rear door deadlocked - help from Bill R. please

[motuman]

it with a diagram as well but its no longer on my computer. May have to reload on another computer so i have old and new info... anyway here is the text description which is stored on Ed's space that he provides for us....

Well I tried to follow Bill R's directions and I think I screwed the pooch..

I was able to pry back the top of the door panel, and I broke off a white plastic piece that the manual lock rod was connected to, but that didn't open the door. After a few minutes I decided to take off the opposite rear door panel to see what I was looking at (should have done this first!). It turns out all I did was break off the pivot arm for the manual lock rod, see pic #1. Looking at the inside of the door in pic #2, I don't see anything that can be done via from the top of the panel with the door in place. This got me thinking that perhaps Bill R's procedure is for the old style (91 or earlier) lock actuators. So I dug out an old actuator (pic #3) and I see how breaking off the white arm could release the lock mechanism. Unfortunately, I have the new style (or e36 style) actuator shown on the right, that mounts directly to the lock mechanism. I believe this fact also negates Shoguns e32 directions posted in the first link.

The only other thing I can think to do and try and remove the door panel with the door in place (don't know if this is possible without damaging the panel) and then remove the actuator from the lock mechanism, while the assembly is still in place. (Don't know if this is possible. Usually you remove the lock mechanism first, but the door needs to be open).

Any other suggestions? If not, I guess I will try and remove the door panel with the door still closed.

Thanks to all....

[Paul in NZ]

[QUOTE=motuman;317620]Well I tried to follow Bill R's directions and I think I screwed the pooch..

I was able to pry back the top of the door panel, and I broke off a white plastic piece that the manual lock rod was connected to, but that didn't open the door.
[QUOTE]
you sure...something about the door seals make the doors hard to open if they havent been opened,esp in cold weather.My back doors are hard to open because they dont get used much.They dont budge an inch.Try again just to be sure.

[nirvana19]

I just remedied a frozen actuator on a rear door but on the older style mechanism. It's quite clear when the actuator is frozen because the lock will not move up or down. I'm not too sure how it works with the newer one. The procedure above would have been helpful, I actually removed the door panel (this is the second rear one to seize, the shop did it last time and pulled the panel). It is difficult to remove the panel without damaging it (I ended up cracking the top and inflicting some pretty serious damage to it, but after a careful gorilla glue reconstruction it's near impossible to tell.

With your M-Sport the panels are probably much more precious than my 89 non-wood non-leather ones, but the procedure is to essentially remove all the screws and all all the trim on the inside around the door (including the weatherstripping/rubber/upholstery thing, just pull it right off). You can then take a bent metal hanger or hook of some sort and stick it under the door panel and pull away to release as many clips as possible. Then, pull hard up and out and the panel should pop out on top and you can disconnect the linkages and switches and remove the panel completely. From there the solution to your problem should be straightforward.