My driver door stopped unlocking by pulling the interior handle yesterday. If I unlock the door via the center console or key I can open it from inside with the handle. I know the cable from the handle has to be okay since I can open it if it is unlocked but somehow the mechanism in the door (I'm guessing) broke and will not unlock it on a single pull.

When I pull it to unlock it, the nub that sticks out the top of the door card goes up about half-way and the door is in lock-limbo requiring me to use the center console switch to unlock it.

How can I fix this? What do I need to replace and how do I go about doing it? Will it require a new door lock mechanism? I took off the door panel to see if anything looked out of place but couldn't pull the door lock mechanism out without pulling the window guide mechanism and I didn't feel like pulling stuff out on a whim would be the best idea.

 

lol it's normal , you gotta pull it twice
some kinda safety (over the top ) deal .

 

Don't take this the wrong way but I've had my car a couple years now, I'm well aware that it normally takes two pulls to open (1 to unlock, 1 to open). In the event I wasn't clear, I'm saying the first pull no longer unlocks it. In order to unlock the door so I can do pull two to open I have to unlock via the center console switch or the key fob.

 

oh sry man . sounds like you gotta pull the panel and look for the cable that falls off . or somethin like that.

 

There are a variety of issues with the door locks and you have to look for a problem description that matches yours. Open the 1st gen Stock Problems/Issues forum, click on Search This Forum and enter "lock". Try starting with these:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-problems.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-bulletin.html

 

I found those to begin with but assumed that wasn't my problem as everyone says their interior handle doesn't work at all to open and mine did. I decided to check it anyway so went out and bought an inspection mirror this morning. As I was getting out my car at the auto parts store I noticed it was more difficult to open the door (like it didn't want to) and had a suspicion my handle was going completely. After removing the door panel and shoving my mirror in there I saw that my cable had come loose. Put it back in place and secured it to the mechanism and everything's back to normal now.

Problem resolved.

 

I've had exactly the same problem, I hope this helps.

I also have an 03 MCS. There is no retainer where the cable goes into the lock mechanism. you can just push it back into place and it will probably be good for another 50'000 miles, its easy to do and takes about 15 to 20 minutes to do. You have four screws to remove from the inside door panel. you have three that are obvious and one behind the reflector. You can pop the reflector out with a small screwdriver. pop it out from the bottom edge.(it has three retaing tabs at 9:00, 12:00 and 3:00 be careful not to break the tabs). You also need to remove the bezel around the door release handle, but don't do that until you've poped the door panel loose. Now for the panel, it's easier to remove if you have a plastic pry bar. start at the bottm left corner and pry the panel straight out towards yourself. Then work you way up the left side (I beleive there are three retainers on the left side, you'll feel a distinct pop as each retainer pops out). Now work across the bottom and up the right side. Once you've released all of those retainers you can remove the door release bezel. At this point, it should have already poped loose. Be careful of the bezel retaing tab over the tweeter, it breaks easily. Now there is probably one more retainer towards the center of the panel, you need to grab the panel on each side and pivot the the bottom of the panel up until the last plastic retainer pops loose (this will probably pop loose when you have a four to six inch gap between the bottom of the panel and and the door). You're almost there, now grab the top right hand corner of the panel and carfully pull it straight back towards you (there is a row of metal retainers across the top edge of the door that pop into the panel) the first retainer will pop out of the panel, just keep pulling untill all of the retainers pop out of the panel (there are five or six of them) Now pick up the whole panel about an inch to clear the button on the top edge of the door panel and pull it straight back (it should be completely free. now for the fun part, you'll see the door release cable in front of you (just above the cut out in the door) at the left end of the cable it has a rubber piece that the cable passes through, put your hand inside of the door and you'll feel the cable come through the rubber piece Now follow ht cable with you hand to the door release mechanism (there will be a metal brace in the way, you'll need to run your hand around the other side of the brace and on the otherside you'll be able to feel the cable again. About two inches past the brace you'll feel the door release mechanism and notice that the end of your cable is sitting on the outside surface of the door release. There is a groove in the release that the cable fits into, the cable probably just poped out of the groove. pull the cable back just a little bit (I do mean a little bit) and push the cable back into groove (you can put a piece of tape over the cable to help keep it in place). now pull any extra slack in the cable back towards where the cable passes through rubber piece in the door. Now close and lock the door and see if you can open it from the inside. If it works properly then just reverse the disassembly proceedure, except you'll want to install the door release bezel last after everything else is in place. Make sure the plastic retainers are started into there mating holes before you push them back into place.
If the cable is broken at least you'll have a good idea of what your looking for.
The later cars have a better retainer than the 03's and before.

Good luck,
Steven Tyler

Sorry, if I had read a little farther I would have noticed you already fixed the problem.

 

Thanks for the write up. My passenger side door has started to do this these past few months. You really have to yank on the handle to get it to unlock, so I have been trying to get in the habit of hitting the unlock button so my girlfriend doesn't rip the handle off.

I actually wish it was on my side cause that would prompt me to get it fixed or look at it sooner. Now i just have to find the time.

 

Thanks for the write up on how to remove the door panel. It might have been too late for the other guy, but probably saved me from breaking something. The driver door on my 03s would not unlock with two pulls of the handle like it should. It was the exact problem that you described. Just reached in with a mirror and a light, then pulled it back in place. I pressed a small wad of weld putty over the top to keep it in place. It took all of about 20min. Now if I can just solve the mystery of why the keyless entry will not work at all.

 

Thanks to the previous posters! Just performed this. Some additional notes:
1. you definitely need the mirror to initially find it.
2. you are looking for an orange plastic cylinder.
3. It sits behind the metal rod that is attached to the door lock manual button.
4. You will need to slightly pull this cylinder towards you then push it in its slot.
Link to a door card removal video
https://youtu.be/6pJeRzRkvZA

 

Justnik
Keyless entry
There's a reset/relearn/re-initialise process to go through if you change the key-fob battery.
It's in the manual & probably somewhere on this forum.
Cheap, easy & quick to do! Might be worth a shot.......