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Broken Door Latches 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix

I live in New Hampshire and the outside door latches on my 1993 Grand Prix usually stop working every winter during a deep freeze. I mean they not only stop working because of the cold, but they NEVER work afterwards, even months later when summer comes. The doors still open from the inside, but they cannot be opened using the latches on the outside. I have already shelled out over $600 to mechanics for both the passenger door latch and the driver side door latch. You know

- they charge by the hour.

A few weeks ago the driver side door went AGAIN (a mechanic supposedly replaced the entire door latch with a factory part ... supposedly... and did so almost exactly 1 year ago.)

I am definitely not going to pay some "professional" mechanic another $300 for this simple issue. Here are the reasons:

  1. The problem is not related to something sticking with the outside key mechanism.
  2. When I pull on the outside latch I see the metal finger/tumbler move on the door. This finger moves a little, but not enough to allow the door to open. This exact "finger" piece moves a lot more when I pull on the inside latch. This means the door latch is still connected all the way down to the locking mechanism on the inside of the door.

I want to get a blueprint of the door, take it apart myself and fix this little minor problem with this metal finger not moving down far enough to allow the door to open. I am not a mechanic myself, and friends and family are all warning me not to try it, fearing something will go hideously wrong.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to proceed with this. I would also appreciate any pointers about where I can find blueprints for the door online (ie. download them without paying - I have already checked at local libraries) Thank you for your help!

Reply to
HMS Beagle
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The message from HMS Beagle contains these words:

Don't see many of them round here!

Reply to
Guy King

You'd have trouble finding somebody here who would accept your $$$... but there you go.

Doors are fairly simple usually. And I can't imagine your doors are much different to ours, save for having to open *much much* wider ;-)

You have to remove the armrests, switches, ashtrays etc. that are attached to the inside face of the door. Usually this will be a load of screws or bolts, some plastic press-fit clips and at leats one little tiny springy pingfuckit which you can't find in the first place or after you remove it.

Once you have all the trim removed the panel usually comes off if you lever it very gently with a wide bladed tool - it's usually press-on fittings again, into holes in the door. Some of these will break, but you don't usually need *all* of them to make it go back on ;-)

Inside you *may* find a plastic sheet stuck on with some extra sticky goop to add a degree of weatherproofing inside the door. Peel this back and try not to get the goop anywhere else. It'll stay there.

You should now be able to see the lock mechanism and work on it.

I can't think what's making it act like you say it does - except maybe if you try and force it when it's frozen and bend something?

You don't need a blueprint for the door. It's quite straightforward compared to the stuff under the bonnet in most cars.

Reply to
PC Paul

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