys in the car a couple years ago and was able to unlock the door with a hacksaw blade( any thin piece of metal should work) since that rod pushed down to unlock. Unfortunately this probably only works if that orange plastic piece is still intact or if not if the rod is still in it. If not maybe you could get lucky fishing around in there and find the rod and be able to push it down.
Yeah, I ordered a Slim Jim yesterday from Walmart online. It's supposed be delivered this Friday. I also went through my stash of used parts and came across LHS & RHS door latches and rods that I purchased form somebody off Ebay back in 2014. It was still in the unopened box. Yes, I confess that I'm a used parts hoarder. Hopefully. I can use these parts to get my door back into working order soon. I think the rod that goes from the outside handle lock mechanism to the latch became dis-attached due to one of those plastic pieces breaking. I searched the Miata forum and this appears to be a common problem. I'll keep you all posted on my progress. As of now, I'm just waiting on parts/tools.
It's the little things that can be nearly impossible to find sometimes. I have two of these kits. Sonic Tools used to do a bunch of kits like this, then liquidated them all. I bought two of the Mazda ones and two of the one that had metric tapping screws and speed nuts. They've been worth their weight in gold.
So, I fixed my driver's side door yesterday. The problem was exactly as I had thought. The plastic clip that connects the locking rod from the latch to the outside door handle had broken. First thing I did was lower the driver's window and pop off the outside weatherstrip piece. While looking down through the window opening, I could could see the rod with the yellowish plastic clip just hanging loose. It's supposed to attach to the locking lever (lever on back of the key lock) on the right just under the white plastic clip. I just pushed down on that rod with my Slim Jim and the door magically unlocked. It was a very simple procedure to do. Wish I had known this in advance as it would have saved me a lot of grief.
Next, I removed the door card off to access the locking rod. I then removed that yellow plastic clip and replaced it with one that I had in my used parts bin.
Here's a photo of the broken plastic clip. Last week, I ordered all the plastic clips for both doors, but have not yet received them. Just FYI, but there's 15 clips total for both doors on a '90 GXL. The passenger side door is slightly different from the driver's side door because it has that locking actuator. The part numbers, quantities and prices (Tasca) are:
So, for about $40 you can buy all the clips for both doors. Once I get these clips, I'm planning on replacing all of mine in both doors. My passenger inside door handle doesn't work either. I think it's because of one of these clips are broken. I would highly recommend that everybody replace these clips in their doors. I don't really like the design of these plastic clips because when plastic gets old it will break as had happened to me. I once had an old Ford and it used metal clips to secure all internal door locking rod mechanisms.
I also bought these door card clips, prior to removing my door cards, from Amazon (Dorman 702-001 Front Door Panel Clips) thinking that the would fit but they're too big.
Dorman clip is on the right, which is larger than my clip on the left. Anybody know where I can buy the right clips? A p/n would be helpful too. One more thing, anybody know where I can buy that black gooey sticky stuff that holds the plastic vapor barrier to the door?
I'm currently out of town, but I got a very close clip to that on clipsandfasteners.com. You could probably find it by searching the website before I can get you the actual one by looking in my bum tomorrow.
Also, good to know you can get all the actual clips still. Sometimes the aftermarket ones I have are ever so slightly off.
Hey, that's a good price -- $8.96 for a package of 50. Mazda still sells them (p/n B100-68-401) at $1.54 each (Tasca price) but with 18 req'd that totals out at nearly $28 w/o shipping and than there's the typical 2-4 week waiting period. Thanks for the suggestion!
Like I mentioned earlier, Ford used metal clips for the door linkage on some of their 60's models cars and they're still available. These clips were bullet proof. I wonder if they would work on the RX7?
04-05-21, 02:40 PM
