How to open doors when the handles dont work?

I am looking for information and inspiration!

I was asked to look at a car today.. it was a VX Zafira 07 plate and the driver couldn't get into the car even though the doors were unlocked.

To cut a long story short it had been at a garage who were adding stickers/logo's etc and to do this properly they had to remove the door handles. When the job was done the owner drove away.. they stopped off on the way home and locked the doors. When they came back, unlocked the doors as usual but the handles would not work! I assume as they had not been re-fitted correctly.

I managed to get the front passenger door open so at least they were not stuck and could then drive home, but the other 3 doors do not open either with the insde handle or external handle. ( its a converted car so the rear 2 doors open only from the outside, the inside door cards have been replaced with just panels ).

So, I need to open the doors before I can strip off the cards and see why they are not working. Any Ideas?

The front passenger door is the only one I can open. all the others will need to be opened before I can do anything else. I cant get to the inside of the rear doors as its boxed in so can only access them from the outside until they are open. :crazy:

Right...first post so here goes.......

Using the one you can access as a guide, how about finding a way down between the glass and the door using a rigid piece of wire bent at the end and see if you can hook onto the lever (or whatever) that actually operates the door catch? Once you can do it to the one you can get to then have a go a working "blind" on the others.

Apart from that, and depending on whether you have other door cards available, hack into the doorcard to reveal whatever is underneath?

I would guess that whomever removed the hanldes hasn't fitted them back on correctly. Just a thought, lock the doors and see if they open. With the one door you can get open, whip the door card off etc and then just track the mechanisms around it should be fairly obvious whats wrong from there and see if you can apply to the other doors. Sounds like a bugger of a job!

Have you tried unlocking the doors with putting the key in the door lock? Its possible the deadlocks were triggered, had this on an old Cavalier and you had to undo the locks with the key in the door to reset and then it would be fine...

Use a grinder to open it then do this to fix it

Thanks Dan, not sure the owner would be too impressed with that, though easier to do :lol:

I settled for one of these..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... UTF8&psc=1

Let the games begin!

I think that kit may assume connectivity between the lock operating rods, the lock and possibly the door handle. Obviously in this case that can not be relied on.

Firstly, take the car back to whoever did the work and give them a chance to sort the problem/stump up cash to repair...

Study the front door you can open and see how the trim card fits, a lot of cars will allow you to remove the card while the door is closed (after all, the dealer may need to get in there).

Dropping the window right down and removing the outer seal may allow room for a camera like this for a good look see.

Once you have worked out whats not connected you can then work out how to fix.

Failing that, mulller the cards off.... Or take it over to Liverpool and ask a ten year old, they'll have the doors open, wheels off and radio out before you've got the handbrake on :lol:

If they are similar to VW's then the lock mech is one sealed unit with a cable connecting the inner door handles and a small cable for the exterior.

What happens on them is if the cable pull for the external handle is too loose or tight it stops the door opening.

Unfortunately if its jammed you might have to use force to get in or hack through the door cards.

However the garage that did the work should be rectifying this.